Lake Coeur d'Alene may not have reached the standards of Walden Pond yet, but North Idaho's fight for environmental protection will have to carry on without Terry Harris.

The executive director of conservation group Kootenai Environmental Alliance will be leaving the organization, as well as Idaho, by the end of the month, the group announced this week.

"It's probably the best job I'll ever have. The community is just great to work with," said Harris, an attorney and conservationist, adding: "There's plenty to work on."

After three and a half years with the Coeur d'Alene-based group, Harris said he is leaving to follow his girlfriend, or his "spouse-like person," who has landed a new job in Orange County, Calif.

"She's the bread winner of the family," said Harris, 51, adding that the two do not have children together.

KEA is the oldest nonprofit conservation organization in the state, according to its website. The group defends natural resources and advocates for rural landscape protection.

Harris said he will carry the memories of many an eco battle waged in North Idaho.

"It's never a dull moment," said Harris, who lives in Spokane.

Under Harris' leadership, the group filed a suit last year challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' mandate for the city of Coeur d'Alene to remove hundreds of trees along Rosenberry Drive. The organization has been vigilant of water quality issues, and obtained a grant for an artificial wetland to suck up nutrients in Hayden Lake. KEA championed to keep the pilings at Cougar Bay that provide habitat for wildlife, too.

The group recently worked with activists to defend geese wounded by roof spikes at the University of Idaho. It rallied with ice climbers who objected over the county's potential sale of the Chilco waterfall property.

And Harris as a KEA representative has attended ongoing meetings over Kootenai County's Comprehensive Plan and its new development ordinances.

"There's a whole range of things," Harris said of environmental issues here. "The variety has just been amazing."

It hasn't always been easy, Harris confessed, with the conservative area sometimes misunderstanding the group's mission.

But certain causes have aligned KEA and the public, he said, like keeping the Rosenberry Drive trees and addressing the treatment of Tubbs Hill in the proposed McEuen Field makeover.

"I think more and more people are realizing what a great place this is, and how important the environment is to people's way of life," he said.

Janet Torline, KEA board chair, said Harris has made significant organizational changes to the 40-year-old KEA, like adding a community advisory committee and bringing the nonprofit into the Internet age.

"He's like the Wizard of Oz, in his office working away, pulling all these levers," Torline said.

His pragmatic approach has helped advance the causes that KEA delves into, she said.

"Legally and strategically, he's been really invaluable," she said.

Adrienne Cronebaugh, KEA conservation advocate, will serve as the group's interim director, Torline said.

Scott Reed, local attorney who has often worked on environmental cases, said Harris has raised public awareness of both environmental issues and KEA.

"He has brought the group to a very prominent status within the community," Reed said.

Harris has a bachelor's in engineering physics from the University of Colorado and a law degree from the University of Maryland. Prior to joining KEA, he had a law practice in Baltimore and worked with environmental organizations in that area.

A send-off for Harris is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. next Tuesday at the Moose in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Harris will continue to help with some KEA projects online after his move, he said.

Just until he finds his next conservation project, he said.

"I love the work," Harris said. "It's interesting and important work, and I hope to continue that."