"This was very heavy handed," said former Kootenai Environmental Alliance executive director Barry Rosenberg as he toured a logged area of Farragut State Park on Tuesday. (Kathy Plonka SR photo)

At Farragut State Park, Jokulhlaup Viewpoint offers visitors sweeping views of Lake Pend Oreille. Logging last winter “opened up one of the few vistas that the public has at the park,” said Randall Butt, the park’s manager. Without an obstructing curtain of trees, visitors can look out over a panorama that includes Pack Saddle Mountain on the lake’s eastern shoreline and Bernard Peak, a favorite haunt of mountain goats. But where others see mountains and water, the Kootenai Environmental Alliance sees a three-acre clearcut. To improve the viewpoint, the hillside below was stripped of trees. Members of the Coeur d’Alene-based environmental group were dismayed to find stumps of 100-year-old Douglas firs in the logged area/Becky Kramer, SR. More here.

Question: Would you rather have the sweeping view of Lake Pend Oreille and the clear-cut -- the obstructing curtain of trees that include 100-year-old Douglas firs?