Dishman Hills NRCA Trail
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FOR MORE INFO Dishman Hills Spokane County Parks & Recreation (509) 456-4730 Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Northeast Region (509) 684-7474 www.wadnr.gov Dishman Hills Association (To learn how you can support the Dishman Hills NRCA) (509) 747-8147 www.sd81.k12.wa.us/Regal/DishmanHills/ 56Dhill.htm This website was designed by 5th and 6th EXPLORE AND ENJOY Graders at Regal Elementary. Natural Resources Conservation Areas are selected to protect their outstanding scenic value and native habitats of endangered, threatened and sensitive plants and animals. These areas offer educational opportunities for low-impact public use compatible with the protection of the resources. Dishman Hills has diverse habitats and is a SPOKANE COUNTY great place to explore and learn about nature. Parks and Recreation Department The following activities are encouraged: ❐ Hiking ❐ Photography ❐ Jogging ❐ Bird watching ❐ Sight seeing on existing trails Environmental education teachers and group leaders call (509) 684-7474 for more information. To protect the area for present and future Dishman Hills use, the following activities are not allowed: Natural Area Association ❐ Bicycling ❐ Hunting and fishing ❐ Target practice ❐ Paintball tag ❐ Horseback riding ❐ Motorized vehicles ❐ Rock hounding ❐ Unleashed dogs Natural * Please pack out what you take in. * Resources THANK YOU Conservation Area GEOLOGY ECOLOGY Dishman Hills bedrock dates back 1.5 billion Dishman Hills years comprising some of the oldest rock in Wash- Natural Resources ington. It can be recognized as well-layered rock in Conservation Area is elcomeelcome the hills. Sandwiched within these layers are light- one of the most bio- colored quartz-rich layers. About 70 million years logically diverse areas of to the Dishman Hills Natural Resources ago, volcanic magma, from the earth’s hot mantle the state. It is a tran- WW just below the continental crust, pushed upward sition area between Conservation Area (NRCA) into the fractures of the bedrock and eventually forest, grassland, and cooled to form the erosion-resistant granite shrubland zones. Its outcropping of the Dishman Hills area. geology combined with the climatic con-ditions Dishman Hills Natural has helped to form Resources Conservation unique plant communities that include members Area is 530 acres (and from the above mentioned zones. growing) of dramatically About 18 to 22 inches of precipitation fall each sculpted rocky hills and year. Moisture is held in the shallow soils and ponds with areas of grasses cracks of the rugged rocks, supporting a diverse and mixed pine and fir mix of ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, cottonwood, forest. Dishman Hills has and plants such as oceanspray, Idaho fescue, been protected as a natural bluebunch wheatgrass and moss. Dishman Hills’ area for over 30 years. seven plant communities offer 300 flowering Although now just a sample plants, 73 species of of the past, its landscape is mushrooms, and many characteristic of parts of lichens and ferns. Winter the Spokane Valley before About 12,000 to 15,000 years and spring rains run off Euro-American pioneer ago, these landforms were shaped the frozen ground and settlement. by massive Glacial Age floods. into pothole ponds, a Beginning in 1966, Geologists have determined that vital water source for land was purchased and thick glacial ice dammed up a wetland plants and a donated to protect the huge lake to the east, called Lake wide variety of animals. hills from urban sprawl Missoula. As the climate warmed, Walking or sitting and development. Spo- the dam of ice repeatedly failed quietly can reveal wildlife. kane County Parks and over the course of several thousand These include coyotes, Recreation Department, years, each time catastrophically weasels, squirrels, chip- Washington State draining the lake. Dishman Hills munks, marmots, porcu- Department of Natural was in the path of the rushing pines, white-tailed deer, Resources and the non- 500-foot-deep wall of flood hawks, ruffed grouse, profit Dishman Hills waters that scoured the Spokane pheasants and more than Natural Area Association Valley. 50 species of butterflies. are partner stewards of The rocky pothole-poxed hills the hills. have ponds, ridges and gullies that support grassland areas and pond- erosa pine forest communities..