Volunteers plant over 1,000 trees to improve ecosystem at Spokane County conservation area

With her 9-month-old son strapped to her back, Kirsten Frost Andersen sunk her shovel through reed canary grass and into the dark, moist soil before her 7-year-old son, Aidan Andersen, helped her plant a native tree in the small hole she dug.

As part of Reforest Spokane Day, Frost Andersen, her husband Craig Andersen, and Aidan Andersen, were three of the 200 volunteers who planted 1,100 native trees that will provide beauty, shade and a host of ecological benefits for years to come at James T. Slavin Conservation Area, about a 20-minute drive south from downtown Spokane.

“It’s really important to bring kids out to things like these so that they can learn how important protecting nature is and being stewards of our environment,” Craig Andersen said.

The Lands Council has hosted the October tree-planting day since 2012. The nonprofit organization chooses a spot in the Spokane area that requires forest revitalization.

On a picture-perfect Saturday, Lands Council Executive Director Amanda Parrish said the council partnered with Inland Northwest Land Conservancy, Spokane County, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service to plant more than 1,000 trees next to a wetland at Slavin Conservation Area, a 628-acre county property with multiple trails running through rolling pastures and forested buttes.

Parrish said the trees, once matured, will help filter excess fertilizer runoff from the adjacent agricultural fields before the nutrients reach the wetlands in the conservation area. The trees also will provide shade and cool down the water in the wetland. The cold water provides more dissolved oxygen, which is essential for fish, Parrish said.

The trees will create a great wildlife habitat, according to Inland Northwest Land Conservancy Executive Director Dave Schaub.

“We’ve got a big lift ahead of us in the years to come as we have warming climate, accelerating development pressure and all the rest,” Schaub said. “We all need to roll up our sleeves and work together to care for these kinds of places, and this is a great example of that.”

Lands Council Restoration Program Director Kat Hall demonstrated to a group of volunteers how to plant the mix of trees and shrubs, which included mountain alder, red osier dogwood, black cottonwood, quaking aspen, golden currant and black hawthorn.

“It’s just really heartening to see this happen year after year and to know that there are folks in this community that care about improving our local ecosystems,” she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided the trees from its nursery at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, said Brian Walker, private lands biologist with the federal agency.

The native plants eventually will provide canopy coverage and help shade out the invasive reed canary grass volunteers carved through with their shovels, Hall said. She said it will take about 20 years, depending on the species, for the trees to fully mature.

The goal is to gradually bring the area back to a “more pristine state,” Hall said.

The volunteers planted in three areas enclosed by netted fencing designed to keep possible foragers, like deer, moose and elk at Slavin from feasting on the newly planted trees and plants, said Dan Maus, Spokane County natural resource specialist.

Maus said the fencing will be removed in several years when the trees are established and can survive the wildlife browsing.

Craig Andersen said he’s been engaged with the Lands Council for years through his work as a landscape architect, so he and his family participated in several Reforest Spokane Days and other tree planting events.

Andersen and his family planted a handful of trees and plants Saturday.

His son, Aidan Andersen, said he likes planting trees, especially when he finds worms.

Besides teaching his son to be a good steward of the environment, tree planting also allows his son to get outside and burn off energy, the elder Andersen said.

“I feel like I like the outside more than the inside,” Aidan Anderson said.

Kirsten Frost Andersen, who carried baby Reid Andersen on her back, said Reforest Spokane Day is a bit of a social event for her and her husband because they often see colleagues from their work at the event.

“For me, it’s just great having this energy out here,” she said. “All these people helping out, conserving our area around Spokane.”

Hall said the Lands Council has received a huge turnout of volunteers for the October planting day.

“There’s always such great energy with this and people get to be outside, put trees in the ground, be with each other,” Hall said. “There’s so much involved with that.”