Fire provides opportunity to aid motorists

CHENEY – The August fire that roared through the Williams and Badger lakes area left a scorched wasteland in its wake, consuming about 90 percent of the vegetation in its path including a large number of trees.

That number was added to by a Spokane County decision to take advantage of a recent clearing operation and remove additional apparently healthy trees - a decision leaving at least one Badger Lake family perplexed and a bit frustrated.

Paul and Jennifer Mitchell - who lost an outbuilding in the fire - received a letter from the county Public Works Department mailed Sept. 16 notifying them of the upcoming work. While the letter said the work would focus mainly on fire damaged trees, it noted the county's assessment had also identified dead or damaged trees on their property posing a hazard "to the motoring public," and instructed them that they should be removed.

Jennifer Mitchell said they called and spoke with a roads maintenance supervisor, who identified some of the trees to be marked for removal as trees undamaged by the flames. The couple had already received notice from the county Assessor's Office that their land value had fallen as a result of the fire.

"They want to cut down 100-year-old trees that are the only healthy ones left standing," Mitchell said in a phone call last Tuesday night, Sept. 29. "We can't glue those trees back together once they're gone."

Paul Mitchell said they contacted the maintenance supervisor to ask for a meeting on the issue. They then received a call on Sept. 24 notifying them the trees would be removed that coming Monday, Sept. 28 - at which point they contacted Spokane County Commissioner for District 3 Al French's office.

County engineer Chad Coles said county crews assessing the destruction noticed a number of fire damaged trees in the county right of way, along with some in what is referred to as "the clear zone." All were marked for removal.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation's road design manual, the clear zone is a roadside border designed to "provide a clear, traversable area for a vehicle driver or bicyclist to recover when their path is altered due to environmental, human or vehicle or bicycle factors."

"A major source of injuries or fatalities in run-off road accidents are hitting targets, like trees," Coles said. "That is the number one thing that comes up in those types of accidents."

Coles said there are factors used to determine the size of a roadway's clear zone, including roadway design, posted speed limits, traffic volumes, sideslopes and any history of accidents. When his department received a call from French's office informing them of the Mitchell's complaints, they reevaluated the healthy trees, returned to the site again with the arborist and even looked at photos of each tree.

That process removed about 30 trees from the list, but with a contract already in place with Budget Arbor & Logging, LLC, to do the work, Coles said he contacted the Mitchells to inform them crews would begin removing damaged and healthy trees last Tuesday.

Coles said he understands the Mitchell's unhappiness, and said the county takes what steps it can to notify homeowners about such issues. Still, it's not a decision that is "voted" on.

"We're all about safety and keeping people from getting in trouble," Coles said. "I looked at an (accident) fatality report this week involving a tree. I don't have that crystal ball to know where the next similar accident will happen."

The Mitchells also understand the county's position. Jennifer Mitchell said all they wanted was to be part of the discussion, and ask if the county had the discretion to leave the trees in place as long as they did - with the road being in place for decades - why not find a way to keep what few things the fire didn't take, standing a while longer.

"Forget regulations, does it make sense?" she asked. "Now that they're gone, it's a big change from a view standpoint."

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.