FOR MORE INFO

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 elcome the hills. Sandwiched within these layers are light- one of the most bio- elcome 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 before and spring rains run off Euro-American pioneer About 12,000 to 15,000 years the frozen ground and settlement. ago, these landforms were shaped into pothole ponds, a Beginning in 1966, by massive Glacial Age floods. vital water source for land was purchased and Geologists have determined that wetland plants and a donated to protect the thick glacial ice dammed up a wide variety of animals. hills from urban sprawl huge lake to the east, called Lake Walking or sitting and development. Spo- Missoula. As the climate warmed, quietly can reveal wildlife. kane County Parks and the dam of ice repeatedly failed These include coyotes, Recreation Department, over the course of several thousand weasels, squirrels, chip- State years, each time catastrophically munks, marmots, porcu- Department of Natural draining the lake. Dishman Hills pines, white-tailed deer, Resources and the non- hawks, ruffed grouse, was in the path of the rushing profit Dishman Hills pheasants and more than 500-foot-deep wall of flood Natural Area Association 50 species of butterflies. waters that scoured the Spokane are partner stewards of the hills. Valley. The rocky pothole-poxed hills have ponds, ridges and gullies that support grassland areas and pond- erosa pine forest communities.