Not just loons can use help

I read with puzzled dissatisfaction the article about Yocum Lake (Outdoors, Nov. 26) and the efforts to preserve Loon habitat and improve public access.

This seems a perfect example of an oxymoron. I was witness to one of the most wonderful courtship displays of the loons at Yocum Lake the week before the opening of fishing season this year. I saw them flutter around the lake and listened to the most beautiful of courtship calls and watched as they heckled a bald eagle away from the lake.

When the opening day of fishing arrived, you could see the stress it provoked on the mating pair. What I do not get, or maybe what the steward of the forest doesn’t get, is that the formidable passage to the lake and its low pressure from moronic campers is most likely what attracted the loons to favor this lake as a nesting area.

I agree that the lake as small as it is should be reclassified as no gas motors, and not just for the loons but for lake quality. By increasing access, this defeats the remote nature the loons require for nesting. Please reconsider improvements to this lake, if not for the loons’ sake, for those of us who go to this lake to escape the loony civilized world.

Michael LaScuola

Spokane