Time Has Come For Troubled Trees Some Residents Criticize Manito Park Logging

The roar of chain saws and chippers is filling the air at Manito Park’s duck pond these days.

City crews are logging most of the stately cottonwoods and willows that have rimmed the pond, some for nearly a century.

Last November’s ice storm ripped through the softwood trees, dropping huge trunks and branches onto the pond and surrounding lawns.

Nearby residents said the city is cutting down too many of the old trees rather than salvaging them.

“This park is such a jewel and it is being abused,” said Sunni Mace, who lives near the pond and objects to what she calls a “radical cutting binge” at the South Hill landmark.

“I think it’s being done in a real haphazard way,” said Mace’s neighbor, Lee Ann Cogert. “I’m just real fed up.”

Parks officials said they have no choice. The old trees are riddled with rot in the center of their brawny looking trunks.

Some are so weakened that tons of wood could come crashing down at any moment, they said.

“We have to make sure we maintain a safe public area,” said Park Director Ange Taylor, who was at the pond on Wednesday to respond to neighbors’ concerns.

The parks department will plant 16-foot replacements this spring, he said.

Before the ice storm, the pond had 17 of the old deciduous trees lining the bank. In addition, “swan island” on the north side held three weeping willows.

The storm shattered the island willows, and they were removed when the pond was frozen last winter.

Several other badly damaged trees were taken out earlier this year.

This week, park crews are back removing even more. When they are finished, only five of the 20 old deciduous trees will remain.

On top of that, several damaged pine trees have been taken out near the pond.

However, two silver maples on Browne at the west end of the pond will not be removed, said Jim Flott, horticulture supervisor for the Spokane Park and Recreation Department.

“The ice storm is not an excuse, but it presents clear evidence why the trees should be taken out before something happens,” said Flott.

“I like saving them if I can.”

One large cottonwood at the northwest end of the pond is being removed, not so much because of ice damage, but because rot has eaten the cores of its multiple trunks, Flott said.

The same goes for a big willow that stood at the tip of a a peninsula on the south shore. On Wednesday, all but the bottom 12 feet of the trunk remained.

“I just feel really sad,” said Patty Gaul, who was at the pond Wednesday with her young son, Evan, during spring break.

After talking with parks officials, Gaul said she is satisfied the city is acting responsibly, and her son got a lesson in botany. “It seems like part of the cycle of nature,” she said.

Parks officials said they will grind down all of the stumps and plant a bur oak on the island. Dawn redwood and black alder will go around the pond. Those species are better suited to Spokane’s severe winters, and the damp soil of the pond, Flott said.

Tree trimmer David Bise, a certified arborist on the park staff, said damage to the trees at the pond was so severe because their wood was too soft to withstand the weight of the ice. He showed off a 6-inch willow branch that had been twisted into shreds by the ice.

Before coming to Spokane, park Director Taylor said he supervised a central Washington state park where a boy suffered a severe head injury when a cottonwood branch collapsed in a wind storm about a decade ago.

The family sued, and the state ended up paying them $2.5 million in damages, he said.

Flott said the city has considered removing the trees for several years, but was cautious about logging because of the likely controversy. Now it’s time, he said.

“Nobody can predict when these trees will fall,” he said.

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