Volunteers Hope Plants Will Save Lake Quality Thousands Of Trees, Shrubs And Grass Planted To Keep Soil Out Of Hayden Lake

Bill Ypsilantis steadied himself on a steep embankment along a road above Hayden Lake early Saturday afternoon.

With one hand he held one of the wispy little Snowberry plants he’s been burying in the partially-eroded earth around him. With the other hand, he pointed to the rippled blue expanse below.

“That’s the object,” Ypsilantis said. “That’s what we’re trying to save.”

Ypsilantis and 35 other volunteers were sacrificing some of this spring’s loveliest weather to plant 1,600 trees in the hills around the lake.

Working at two sites - one just off Red Hawk Trail, the other near Lookout Drive - the planting crew is hoping the grass, shrubs, and trees they leave behind will reduce sediment runoff into the lake.

The Panhandle Health District’s environmental health specialist, Shireene Hale, was overseeing the project. She said that with the recent population boom around Hayden - and many of the region’s other lakes - tons of dirt from developments and road building in the surrounding hills have clouded once-pristine waters.

“In a natural situation, soil stayed on the hillside,” Hale said, pointing to the grass and trees around her that hold back erosion.

Then she turned back to a steep “cutbank” above Red Hawk Trail. Nothing but red, barren earth - and narrow rivulets formed when rain water carried off soil on the journey into the lake basin.

“A lot of people don’t realize that soil and runoff are a problem,” Hale said. “But it increases the amount of phosphorous in the water, and promotes algae growth.”

Even with present erosion problems, Hayden Lake’s water quality is still pretty good, she said. It’s nothing like Newman or Liberty lakes in neighboring Spokane County. There, sediment-caused algae blooms in recent years have robbed the water of oxygen and damaged ecosystems forever.

Saturday’s effort, part of a private $10,000 grant the Panhandle Health District received, is to help make sure Hayden never gets to that point.

“It’s a lot less expensive to prevent the problem in the first place than it is to fix it,” Hale said.

She said that in addition to helping control erosion with the little trees her group plants, another critical part of the project is to show adjacent homeowners that work like this is important.

“There’s a lot out there that needs to be fixed,” Hale said, motioning to the mountains around her - and the brown veins cutting deeply into their farthest reaches. “We’re hoping others will follow our lead.”

Andy Vredenburg, 16, climbed huffing and puffing down from the steep roadside where he’d just finished planting a Douglas fir.

“The hardest part is climbing up there,” said Vredenburg, a Coeur d’Alene High sophomore who is among two dozen students in a forestry class getting 20 extra-credit points for his volunteer effort.

More than that, though, Vredenburg said he’s enjoying “a chance to help out the environment.”

Nearly all the high schoolers agree the toughest part of planting the trees is scaling the steep road banks. But it gives them an appreciation for just how hardy the scrawny-looking syringa, mountain ash, and Western white pine seedlings have to be to survive.

Even with fertilizer - sprayed on in ample doses by Matt “Fertilizer Man” Douglas - only about 50 percent of the plants will live to see next summer. Standing next to the 16-year-old high schooler, Ypsilantis said he’s just hoping the planters have done enough to make a difference.

“You expect to lose a lot,” he said. “That’s why we overplant. You hope the ones that survive can hold the slope.”

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