Whitman County has plan to protect its parks

For the first time in recent memory, a large-scale comprehensive plan is in place for wildfire mitigation and forest health at Whitman County’s parks.

Moscow-based Northwest Management Inc. created the extensive forest management plan in 2019 for Kamiak Butte, Klemgard County Park and Elberton County Park.

“This is the first time anybody can recall a plan of this type has been done for the county parks,” Whitman County Parks Superintendent Dave Mahan said.

Mahan said his department is going to use that information to improve the health of the parks’ forests while making them more resilient to fires.

For example, Mahan said his staff has started executing part of the plan at Kamiak Butte and Klemgard Park by thinning trees vulnerable to fire.

At Kamiak Butte, they have been thinning and removing dead trees at the campgrounds, along the roadside and around the park manager’s residence.

They have also thinned trees at Klemgard Park, including an area overcrowded with too many trees per acre. Staff from the Whitman Conservation District have been assisting these efforts.

Mahan emphasized that his staff is not logging, and they are not removing trees for profit. Mahan said he knows cutting down trees in a public park is a sensitive issue, but he said it is being done to protect the forests.

Fire mitigation is an urgent issue every year, and the devastating wildfires that spread across Washington last fall, including in Malden and Pine City, have only increased the sense of urgency.

“We would hate to see something like that come through and destroy one of the parks,” Mahan said.

He said his staff wants to be able to mitigate at least some of that risk.

The forest management plan was created after Northwest Management Inc. evaluated the parks by investigating factors like insects, diseased trees, tree stand density, soil conditions and noxious weeds. The plan then offers recommendations to address forest health issues.

For example, the recommendations for Kamiak Butte include removing hazardous snags and dying trees from high-use areas of the park, removing beetle infestations and installing fuel breaks on the northeast portion of the park.

Mahan said these efforts will be ongoing. He said staff members work on these projects when their schedules allow.

Mahan said he does not expect the work to affect members of the public visiting the parks.

The management plans were signed off by the Whitman County Commissioners and submitted to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

Whitman County Parks Director Bill Tensfeld said these management plans can be long-lasting documents that guide future Whitman County commissioners and parks directors.

“It just gives you a road map for what direction you have to go,” he said.

With a plan to stick to, the county can avoid haphazard decisions affecting the parks, Tensfeld said.

“We’ve got to do our best to take care of them,” he said.

Anthony Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.