Lake Roosevelt Updates - Winter 2024

Details

Published: Monday, 05 February 2024 18:26

National Park Service

Dan Foster Retires

Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LRNA) Superintendent Dan Foster retired in December. He was LRNA’s Superintendent for 10 years. His career with the National Park Service spanned 31 years. The Forum thanks him for his service.

Roseann Worley, an NPS Internal Controls Coordinator in the NPS San Francisco regional office, will be the interim Superintendent for four months. In 2021, she was the interim Superintendent at Lava Beds National Monument. Welcome, Roseann!

Winter Access

Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area invites you to come and enjoy the great outdoors no matter the season. With reduced staffing and resources during the winter, facilities, and services are limited. Visit www.nps.gov/laro for winter access details.

Keller Ferry Marina Improvements

Public input through January 31 is being sought for replacing and improving houseboat docks at the Keller Ferry Marina.

Per their press release, “NPS proposes to improve the Keller Ferry Marina by replacing parts of the aged docks with houseboat and potentially short-term and transient moorage, as well as grading the marina lakebed to provide a flat surface for anchoring the new dock system.” To comment, go to  https://parkplanning.nps.gov/kellerferrymarina.  

Seven Bays Marina Environmental Assessment

Public review and comment period for the Seven Bays Marina Rehabilitation Environmental Assessment (EA) will open on January 29, 2024 and go through February 28, 2024. The EA outlines a range of feasible project alternatives, including a no action alternative, and analyzes the environmental effects of each. It also incorporates comments received during the public comment period held in August 2023. The public can access and comment on the EA document online through the Planning Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/sevenbaysmarina. 

Upper Columbia United Tribes

Northern Pike Information Sharing Virtual Workshop

Date: February 15, 2024

Time: 12 to 3 PM PST

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81699344412?pwd=aTlDWUEzUUtqKzhMSnhqMTQzL01Ddz09

Meeting ID: 816 9934 4412

Passcode: 930964

Topics will include: 

Lake Roosevelt Northern Pike work and lessons

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Northern Pike surveys

Okanagan Nation Alliance Northern Pike work

Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife's work to quantify the impacts of invasive Northern Pike

Discussion of topics of mutual interest and concern

Spokane Tribe of Indians

Upper Columbia Basin Contaminant Study

The Spokane Tribe completed project scoping activities in 2023 including two test deployments of a sediment particle trap, and limited sampling.  The Tribe plans to use information gained in 2023 to implement the full suite of project sampling in 2024 which will include collection of water, suspended sediments, bottom sediments, biofilm, and crayfish. This EPA grant funded project assists efforts to evaluate distribution of heavy metals in the Upper Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt across media, identify which contaminants are entering the food web via biofilm, evaluate movement of contaminants transported through the river, and to test the feasibility of a sediment particle trap design.

Citizens for A Clean Columbia

Air Monitoring Update

Last November, summer intern Dev Nirschl provided Citizens for a Clean Columbia (CCC) some initial data from PurpleAir monitors placed near the Upper Columbia River. Said CCC’s newsletter, “She found that over several summer months, Northport and Trail PM 2.5 sensors followed a similar pattern, as shown below, but Trail readings were consistently lower.”  Nirschl’s slide deck noted “Northport’s elevated ambient PM2.5 levels could be coming from wood heating in colder months and outdoor and residential burning during non-smoke periods.”