By Lindsay Box

On a beautiful and sunny Saturday in October, we held our 11th annual Reforest Spokane Day. The Lands Council originally started Reforest Spokane Day in 2010 as an idea to win a prize from Tom’s of Maine (yes, the toothpaste company). And over the years, it has grown quite a bit. Each year (minus the COVID years), we have had hundreds of volunteers plant thousands of trees and native shrubs in just one day. We have planted trees in Spangle, downtown Spokane, along the Centennial Trail, Greenbluff, the Saltese Uplands, and more. 11 years of planting thousands of trees. It’s pretty cool, if you think about it. This year, we had a much smaller event than years past, but I’d like to argue that is was one of our bests….

We held Reforest Spokane Day at Thompson Creek near Newman Lake. Since 2021, we have had a pretty big restoration project out there. A lot of our work has been centered around installing BDAs or beaver dam analogs. BDAs are a great solution to a big problem in this area - filtering out phosphorus before it enters Newman Lake, which has been plagued with toxic algae blooms recently. These BDAs will improve the water quality of Newman Lake while creating a healthy, meandering stream system that reconnects with its floodplain, raises the water table, and enhances wildlife habitat. BDAs are also a particularly great solution because they do everything that beavers do - in an area where beavers aren’t present. Over the past year, we have installed 18 BDAs along Thompson Creek - which kept the area flooded for quite some time with our rainy spring!

Another part of restoring this area is plants! So we chose it for our 2022 Reforest Spokane Day site. It’s a little out of the way for most Spokanites, but trust me - it is worth the drive. We drove in early on Saturday morning, in a thick fog and complete stillness. The only sounds we heard were the geese flying overhead and distant gunshots from opening day of deer season…. distant gunshots, my friends. As the sun burned off the morning fog, volunteers rolled in, fueled up on Roast House Coffee and pumpkin donuts, and we got to work. And let me tell you, we got it done. Over 100 volunteers planted 670 native trees and shrubs in just 3 hours. We even had to cut people off - the planting was just too much fun! These plants and trees will play a vital role in restoring and revitalizing this region and we are so thankful that we get to be a part of it.

This amazing work would not be possible without the help and support of our community. Our friend, Brian, from US Fish & Wildlife Service has been instrumental in so many of our restoration projects. Also, our longterm Reforest Spokane Day partner, Avista Utilities, is vital in our restoration efforts and helping our community foster a love of the environment. Tree plantings are our jam and we wouldn’t be able to do so much without their generous support.

In the end, I speak for everyone at The Lands Council when I say, thank you. Thank you to our partners who make our work possible, our volunteers who plant trees with a smile, our staff who make our work fun, and the great outdoors for making our work so enjoyable.