County wants to close damaged road on Mount Spokane

Deep in the forest on the north side of Mount Spokane is a rugged county road that’s popular with people who want to access the state park or private timberland. But it’s also been a source of trouble.

Spokane County and Mount Spokane State Park officials are joining with private landowners to propose permanently closing a 3.2-mile section of Blanchard Creek Road.

It’s now blocked off by gates, and crews have been moving to return the roadbed to a natural condition.

Some are crying foul. “We’ve been going up and down the road for 15 years,” said Ken Miller, who lives in the area. “We like the road in its condition.”

Spokane County commissioners have delayed action until November on a request that effectively would close the road, which dates to 1912.

“There has been so much misuse of it,” County Engineer Mitch Reister said of the road. “This has been a problem for years.”

The road has become so deteriorated that heavy rain or snowmelt sends large amounts of sediment into Blanchard Creek, damaging fish habitat, he said.

Worse than that, the route has attracted poachers, timber thieves, off-road vehicles and illegal dumping in the backcountry. Officials have worried about the risk of wildfire.

Marianne Barrentine, environmental manager for the county engineering department, said state park rangers cannot adequately patrol the remote road on the opposite side of the developed portions of the park.

Inland Empire Paper Co., part of Cowles Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review, is listed as the petitioner for relinquishing the public right of way. The company owns property on both sides of the road in two locations. The general manager for Inland Empire Paper was not immediately available for comment.

Another company, Boston Timber Opportunities LLC, is the other private landowner supporting the effort.

The state parks department also supports the request, Reister said, but the park manager wasn’t available for comment Wednesday.

Otis Rosema, who owns a vacant parcel next to a gate at the northeast end of the road, said he had not driven the route for a long time and isn’t opposed to the closure.

The rugged nature of the road is part of the attraction, said Miller, the local resident. It offers a recreational opportunity for all-terrain vehicle riders in the summer and snowmobilers in the winter. He said it’s also used by bicyclists.

Blanchard Creek Road, even though it is rough, still provides a fire access for firefighters. It is also a secondary evacuation route for residents trapped behind a wildfire, Miller said.

He submitted letters to the county commissioners from the Spirit Lake Fire Protection District, Stoneridge Resort and Spokane Winter Knights Snowmobile Club supporting his effort to keep the road open.

The snowmobile club has used the road for search and rescue on the back side of the park, the club’s letter said.

Miller said reports of poaching, timber theft, dumping and other illegal activities are overblown.

But keeping the road open would require more than $1 million in repair work, money that the county road fund cannot afford, Reister said.

The county has not maintained the road for at least 10 years.

A declining road fund is stretched to pay for maintenance and construction needs on paved roads, much less a primitive route like Blanchard Creek Road, Reister said.

He also said there are numerous locations in the county where residents rely on a single roadway for access.

In the case of Blanchard Creek Road, the state park has agreed to provide an emergency access to the south on a road that connects with the ski resort’s road to the base of chairlift No. 4, Reister said.

In recent weeks, crews have put up locked gates, removed a culvert and started an effort to restore the natural environment on the old grade. Reister said three groups of squatters were run off the land prior to gates being put up.

Deep angled cuts were made at intervals in the road to shed water before it causes erosion. Hunks of limbs and downed wood also were placed on the grade to encourage reseeding, along with berms of rock and dirt.

Brook Beeler, spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology in Spokane, said her agency supports the closure but was not requiring the county to take action to prevent erosion.

Miller said county and parks officials should have waited until the commissioners approve the road vacation before cutting into the road grade and removing the culvert.

Reister disagreed.

“We couldn’t let it go for another winter,” he said.