Vocal Point : Government should protect our mountains
Last summer, my husband and I drove up to the Legacy Ridge Street of Dreams home show at Liberty Lake.
We slowly meandered the open streets and got out of our car at the top of the ridge.
The 360-degree panoramic view was simply stunning. You could see Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake, even into Idaho, with forested mountains all around.
I felt both grieved and angry, knowing I would never see this view again, as this development’s gates are closed 24/7.
Why is such a view restricted to the wealthy? It should belong to us all.
The ridge was a perfect place for a nice park so that all, regardless of economic status, could enjoy the beauty.
Precious natural features are disappearing as development strides up our hills.
So I was thrilled to learn in late November that Antoine Peak, between the Valley (just north of Trent) and farms leading to Mount Spokane, one of our most beautiful local mountains, has been spared the backhoe. Spokane County Commissioners approved the three-phase purchase of 1,101 acres as part of its state-assisted Conservation Futures program.
Doug Chase, county park director, believes the state will do its part, paying half the cost. Commissioner Mark Richard stated, “This is a prime piece of real estate, and if we don’t act on it, it will be developed in a heartbeat.”
Words to fill my heart with joy.
When we moved here two decades ago, the peak entranced me with its gentle, grandfatherly shoulders and changing hues throughout each day and season. Not knowing its name, I christened it “Old Majestic,” because that’s how it seemed to me.
My love for this skyline beauty hasn’t lessened, and I’ve dreaded seeing it carved up.
In this prime habitat, an important wildlife corridor leading into Idaho, elk, moose and other animals, including birds and frogs, may continue to peacefully wander their grounds unmolested. No McMansions or subdivisions here!
Noted Commissioner Todd Mielke: “It provides us with a very unique opportunity to be visionary.”
Yes, Mr. Mielke, it does. (Hopefully it’s not too late to preserve land for an easily accessible park on a peak like Legacy Ridge.)
And how about applying some of that vision to the other hills surrounding us? Because the hills are alive, with the sound of … chain saws.
Our beautiful, unspoiled, wooded hillsides and mountains, a wonder and drawing card of our area, may be blistered with homes if our local governments don’t take steps now to secure them from Saw I, II and III, etc.
We need places to live, and hillside views are always desirable, but it needs to be done carefully.
The Bella Vista neighborhood on the hills south of Spokane Valley is a good example of this. Plenty of trees were left to keep the area wooded and, from the Valley floor, the hills look very natural.
Not so for the Northwood hills area. My stomach churns at what’s been done to the hillsides west of Argonne. It’s utterly shocking to see a bizarrely bifurcated hill – the east side of Argonne a green forest and the west an ugly sea of brown rooftops, like a brown buzz cut, butchered of its majestic pines.
What a rape of landscape! Did those responsible for decisions regarding its development feel no shame as they hacked up these beautiful hills?
How soon will the other side go though this disgraceful clear-cutting?
Consider me part dryad, but I believe our hillside forests are worth preserving – their beauty is so uplifting. When they’re gone, we’ll be “Once Near Nature, Now Southern California.”
Please, commissioners, don’t applaud yourselves over doing the right thing with Antoine Peak and leave it at that.
I urge you to take to heart the 1830 George Pope Morris poem:
”Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I’ll protect it now.”
I implore you to make every effort to spare our lovely hills for now and for the future, that our area may remain “Near Nature, Near Perfect.”