Lands Council picks up Save Our Pines campaign

You’ve heard the adage, buy land. They aren’t making any more of it. Spokane-area environmental groups have a concern of the same tenor but a different nature: Too many ponderosa pines are being logged, and no one is planting any more of them. “We’re near nature, near perfect in a ponderosa-pine forest, and we’re taking the trees down one at a time,” says Carrie Anderson, of the Urban Forest Council. The Lands Council, a Spokane-based environmental group, has taken the lead on an effort started by the Urban Forest Council five years ago, called Save Our Pines, that’s aimed at preserving the ponderosa-pine population in the Spokane area. Now, says Lands Council ponderosa pines coordinator Beth Mort, the group is tackling the issue on a few fronts. Those include looking at regulatory issues, a public-awareness campaign and a replacement-and-rehabilitation component. Regulations First, she says, the group is looking at regulations other communities have passed to protect the urban forest canopy. Some cities have regulations in place that require permits for cutting down trees. Others have ordinances that are variations on a permitting process, but the message is the same, Mort says. “Basically, they’ve said their entire urban forest canopy has value,” she says. Kirkland, Wash., is one such city. The city developed an ordinance in 2006 that requires people to obtain a tree-removal permit before cutting down a tree on private property, unless the tree poses an imminent threat to people or property. That city’s ordinance allows a property owner to cut down only two trees a year. In Spokane, Anderson says, regulation would be a good way to curb urban logging that became more prevalent in the mid-1990s. The big ice storm of 1996 toppled hundreds of trees in the Inland Northwest and caused considerable amounts of property damage. After that, tree-removal companies went door to door, she says, offering to take down trees. “They ring the doorbell, and they frighten people,” Anderson says. “It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s happening all over the city.” What she asserts is needless removal continues to occur today. She cites the recent removal of a tree at Hart Field, on Spokane’s South Hill. The ponderosa pine was healthy, but too close to a ball field. Consequently, it was taken down. Anderson says she offered to pay to have a fence around the tree reconfigured so that it wouldn’t be such a hazard for those playing ball there, but the tree was removed instead. Along regulatory lines, the organization also is researching whether current swale regulations lead to more tree removal. Mort says she hasn’t come to any sort of conclusion on that matter yet. In addition to working for the Lands Council, Mort is earning a master’s degree in urban and regional planning at Washington State University-Spokane. She currently is working on a master’s thesis that involves looking at how much of the urban forest canopy the Spokane area has lost through the years. She hopes to be able to quantify the loss of the tree canopy through her research, a big part of which involves comparing aerial photographs through the decades. Public awareness To raise public awareness, the group is looking for venues through which it can educate people on the best ways to care for and maintain ponderosa pines. “That’s an opportunity to showcase ponderosa pines,” she says. “We live in a unique environment that the ponderosa pine clearly is built to be in, and they can be really beautiful.” The tall trees have a bad reputation because they shed needle heavily each fall, prompting more yard work. Many people believe the needles are too acidic to be used as mulch, which Mort says isn’t true. As with other kinds of mulch, the needles shouldn’t be put directly against the base of a plant, but they can be used as mulch. Besides, ponderosa pine advocates argue, the benefits of the trees far outweigh the drawbacks. For example, the trees can grow to be more than 200 feet tall, providing shade and reducing the heat-island effect. Also, they provide year-round carbon sequestration, which means they store carbon dioxide and mitigate global warming. In addition, the trees don’t need to be irrigated, but can absorb a large amount of storm water over time. For example, Mort says, one ponderosa pine that’s 18 inches in diameter at breast height can take in up to 1,050 gallons of storm water in a year. The Lands Council has planted new ponderosa pines in the past as part of its rehabilitation effort, and the organization plans to do so again this year. The Land Council will be planting ponderosa pines and other tree species at Campion Park, located just north of the U.S. 195-Hatch Road junction on Spokane’s south side, as part of it third annual Earth Day tree planting celebration. That planting will occur from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 25. The group also is looking for ways to make ponderosa pine seedlings available to the public. “We have big hopes for this year,” Mort says.