County adding more mooring buoys

SANDPOINT — Bonner County is expanding opportunities for boaters to post up on Lake Pend Oreille’s scenic shorelines.

The county is receiving a $14,800 grant from the Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation’s waterways improvement fund to place 11 additional mooring buoys at a half-dozen locations in the southern arm of the lake. The county is contributing another $5,000 as a local match.

“They will literally be scattered along the shore on both sides. They’re mostly all new locations,” said Steve Klatt, director of Bonner County Parks & Waterways.

Buoys are slated for installation off Long Point, Talache Landing and Evans Landing, all of which are on the western shore of the lake. On the eastern side, buoys will be placed off Cedar Creek, the base of Green Monarch Mountain and Johnson Creek.

The county put in for the grant funding because of the increasing boater population and demand.

“During the summer, the mooring buoys that we have out there are used quite frequently and anybody that uses them is happy to hear there’s more opportunities,” said Klatt.

The buoys, each of which can have four boats lashed to it, will particularly aid shoreline camping. Many boaters beach their boats at night, which makes them vulnerable to uncertain winds and waves.

The county is undertaking a joint encroachment permit application through the state. The U.S. Forest Service is involved in the project.

“We have to have the Forest Service on board because all of them are located off federal ground,” Klatt said.

The installation is expected to be complete by July 2017.