COEUR d'ALENE - A land parcel of 119 acres in the Cougar Bay area of Lake Coeur d'Alene now is permanently off limits to development, the Inland Northwest Land Trust announced Tuesday.

Joyce Randall chose to honor her parents, John and Betty Heine, by protecting her family's historic dairy land overlooking Cougar Bay, just southwest of Coeur d'Alene.

The land trust said it worked with Randall to create a conservation easement that forever restricts development and subdivision so the land will remain as forest and meadow.

The protection of the Heines' property becomes the latest achievement in the effort to protect wildlife habitat in Cougar Bay and the surrounding land, the land trust said.

In the past decade, the Bureau of Land Management, Kootenai County, The Nature Conservancy and the land trust have protected more than 700 acres in a two-mile radius of Cougar Bay.

Chris DeForest said the Heines' property straddles a ridge line, with most of the property facing Cougar Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene. The other side of the ridge faces the Rathdrum Prairie.

He said the land is mostly forested, with a meadow at the top.

"It's one of those pieces of land that make North Idaho beautiful," DeForest told The Press in an interview.

Without the conservation easement, the property could have been developed to one house for every five acres, based on current zoning.

There currently is one house on the property, which is maintained by Randall. The property is not open to the public.

"We like that protected lands are spreading over time," DeForest said.

Randall said her parents "loved the land and they wanted to see a healthy forest and wildlife habitat that survived for the future."

The land provides habitat for black bear, elk, badgers and porcupine. Also, birds such as Pileated woodpecker, Junco, quail, Northern Flicker and Swainson's Thrush nest in the area. Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, shooting stars, glacier lilies and spring beauties grow there.

Randall said, "My father just had such a huge love and respect for the woods."

A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on a piece of property, generally in perpetuity, to protect the property's ecological and open-space values. The landowner continues to own and manage the land.

The Heines' property is the 44th conservation easement that the Spokane-based land trust holds.

Formed in 1991, Inland Northwest Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that works with willing private landowners to protect the region's natural lands, waters, and working farms and forests for the benefit of wildlife, the community and future generations.

The land trust has helped protect more than 12,000 acres of prime habitat and forests in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.