Located off WA 291 and Villier Road, this 40 acre park is under developmentSend e-mail to Friends of the ParkTall Pines Park is easy to find. The park is located about 2 miles west of the Lakeside Middle School on Washington State Highway 291 at mile post 17. At mile post 17 and the junction of Villier Road, turn left. About 0.3 of a mile on Villier, the park entrance road is off to your right hand side. See the map that follows. The area outlined in orange is the Tall Pines Park received in 2011 as a 50 year least to the Park District. State highway 291 is located in the upper right hand portion of the ortho photo. Villier is the county road joining Highway 291 and is depected in white on the photo. The white dotted lines identify the entrance road easement from Villier Road to the park. The entrance road to the Tall Pines Park is currently under construction and will be installed by the Stevens County Road Department. Construction should be completed by the end of this Spring. Fall of 2013. Logging of the Department of Natural Resources land, including Tall Pines Park.In the Fall of 2013, the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) logged the 40 acres of the Park as well as the surrounding DNR lands. The harvesting objective was to remove all of the hazardous trees such as those, likely to die; those with broken tops, and leaning trees. The harvesting operation also thinned the trees to provide ample growing space for the remaining trees.The picture on the left is of two DNR foresters getting ready to mark the trees for harvesting. Logging equipment used in the harvesting operations. This piece of equipment is known as a “feller buncher.” The large red unit at the end of the arm is used to “grab” the tree and hold it while it is severed from the stump. The tree held in the grapples and placed in an area where skidders come and bring it to the landing for loading on trucks. JUNE 2014. Tall Pines Park Road Construction BeginsJune 15 2014. Work has started on the road to Tall Pines Park. This is the clearing and shaping phase of the road bed looking from Villier Road toward Tall Pines Park which is located on the right hand side of the equipment in the background. Road grader has shaped the road bed in preparation of the base course rock that should be added and completed during the last week of June. The clearing, grading and shaping of the road was completed by local contractor Terry Johnson. Parking area and end of the road project. The parking area is to the right of the stake in the middle of the picture that marks the south west corner of Tall Pines Park. The parking area is the area left of the excavator parked in Tall Pines Park. The road grading is complete. This picture shows the final road grad on the left side of the picture. In the middle portion of the picture, the “base course” of larger rocks, gravel and sand provides the supporting running surface for the road. On the right side of the road, the final running surface or “cap rock” application is visible. Delivery and application of the “cap rock” for the final running surface of the road. The 5/8 inch minus rock was provided by local contractor D&L Construction. The underlying base course rock was delivered by local contractor Glen E. Allison Trucking. Terry Johnson provided all of the equipment for watering, spreading and rolling during the rocking operations. Thanks to all!June 28, 2014. The road is complete! At the left are pictures of the final road. The photo on left is from the back of the parking area looking toward Villier Road. The photo on the right is from Villier Road looking toward the park. The Lake Spokane Parks and Recreation District Commissioners would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the three local contractors who’s cooperation and excellent work led to a successful construction project. Our thanks go out to: Terry L. Johnson. Suncrest. General Contractor who provided the equipment and experience to do the vast majority of the road construction project.Richard Brown, D&L Construction. Tum Tum. Provided pit run base course rock for the road.Glen E. Allison Trucking and Gravel. Tum Tum. Provided the cap rock for the final road running surface. Clean-up Days. October 11, 2014.Our first Clean-up Day was held on a beautiful autumn
day in October. Twelve people and or two dogs assisted
in the first volunteer effort to clean up the park grounds. Since the
Tall Pines Park was logged by the Department of Natural Resources in 2013, some
of the Park has logging slash and debris left over. Removing and clearing the residual materials was the
major effort for the volunteers.Dee Biehl, Lori Brown and Commissioner Mike McWatters are all working hard to improve Tall Pines Park. There is always room for all of you to come out and enjoying our park by helping to clean it up. The clean-up crew also focused on starting to develop the Perimeter Trail around the Tall Pines Park. This trail will eventually follow the entire edge of Tall Pines Park and will be 1 mile in length. This will be an excellent trail for a casual walk around the Park. Mr. Dave Winlow donated and operated his front end loader and backhoe to complete the first leg of the Perimeter Trail. With your help, we hope to finish the trail in the Spring of 2015.After all of the good work, it was time for a nice hot dog lunch. Jerry and Serrena Miller provided all of the cooking equipment and was Jerry the chief chef for cooking the hot dogs for this great outdoor feast. Park Commissioner Kirk White and his dog Peanut are enjoying all of the activities.
