'They're not scared, they're just at home': Man plans to donate 885 acres to the Kalispel Tribe through conservation easement to protect wildlife
May 11-On an average autumn morning last year, Gary Verbrugge would walk off his front porch and watch as a full-grown bull moose took to pruning his apple tree 20 feet away.
Although Verbrugge stands just below the furry behemoth's shoulder, he said he's never been afraid of the animal the size of a compact SUV. He's seen the same moose wandering around his 965 acres for the past 10 years and considers him something of a pet.
Blind as a bat but blessed with exceptional hearing, many rightfully consider moose, which can run speeds as fast as 35 mph, extremely dangerous. Verbrugge doesn't. At least not any of the five different bull moose his wildlife cameras caught last fall.
"To see the wildlife, where they're not aggressive, they're not scared, they're just at home, is the reward," Verbrugge said.
In 2007, Verbrugge partnered with the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy to create a conservation easement across 605 acres of wildlife habitat in Scotia Valley, about 8 miles southwest of Newport, Washington. An additional 280 acres, that he bought from his nephews and nieces for $1,100 an acre, were permanently protected in late 2025. Out of the 965 total acres he owns, only 80 acres, where Verbrugge lives in a house he bought from his neighbor, are considered "unprotected."
With no heirs to bestow his property upon and his interest in keeping the land from development, the 72-year-old decided to leave his property to the Kalispel Tribe of Indians. So far, he's donated 145 acres to them and the rest will go to the Kalispel after he dies.
Michael Crabtree, the conservation director for the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy, said their conservation pact is a legal agreement added to the land deed that sets guidelines on how the property will be managed in the future. Houses, apartment buildings and any form of commercial development is now legally forbidden on the property, including any new roads.
"In any property where we hold a conservation easement, we're not the owners, we're kind of like the third party that makes sure the rules are being followed," Crabtree said. "And we do that by going out and doing annual inspections and working to resolve any issues."
The Little Spokane River runs through about 0.75 miles of his property.
"It's just uniquely positioned in the landscape in such a way that it has great soils, great climate, and it grows trees fantastically," said Ray Entz, the director of wildlife and terrestrial resources for the Kalispel Tribe. He's worked with Verbrugge since 2012. "There's a little less disease that's exhibited from a forest health perspective than other areas in the county."
Crabtree said the acreage has an abundance of wildlife habitat diversity. Nestled in the mountains with jagged ridges, small valleys, thick forests and flowing streams, the protected property is bustling with life. The streams and Little Spokane River provide habitat for bull trout, but that's not the only species that call Verbrugge's property home.
Wolves, bobcats, cougars, elk, bald eagles, deer and other animals are often caught on the wildlife cameras.
"Everything is getting so subdivided and developed in this area that it's getting cut down into the little 5- and 10-acre plots," Verbrugge said. "And there just isn't anything big for the wildlife left."
Fresh off a nearly 30-year career with the Social Security Administration, Verbrugge took an early retirement in 2006 when his parents' health began to fail. He had worked in cities for all of his adult life and missed the quiet serenity of nature. But what he saw when he returned home was devastating.
Verbrugge's father had hired a forester to oversee the property. Except the forester "only cared about how much money he could make and the easiest way he could make it," Verbrugge said.
Half of the property was clear-cut. Many of the towering, old -growth trees and numerous natural plants Verbrugge remembered as a child were gone. The landscape was barren across hundreds of acres.
From that moment on, Verbrugge said he wouldn't allow that to happen again.
A year later, he started working with the conservancy. Over the past 20 years, he's worked on the property by planting tamaracks, willows, hawthorns, wild roses and other native plants. Verbrugge, the conservancy and the Kalispel Tribe have worked on improving habitat conditions, reducing the risk of wildfire and ensuring that the land remains undeveloped. The only logging that occurs now is for forest health and disease prevention.
His family's history with the land began in 1927 when Verbrugge's uncles bought more than 700 acres. In 1961, Verbrugge, his father and his brother moved from Iowa and bought 160 acres adjacent to the land. Over time, as uncles and parents passed away, Verbrugge bought or inherited the land from relatives until he amassed 885 acres. The additional 80 acres he now lives on he bought from a neighbor in 2025.
Verbrugge said he donated 145 acres to the Kalispel and the assessor valued that acreage at $665,000.
One of his uncles, who used two canes to walk around after a ditch he dug collapsed and hurt him, built a cabin of tamarack in the 1960s and lived there for the rest of his life without any electricity. Once his uncle died, the pack rats moved in. Verbrugge stripped and rebuilt it into his "summer cabin."
Out of all the acreage he owns, that area, right next to a winding stream, is his favorite spot. He described it as a different world, somewhere without traffic, without sound. Only the occasional passing airplane can be heard. Moose, elk, deer and a couple of cougars are his only company.
"When someone chooses to return land to tribal stewardship, they are helping to ensure that it will continue to be cared for with respect and long-term responsibility," said Annette Pierre, the director of archives and a Kalispel Tribe member. "That kind of trust is deeply moving, and we carry it with profound gratitude."
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