Winds Fell 86 Trees In Parks Falling Timber Damages Restroom, Storage Shed
Post Falls parks lost 86 trees in the recent windstorms, according to parks director David Fair.
One towering ponderosa pine smashed into a restroom in Q’Emlin Park, destroying the roof.
The restroom will have to be removed, as will a damaged storage shed in the city’s cemetery, Fair said.
The city hopes to offset the cost of rebuilding the damaged restroom with the sale of the downed logs.
“I’m afraid it will cost more than the structure was worth,” he said.
The parking area in Q’Emlin park is piled high with debris, and lengths of timber are stacked around the park. Q’Emlin Park alone lost 51 trees, and that’s just from the area near the beach.
Park workers have not assessed the damage in the more remote, natural area of the park. Trees are down on the trails, and the wind snapped off the landmark ponderosa growing from what local climbers call the Main Wall in a rocky ravine popular with climbers.
Some residents have called concerned with the loss of so many trees in the formerly heavily wooded park, but most of the calls have been from loggers, Fair said.
“For the most part, people understand,” he said.
Several truckloads of timber have left Post Falls for the Louisiana-Pacific sawmill in Chilco, but Fair said he wouldn’t know for another 10 days how much money the city made from the unexpected windfall of timber.
City workers did expect the weather conditions - high winds and water-saturated ground - to result in the loss of some trees, but 86 was a surprise, Fair said.
The parks department only toppled five trees intentionally. The rest were blown down in the recent storms.
The storm created an open area next to Spokane Street in Q’Emlin Park that now may be suitable for a soccer field, volleyball courts or horseshoe pits, Fair said.
“At the very least, we’ll probably add some trees to the perimeter,” he said. If so, a different species of tree will be planted - something more suitable for high water, he said.
, DataTimes