In brief: Phillips Creek trailhead in Dishman Hills ribbon cutting planned

From staff and wire reports

Spokane County is planning to celebrate the opening of a new trailhead parking area to serve the growing Glenrose Unit of the Dishman Hills Conservation Area on Friday at 10 a.m.

Located in the Ponderosa Neighborhood on the edge of the City of Spokane Valley, the new trailhead is fully paved and features 20 parking stalls, native landscaping, a publicly viewable webcam, lighting and connecting pathways for neighborhood access.

The Phillips Creek Trailhead serves as the “jumping-off point” for the new, 2.25-mile “Flying L Trail,” which connects to existing trails in the Glenrose Unit and was built entirely by volunteers from the Spokane Mountaineers, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, Dishman Hills Conservancy and Washington Trails Association.

Construction of the trailhead was completed Oct. 22 by Red Diamond Construction.

The trailhead will officially open to the public after the ceremony.

Audubon meeting features restoration of wildfire areas

The Spokane Audubon Society’s Nov. 11 virtual, online meeting will feature efforts to restore wildlife habitat lost to wildfires in Eastern Washington’s Lincoln and Douglas counties and a chapter campaign to help fund the work ahead.

Spokane Audubon member and Washington Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Kim Thorburn will present “Shrub-Steppe, Wildfires and Wildlife,” detailing the destruction at the state’s Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area and surrounding area from the wildfire that started on Sept. 7 and the restoration underway.

Thorburn has volunteered on shrub-steppe wildlife projects for nearly two decades and helps coordinate Spokane Audubon’s state grant-funded program for threatened prairie grouse recovery volunteer activities.

Spokane Audubon has already committed at least $10,000 toward restoration efforts.

Details on joining the Nov. 11 Zoom meeting starting at 7 p.m. are in the chapter’s November “Pygmy Owl” newsletter at www.audubonspokane.org/.

Information sought about poached moose in Idaho

Idaho Fish and Game is asking the public for information regarding two moose that were recently poached and left to waste on the border of Unit 32 and Unit 32A west of Banks, Idaho.

Fish and Game conservation officers received a call from the Citizens Against Poaching hotline on Oct. 18 regarding a cow moose that was shot and left to waste near Dry Buck Road, about 3 miles west of Banks.

When officers arrived and investigated, an officer’s dog located a bull calf moose that was also shot and left just a few yards away from the cow.

Officers gathered and processed evidence from the scene and believe that the two animals were shot during the Oct. 14-18 period.

This case marks the fifth incident in which moose were illegally shot and the fourth and fifth moose that were illegally killed in Fish and Game’s Southwest Region in October.

Pile burning planned for Kootenai County

The Coeur d’Alene River Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests will be burning piles associated with the Kootenai Fuel Reduction Project.

Interagency crews will work to burn slash piles on Canfield Mountain and English Point from over 600 acres of pruning, thinning and brushing work completed earlier this year. There are other smaller prescribed fire units north of Rose Lake and along the southeast side of Hayden Lake.

This burning activity should have minimal, localized smoke impacts and will not interfere with forest travel. Smoke will be highly visible from Coeur d’Alene, especially near Canfield Mountain and the English Point Recreation Area.

The Kootenai Fuel Reduction project is a multiyear effort that will treat approximately 3,000 acres in the wildland urban interface area of Kootenai County.

An incident page for this project will be created on inciweb.nwcg.gov/ when ignitions begin. For more information on this project, including detailed maps, visit www.northidahorxfire.com/ranger-district/.

Forest Service accepts applications for seasonal jobs

The USDA Forest Service will accept applications for more than 1,000 seasonal spring and summer jobs across Idaho and Montana from Friday through Nov. 9.

Nearly 100 positions will be located on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, working out of duty locations at Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, St. Maries, Avery, Bonners Ferry and Nordman.

Positions are available in multiple fields, including fire, recreation, natural resources, timber, engineering, visitor services and archaeology.

Applications must be submitted on www.USAJOBS.gov. More information can be found at www.fs.usda.gov/main/r1/jobs. Interested applicants are encouraged to create a profile on USAJOBS in advance to save time once the hiring process begins.