Landers: Diana Roberts gently motivated action on Spokane’s South Hill Bluff trails

I’ve had some positive results from my newspaper stories over the years, but none any better than becoming better acquainted with the gentle, positive persistence of Diana Roberts.

“It’s not good enough that most outdoors aficionados don’t care for noxious weeds,” I wrote in 2009. “We need to hate weeds.

“Weeds impact wilderness and wildlife habitat as surely as they reduce the value of a farmer’s crops or a rancher’s pasture.

“Yellow starthistle is crowding critters ranging from chukars to bighorns from their home in the Snake River canyons.

“Eurasian watermilfoil is fouling our waterways and evicting trout from our fishing holes.

“Knapweed continues to work its way from winter ranges into the backcountry where it’s pushing food off the dinner table for elk.

“This isn’t just a sportsman’s issue.

“Have you ever hiked or ridden a mountain bike on a trail infested with knapweed or rush skeletonweed? Nasty.”

To that point, I’m sure the agronomist for the WSU County Extension was cheering me on – in that way she does it without shouting.

But then my column eased into my challenge for others to join the war on weeds.

I told of my personal assault where I recreate close to home.

In addition to pulling the invasive plants, I suggested hiking from town to country with a squirt bottle of herbicide and becoming a weed warrior. Every hike could have an element of public service.

A few days later, I got the call.

I already knew Diana, so she didn’t have to ease in too gently.

“That’s chemical trespassing,” she explained.

Within a few minutes she clearly explained why a more organized and scientific-based approached would be more effective and environmentally sensitive.

She did it without bruising my ego, but Diana’s wheels were turning.

Within a few months, the Friends of the Bluff was born:

• Partly because weed control along the 25 miles of trails on the Bluff will be a permanent job, if not eternal.
• Partly because Roberts feared that zealots like Rich Landers could poison the earth one squirt at a time.
• Mostly because Roberts sensed that the priceless swath of recreational land and habitat between High Drive and Hangman Creek was worth an investment of time.

Roberts is a gift to Spokane from Rhodesia.

She grew up on the 15,000-acres of timberlands her father managed, where she learned about making forests fire resistant. She wanted to become a forester, but that wasn’t possible in her country because she is a woman.

She completed her college degree as her country’s civil war wound down. As Robert Mugabe became the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, she could see her hopes of post-graduate work in plant breeding would be dashed if she didn’t get out of the country.

She completed her masters in South Dakota and made a priority of finding a place in the USA that was not so hot, that was not so cold, that was not so flat and had fewer mosquitoes.

She came to Washington State University for her doctorate, and soon was delivered to Spokane in 1991 with the Spokane County Extension.

Roberts had some proud moments with the region’s grain producers, such as working with the team that introduced a bio-agent to control a beetle that was damaging crops. The parasitic wasp that was brought in after much research and testing ramped down the problem, saving spring wheat farmers $15 an acre – with no need for a pesticide.

Roberts got her green card – which is actually pink, she says –and became a U.S. citizen in 2007.

Thank God the South Hill Bluffs are more hospitable than South Dakota. We landed a prize catch that didn’t want to leave.

Other worthy volunteer efforts capture Roberts’ attention.

She is devoted to her dogs and putting them to the best possible uses, such as pet therapy for hospice patients.

Request to Supreme Being: If I get to come back to earth a second time, I want to be one of Diana’s dogs.

She saw a demand and need to introduce skijoring at Mount Spokane, with measured steps to establish rules and education that would assure the sport could prosper against initial opposition.

She’s been involved in pet rescue. She’s an accomplished artist. She’s been an agent for peace and understanding here and abroad.

And she tapped all her talents to inspire others to establish the Friends of the Bluffs.

The group was founded in 2010.

Roberts knew from her background and training and her recreation on the South Hill trails that the bluffs didn’t just need a weed management plan, they needed a holistic plan.

She convinced other people who know how to make it happen. In the very next near:

• A certified mountain biking trail designer was on board to help coach volunteers on sustainable trail building.
• Jack Nisbet, local naturalist, was leading wild plant walks.
• Weed control outings were organized.
• Poisonous wild hemlock was found of the bluffs and the community was warned.

Also in 2011, a neighborhood meeting on forest health issues was organized, followed by development of a Fire Risk Reduction Plan.

By October that year, forest thinning demonstration projects were underway.

Rolling into 2012, cleanups began with volunteers, including teens, filling dumpsters with trash gleaned from the slopes.

In 2013, the Friends organized a meeting on planning for sustainable trails.

In 2014, the group looked at ramifications of the proposed Tuscan Ridge development on 22 acres along the bluff zoned for Condo Development.

Whew!

Roberts retired from the FOB board last year and more recently the group honored her with the first Founder’s Award.

Let’s hope that more saints for the landscape step up to receive that award in the future.