John Osborn worked for the U.S. Forest Service during summers from 1974 until 1980, was an Interregional firefighting crew member for the Boise, Sawtooth, and Payette National Forests in southern Idaho, became a medical doctor at the Spokane Veterans Hospital, and was an active environmental activist in the Idaho and eastern Washington areas. Osborn served as the north Idaho regional representative for the Idaho Conservation League, conservation chair for the Northern Rockies Sierra Club, board member for the Idaho Wildlife Federation and the Washington Wilderness Coalition, and was the founder and president of the Spokane-based Inland Empire Public Lands Council. Organized by doctors who wanted to preserve the beauty of the country, the Inland Empire Public Lands Council is an affiliation of sporting and environmental organizations that links the two main regions of the Northwest: the Northern Rockies and the Cascades and is dedicated to the transition of the Greater Columbia River Ecosystem from resource extraction to long term community and biological sustainability.