Post Falls forest sees regrowth after Parkway Fire

POST FALLS — Nearly three years after the Parkway Fire, the Post Falls Community Forest is healing. 

On Aug. 4, 2023, an unattended campfire started a wildland fire on the south side of the Spokane River, forcing residents of 30 homes to evacuate. Over the next four days, the blaze burned through 80 acres of the 500-acre site.

The wildfire burned, impacting 20% of the forest, which stretches west along the Spokane River and extends west and south of Q'emiln Park. 

Daniel Lambert, a natural area trail technician for the city of Post Falls, said the forest's recovery is “going as expected."

“A lot of the grasses have come back already and some of the seedlings we’ve planted, we have pictures where they’re already as tall as I am,” Lambert said. “There's definitely trees regenerating and some of the seedlings we’ve planted are taking off.”

Inland Forest Management and Inland Empire Paper Company donated seedlings to regrow some of the trees impacted by the fire. 

“We now have close to 1,000 seedlings planted," Lambert said.

The volunteer group Friends of the Post Falls Community Forest has planted trees and done rehab work to assist throughout the area.  

Grant-funded efforts to reduce wildfire risk along the southern and eastern boundaries of the Community Forest began in December 2023, led by the Idaho Department of Lands, the city of Post Falls and the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management.

Through the project, workers removed vegetation and small trees and treated 71 acres to prevent future fires and increase forest resilience. They also developed a 300-foot-wide shaded fuel break, which has been in place since that time.   

Bark beetles' attacks on distressed trees that burned are starting to curtail, Lambert said. 

Lambert said some trees are slowly dying off from the fire’s effects.

“We are at a point where the dead standing trees have decayed enough and are starting to blow over,” Lambert said.  

Much of the recovery comes down to how the ecosystem bounces back. 

“We feel good about how it’s going,” Lambert said. “Obviously, it impacted the community, but we’re pretty optimistic about how it’s responding.” 

*There were 1,000 seedlings added to the forest in the time since the fire. 

    Daniel Lambert stands by a growing seedling planted in the Post Falls Community Forest.
  

    A woman and dog go for a walk on a trail at the Post Falls Community Forest.