Volunteers Spend Day Cleaning Wildlife Area

During her spring cleaning on Saturday, Robbi Castleberry stepped over a carpet of broken glass in her scuffed cowboy boots.

“If we could ever get a vacuum cleaner up here …” she said wistfully.

It would need a long cord.

Castleberry spent the day cleaning an eight-acre wetland and wildlife habitat perched atop Rimrock ridge between Palisades Park and Indian Canyon west of Spokane.

Last fall, the parcel was the second purchased by Spokane County under its Conservation Futures tax program. Every property owner in the county pays a levy of 6 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. An 86-acre cedar grove in Liberty Lake was the first property purchased.

On Saturday, numerous bags of garbage lined dusty, rutted Rimrock Drive. The bags were filled by about 50 volunteers who cleaned with Castleberry between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Some of the bags were piled atop couches, car parts and even an old safe that had been heaved over the side of the steep pitch overlooking the city.

Volunteers retrieved broken beer bottles, unlaced sneakers and pieces of cardboard. An old door, decorated with rock ‘n’ roll pictures and photos of naked women, lay under a stack of wood.

“We need the tractors and the backhoes, but we really need the people,” Castleberry said, referring to those who gave their time on the sunny Saturday afternoon.

Volunteers also lined the road with huge boulders, rolled into place to block vehicles from driving off the road, for dumping or recreation.

“If they find a (new) place, we rock it up,” Castleberry said. “It’s kind of a game of sorts.”

In some spots, damage was already done. Four-wheel drive truck tires had carved deep grooves in the mud off the side of the road.

“It’s tough on fragile, sensitive wetlands” when vehicles drive through, said Craig Volosing, a volunteer.

But Castleberry said the community’s cleaning effort has brought more wildlife back to the area. Ducks, white-tailed deer and even an occasional moose have been spotted by hikers, mountain bikers and others.

The city of Spokane also helps out, carting the boulders up the steep road and paying to haul the garbage to the incinerator at the end of the day.

Volosing estimates volunteers collected five to six tons of garbage Saturday.

Five years ago, when the effort began, volunteers hauled away 18 tons of garbage with help from Washington Water Power Co. crews. Nine tons of that came from junked car parts, which had to be lifted out with cranes, Castleberry said.

“(The city) spends a dime and gets back $10” in labor and time, Volosing said. “We’re happy to give it.”