Love Our Lake Week celebrates Coeur d'Alene Lake stewardship

Love Our Lake Week will run July 13-17 as Coeur d'Alene Lake enters one of the busiest stretches of the summer, when thousands of people swim, fish, boat and paddle while local tourism and summer business depend on easy lake access. Organized by the Our Gem Collaborative through the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, the week will center on family-friendly learning stations about lake science, watershed awareness and ways to protect local waters.

The effort is built around a lake that is both a recreation draw and a long-running water-quality concern. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality says it worked with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to develop the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan in 2009, with the goal of protecting and improving water quality by limiting basin-wide nutrient inputs, especially phosphorus. DEQ says the lake bottom contains millions of tons of metals-laden sediments, including zinc, lead and cadmium.

That is why the science side of Love Our Lake Week matters. DEQ has conducted year-round monitoring of Coeur d'Alene Lake since 2007, with some temperature data going back to the 1990s. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe has monitored the southern portion of the lake since 2003. Those efforts track nutrients, ecology and toxic metals, giving officials a clearer picture of how the lake responds to cleanup work in the basin, climate pressures and heavy recreational use.

The week also includes a practical incentive. Participants will be entered into a raffle for a boat rental, and the grand prize drawing is scheduled for Friday, July 17, from 9 a.m. to noon at the University of Idaho Coeur d'Alene. Organizers are encouraging people to carpool or plan for parking and payment, a sign they expect a strong turnout.

The broader backdrop is larger than a single event. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is reviewing Coeur d'Alene Lake water-quality data at the request of DEQ, Kootenai County and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with support from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Local water-quality reporting has warned that too many nutrients can contribute to harmful algal blooms, while excess sediment can bury fish spawning areas. That makes the educational message of Love Our Lake Week direct and local: what happens in the watershed affects the swimming beach, the boat launch, the fishing line and the summer economy that depends on all four.