Dennis Hall spent Saturday afternoon on Lake Pend Oreille, launching his 28-foot cabin cruiser from Sandpoint and ferrying friends across the lake to dinner. With blue skies and temperatures in the 70s, it was an ideal day to be on the water. “I even got a little sunburn,” said Hall, a Coeur d’Alene resident. For the past dozen years, local residents have worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to keep Lake Pend Oreille’s water levels high through September, extending the boating season on Idaho’s largest lake. But a proposal to draft the lake in late summer, providing water releases for federally protected bull trout downstream, has Hall and other boaters worried. Even a 1-foot drop in lake levels affects the ability of property owners in shallow bays to use their docks, said Ford Elsaesser, chairman of the Pend Oreille Basin Commission, which represents local stakeholders’ interests/Becky Kramer, SR. More here. (SR photo by Kathy Plonka: "I care more about what's good for the fish," said Kelly Mount of Sandpoint as she spent the day at Lake Pend Oreille Monday)

Question: Do you think Lake Pend Oreille should be lowered to protect bull trout?