COEUR d’ALENE — As the Northwest is discovered, and as North Idaho grows, so too does the need to remember the importance of protecting nature and its creatures, large and small.

"We all know that people are moving here in droves," said Kootenai Environmental Alliance board member Doug Fagerness. "We also know that a primary reason cited for moving here is the beauty and wonder of this place. This presents us, all of us, with the challenge of sustaining what attracts and sustains us."

In the spirit of education, activism and preservation, KEA (Idaho's oldest conservation nonprofit) and North Idaho College will bring the third annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival to the Schuler Performing Arts Center on the NIC campus from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

The festival will feature nine short films from filmmakers across the country who bring human faces to the environmental movement. Films will include "Hear the Call: Salmon Nation," sharing indigenous perspectives in the Pacific Northwest, and "Sanctuary," which explores the healing powers of wild places and rivers and the need to create more sanctuaries on public lands.

Each film combines stellar filmmaking, beautiful cinematography and first-rate storytelling to inform, inspire and ignite solutions and possibilities to restore the earth and human communities while creating a positive future for the next generation.

The films illustrate the challenges facing the planet as well as the profound and moving work communities are doing to protect the environment and the places we love. The festival will have a strong connection to water and hopes to bring attention to the importance of protecting this invaluable resource and the immediate need to take care of the waters right here in North Idaho.

"Waterkeepers, a program of KEA, is dedicated to water that is drinkable, swimmable and fishable," Fagerness said. "It would be difficult to find anyone who does not want this of our water. Going about the work of protecting, conserving and restoring will inevitably involve competing interest. Starting with what unites us, then respectfully reconciling that which does not, is ideal. Being actively involved and advocating for what we love is essential. The Wild and Scenic Film Festival films address many of the ways we can do this."

As a special addition, KEA has partnered with the Coeur d’Alene Library to host an evening with internationally recognized filmmaker Mark Titus on March 13 from 7 to 8 p.m. His recent film, "The Wild," will be shown in the Community Room with a limited seating capacity of 200, so first come, first served. Audience members will have opportunities to participate in an interactive discussion afterward. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. A no-host bar will be available.

Tickets are $15. Students get in free with student ID. Tickets can be purchased at www.kealliance.org.

Info: jamie@kealliance.com