Aboretum A Wounded Wonderland Ice-Encrusted Trees Sparkle In The Sunlight, But With Bent And Broken Limbs

Battered by the ice storm on Tuesday, Spokane’s favorite urban forest became a jeweled fairyland on Wednesday, drawing amateur photographers and worried tree-lovers.

Sunlight bounded from every twig and branch at Finch Arboretum in southwest Spokane. Ice coated the 2,000 trees and shrubs like blown glass, entombing red and blue berries that teased the waxwings.

Nervous squirrels left ditto marks in the crusted snow.

Peace Wilkinson left tracks too, as she captured the images on film.

“I come here every fall, taking (pictures) of the scenery,” said Wilkinson, a Spokane artist. “But I’ve never seen it like this.”

Most of the trees were bent and broken by the severe storm that coated them with soggy snow, then ice. A few were uprooted, topped, or crippled beyond repair.

The centerpiece white willow that generations of Spokane families used as a photo prop survived the storm with a few broken branches. A favorite with climbers, the massive willow was rooted long before the park was established in 1907.

Another ancient willow toppled, its shallow roots unable to bear the weight. A crabapple was shattered. Ponderosa pines were decapitated, cedars were bent like hemlocks and a Douglas fir was shaved of branches on one side, like a bad punk haircut.

Yellow, slender willow twigs littered Garden Springs Creek like spilled pencils.

“I used to wish I had trees in my yard,” said Marcia Girnus, who clicked snapshots with a Kodak Instamatic. “Now, I don’t feel so bad.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: “After the Storm” special section