New Fees For Lake Roosevelt To Go In Effect

New fees for camping and launching boats at Lake Roosevelt are scheduled to go into effect in June.

Authorized by the 1993 Congress, the Coulee Dam National Recreation area already is charging a $10 nightly fee for all vehicle campgrounds. Camping fees apply May 15-Oct. 1. Previously, camping at some lesser developed campgrounds was free.

Beginning June 15, boat launching fees will be charged year-round. The fee will be $6 a week or $30 a year.

Senior citizens with Golden Age or Golden Access passports get a 50-percent discount on all park fees.

To obtain a permit by mail, write National Park Service, 1008 Crest, Coulee Dam, WA 99116, Attention: Boat Launch Permit.

All requests must include a personal or cashier’s check payable to the National Park Service and a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Permits also are available at park offices in Kettle Falls, Fort Spokane and Coulee Dam, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Shovelnose comeback

The shovelnose sturgeon, an ancient species that reaches 3 feet long and 10 pounds, may soon return to its native waters in the Big Horn River of Wyoming.

The shovelnose is common in Montana and several other states and has been found in Wyoming’s Powder River. But it used to be widespread in Wyoming and was native to the Big Horn River before dams blocked its spawning migrations in 1965, said state fisheries biologist Tom Annear.

The department’s plan would release 120,000 young fish each year, starting this summer, from Worland to the Yellowtail Reservoir, Annear said. Spawning runs would be established up unimpeded tributaries.

“We just wanted to make sure people realize that this is really a low impact or no-impact action that actually would benefit the economies and recreationalists, the anglers, in the Big Horn Basin,” he said. “This is not an endangered species issue.”

Councilman fined

Six men and a youth, including Oakley City councilman William Gary Lloyd, have been fined by a magistrate for game violations that the Idaho Fish and Game Department said centered around using dogs to hunt elk.

Fines ranged from $309 for hunt ing elk with a dog to $1,009 for wasting an elk, possessing an elk with no evidence of sex and shooting across a road.