On Saturday, Jonathan Brunt reported the state was pulling the funding on the proposed whitewater park in the Spokane River, allowing a $530,000 grant to expire. Spokane park leaders appealed the decision and on June 23rd in Olympia, they will try to persuade the state Recreation and Conservation Funding Board to reverse the decision at a hearing.  The project won the grant in 2007 and it was supposed to be used within four years. The project stalled in 2009 when the park’s effects on native redband trout required a study of the project’s environmental impact before a shoreline permit could be issued.

I've always been exited about the whitewater park and I believe there should be an extension of the grant. It has been a complex process and the slow pace is a result of thoughtful consideration to the environment, wildlife and community. Why kill it now? The project could have many potential benefits for economic development, outdoor recreation, access, safety, and even the fish habitat if done right. Plus it is an important component to the larger vision of The Great Spokane River Gorge.

And it is a great opportunity for the community to see Spokane River as a resource, and the need to protect that resource.  I urge you to read after the jump where I have dug way into the archives to find an DTE post by Bart Mihailovich and I from our old site in November 2007. 

“I was enchanted – overwhelmed – with the beauty and grandeur of everything I saw. It lay just as nature had made it, with nothing to mar its virgin glory… I determined that I would possess it.”

-James Glover, “Founder” of the City of Spokane Falls, recalling his first visit to the river is 1873.

Earlier this year, The Goracle fell under criticism for his seemingly high energy bills at his large Tennessee estate, notwithstanding his meticulous devotion to environmental awareness. All the while, people still had the intrepidity to condemn him as a hypocrite.

Right here in Spokane, the Al Gore of our river is The Friends of the Falls (FOF), a non-profit organization whose tireless support of the Spokane River, the main vein of Spokane’s existence, has raised awareness exceedingly.

A proposed whitewater kayak park in the Spokane River is being questioned by local environmentalists, citizens, and businesses and civic representatives on claims that it will do more harm to a river that many feel runs on life support as it is.

The whitewater park is the diligent effort of the Friends of the Falls that outdates most people’s awareness of the situation. Theoretically it outdates the FOF itself.

In 1908, John Charles and Frederick Law Jr. Olmstead, heirs to the famous Frederick Law’s Landscape Architecture practice, were so captivated by the Spokane River Falls area that they proposed and eventually implemented the Great Gorge Park which set out to preserve and protect the river and it’s boundaries for beneficial use and development.

The Gorge Park area is better known today as the upper falls to downtown, through Peaceful Valley to the Sandifur Bridge and the confluence of the Spokane River and Hangman Creek. The original conceptualizing of The Gorge Park can be seen through fruition of the Worlds Fair of 1974 and Riverfront Park. And what the FOF hope will be the next project to fall under the Gorge Park Plan, a whitewater kayak park.
 
“The whitewater park will be a vehicle to transport people to The Great Spokane River Gorge,” explained FOF board member and local kayaker Travis Nichols. “We will provide a connection between the people and the river, the river is the reason the city is here. Once people feel connected to the river they will appreciate it and want to care for it and protect it.”

The proposed area where the park will go is near the Sandifur Bridge on the west side of Peaceful Valley, near the confluence of the Spokane River and Hangman Creek. The park will span the length of the river and feature two U-Drop structures that will create wakes and water features. In addition, large boulders will be placed in the river for similar effect. The boulders are native, natural rocks that have been excavated from the new wastewater treatment facility downriver. They will need to be secured to protect against erosion and other unplanned damage caused by floods or otherwise. This security will come in the form of grouting with concrete between the boulders.

“We have four main goals with the park,” said Nichols, “to keep it natural, to keep it playful (water in, water out), to keep it stable, and to make it work with what’s there.” And what is there currently is not working. Old bridge abutments rise from the water creating massive concrete hazards. Additionally, rusted old railroad tracks extend through the water creating more danger; all things that will need to be removed before construction.

Currently the park plan is traversing the many “eddies” that a multifaceted proposal must endure, contrary to rumors and overstated claims by the FOF. In June the FOF announced a funding milestone was met leading to overly optimistic thoughts that secured finances meant immediate construction. “We (FOF) have such a solid vision of this thing, there is funding in place but it takes time, it’s a process,” Nichols explained.

Through talking with Nichols, it’s obvious that the current phase of the park, albeit not ideal in terms of completing the project, is a phase that the FOF is quite alright with. It provides them and everyone involved, whether in understanding of the park or not, a chance to learn more about the area and what is going to happen to it, both helpful and potentially harmful.

In early October, James Hagengruber reported that local Trout Unlimited representation was concerned about a certain species of fish in the area. A native species of redband trout are prominent in the area and fears are that the park will interrupt one of their best remaining spawning areas. “We feel that the potential impacts to the river and to our beleaguered native redband trout have not been given adequate attention,” said Sam Mace of Spokane Trout Unlimited. “We can support a whitewater park that is built to minimize impacts to native trout.” Little is known of these trout and even littler is known of what will happen when their habitat is altered.

“There is a major fishery concern,” said Nichols. “We (FOF) want everything positive for the fish.” This will include removing the existing structures, the bridge abutments and railroad tracks, from the river. There is that and expectation that awareness of the area will spurn independent fishery studies by agencies such as the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and other permitting agencies. “This is a great chance to learn about the fish in the area, not much is known of these redband trout,” said Nichols. “This will be a benefit to the fishery population, an aesthetic improvement for ecological benefit.”

“Our (Trout Unlimited) hope is to work with Friends of the Falls to create a park that we can all support,” said Mace. “We do plan to be strong advocates that the redband trout are given due consideration. It is pretty incredible that we still have native trout left in the Spokane River.”

Nichols is optimistic that the whitewater park will become a catalyst for civic awareness about the Spokane River, a project that, “will get everything else rolling and people interested in the river.”
It is clear that this subject is a matter of perspective. From the outside looking in, it would appear that there are two sides to this whitewater park issue, realistically there is one, one side striving for one end, that being what’s best for the river. How this is reached will depend on education and cooperation. What the result will be is a beautiful whitewater kayak attraction enjoyed by both boaters and on-lookers; an attraction both ecologically and economically beneficial, and most importantly, another fulfillment of the great Spokane River Gorge Park plan.

For more information on the whitewater park you can refer to the “Conceptual Design Report Spokane Whitewater Park.”

And also a study on the Spokane River Gorge Park titled “Spokane’s Falls and River Gorge: Evolving Ties between a community and it’s Wellspring.”

 

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