Things are getting back to normal in Clark County after the unusually snowy, windy and icy weather that disrupted life in the region earlier this month. But Clark County Parks Manager Bill Bjerke expects Vancouver Lake Regional Park to remain closed for possibly weeks as crews work to clear out the damage left from the severe weather.
The park has remained closed since the evening of Jan. 10, when it was shut down at its regular time around dusk, Bjerke said. That night the 190-acre park was extensively damaged with heavy snow and what he describes as a freak wind shear that left 111 trees with varying degrees of damage.
Bjerke said the wind shear brought gusts he estimates were at 50 to 70 mph that pummeled the trees in the park that were already strained from the snowstorm’s moisture. He said the wind knocked down large trees, up to 3 feet wide. Others were “split wide open” or had their branches knocked down and scattered over trails, he said.
“There are widowmakers up in the trees,” said Bjerke, referring to damaged tree branches hanging precariously. “They can come down at any time. They could kill someone.”
Since the park’s closure, he said, county maintenance workers and a crew contracted with the state’s Department of Natural Resources have been brought in along with tractors, a Bobcat loader, a chipper, big box trucks and other equipment to clear out the hundreds (possibly thousands) of yards of debris. He didn’t know how much it’ll cost to remove the debris but estimated it will be tens of thousands of dollars.
“The one message I would like to get out is just to ask people for their patience,” Bjerke said.
Other county-operated parks fared better during the harsh weather, and only one other closed briefly, he said. A windstorm on Jan. 3 toppled 17 trees at Lewisville Regional Park. One tree fell across the entrance of the park, taking out a power line as it fell, Bjerke said, but the park only was closed for a day. A large oak tree also fell down in Vista Meadows Neighborhood Park, and the county is in the process of moving it out, he said.
Julie Hannon, city of Vancouver parks and recreation director, said that the city’s parks didn’t experience any major incidents during the storms.
“We had pretty good luck with that,” she said.
Ryan Ojerio, the southwest regional manager for the Washington Trail Association, said that the weather affected the work of his organization, which provides volunteers to maintain parks and trails and helped build a new trail in the Vancouver Lake park last year.
“Other storms have one punch,” he said of the weather, which caused the association to cancel six work parties. “It felt like this one was ice, storms, freezing rain, cold temps — and the snow lingered.”
Bjerke said that clearing Vancouver Lake could take up to three weeks but that work is going well and he hopes to have the park reopened sooner.
He said county parks will salvage as much wood as possible with some being sent to Lewisville park for use in fire pits.
Other debris is being taken to Columbia Resource Center and H & H Wood Recyclers.
Some trees downed during the storm will have a more permanent place in county parks.
“At some point in the future, we’ll mill them up into lumber that we will use for our park benches and tables,” Bjerke said.
