Hills Storm Damage Not All Bad
Hikers who normally flock to the Dishman Hills Natural Area on sunny spring days have this year found trails virtually unnegotiable, choked with trees downed by last November’s ice storm.
But with a management plan already calling for closure of the natural area’s unofficial or “redundant” trails - up to half of the trails in the natural area have been created over the years by hikers straying from the designated path - some of those overseeing the park say the downed trees aren’t all bad.
Many of those trails blocked by downed trees will be left closed. Only trees that block main trails or pose a threat to public safety are targeted for removal.
“It’s sort of like taking lemons and making lemonade,” said Mike Hamilton, president of the the natural area association’s president.
There have been other benefits from the November storm, too.
Guy Gifford, a forester with the state Department of Natural Resources, said the fallen trees have played an important role in thinning stands that would in a perfectly natural setting be thinned by wildfire. Natural fires are fought in the Dishman Hills, due to the proximity of residential areas.
“The storm did something I’ve been trying to figure out how to do for years,” Gifford said.
Despite the prevailing attitude of pragmatism, however, the fallen trees still present the natural area’s three owners - the natural area association, the DNR, and Spokane County - with a daunting cleanup task. The park covers more than 500 acres, and with rocky soil and a shallow root system, damaged trees number easily in the thousands, officials say.
Near the area’s eastern entrance, a surrealistic landscape of snapped-off trees looks a lot more like a war-ravaged forest than what nature enthusiasts have come to expect from the Dishman Hills.
Gifford said he expects teams of young Washington Conservation Corps workers to be in the hills by today or Friday to begin cleanup.
They’ll be using only light equipment such as chainsaws because driving large vehicles or bulldozers onto the soggy trails could do irreparable damage, Gifford said. According to his estimates, it will take four to six weeks to do the job.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: HIKE POSTPONED The Dishman Hills Natural Area Association’s annual Buttercup Hike has been postponed until April 20, when some of the trails will have been cleared. For more information, call 456-4730.