Mar. 21—Dan Wilson has quite a lot of trails in his head.
The property supervisor for the Dishman Hills Conservancy has psychological maps of each the prevailing trails on the conservancy’s properties within the hills south of Spokane Valley and of ones which are nonetheless to be constructed.
On Monday, he and Tim Theis, the conservancy’s useful resource improvement officer, walked one of many latter — a brief stretch that can start on a cliff above the Phillips Creek trailhead and jut north, previous willows which were browsed by moose and in between scat piles of various origin.
“That is going to be a cool path,” Wilson mentioned. “It is simply received quite a lot of cool stuff.”
It’s going to even be the conclusion of a long-term objective.
The path will traverse a 12-acre property the conservancy bought earlier this yr, and it will likely be the primary official path that connects the Glenrose unit with the Dishman Hills Pure Space.
Known as the Keystone Connection Property, the acquisition protects one other piece of wildlife habitat within the Dishman Hills, a spot that is house to deer, moose, cougars, coyotes and extra.
Ruth Gifford, the conservancy’s govt director, mentioned the property furthers the group’s mission of sustaining a steady ecosystem within the space.
“We would like that for public recreation, however we additionally need it as a wildlife hall,” Gifford mentioned.
The general public’s share of land within the Dishman Hills has grown over time. In all, about 3,400 acres in that space are protected for conservation and are house to miles of climbing and biking trails.
Previous to this buy, the latest enhance got here within the type of the MacPhee property, a 103-acre property close to Ponderosa Elementary Faculty that Spokane County bought in 2023.
That buy made public a significant chunk of property on the east facet of the Glenrose unit. However there was nonetheless a niche between Glenrose and the Dishman Hills Pure Space that could not be crammed.
Some hikers have used an unofficial path there for years, both knowingly or unknowingly trespassing to make a connection between the 2 models.
Conservancy workers had conversations with the landowner between the 2 properties a number of occasions over time. This yr, the household that owned the property determined to place it up on the market, and the conservancy pounced on it.
Initially, the property included a home down beneath. As a part of the deal, one other purchaser bought the home and the conservancy took possession of the open lands on the hillside above it. It value the conservancy about $300,000.
“It’s a nice piece of property,” Gifford mentioned. “It could be small, nevertheless it has some distinctive habitat on it.”
Theis mentioned folks have been desirous to see a connection between the Glenrose unit and the pure space for years.
“This was the one shot to do it,” Theis mentioned.
Wilson, who has labored with the conservancy since 2021, mentioned the thought had been talked about for years, and that he’d been fascinated by constructing a path on the 12-acre parcel for a very long time.
“It is good to really do it and know we’re really going to construct a path,” he mentioned.
It isn’t prepared for the general public, however the path goes to occur. The design is about and volunteers from the Spokane Mountaineers are prepared to show it into one thing tangible. Already he and volunteers have been on the property clearing out barbed wire and different remnants of the previous.
On Monday, as he walked the property with Theis, Wilson identified the property boundary and the slender notch the brand new path will move by way of. The world burned within the 2008 Valley View Hearth, and it nonetheless exhibits. The hillside is generally open, with a handful of younger ponderosas reaching for the sky.
The brand new path might be uphill from an unofficial path folks have used for years. That is a strategic resolution. The plan is to shut the unofficial path and divert visitors onto the brand new one, and to let wildlife take over the decrease one.
That is a fragile steadiness the conservancy has to strike within the Dishman Hills.
“The deer actually love this space,” Wilson mentioned. “The deer and the moose.”
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