There are places in North Idaho where the cycles of nature unfold with a quiet, sacred beauty. One of those places is Trestle Creek on Lake Pend Oreille—a haven for wildlife, a classroom for curious children, and a lifeline for threatened bull trout and kokanee salmon. But this precious ecosystem remains threatened by the Idaho Club’s plan to build a marina and luxury housing development near the mouth of the creek.
Trestle Creek’s irreplaceable role in Pend Oreille Basin bull trout survival
According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), Trestle Creek stands as the most important spawning habitat for bull trout in the entire Pend Oreille Basin. In fact, their spawning surveys show that about half of all bull trout redds—the nests where eggs are laid—were counted there each year. The creek’s calm, shallow waters and intricate shoreline offer essential shelter and breeding grounds that are rare in Lake Pend Oreille’s shorelines and tributaries.
However, the most recent IDFG and Avista Utilities bull trout spawning survey, published in 2024, delivers a stark warning: bull trout redd counts in Trestle Creek plummeted by nearly 50% in 2023 compared to the year before, and are now less than half the average of the past decade. Preliminary anecdotal reports indicate that the 2024 results may be similar. Bull trout, which are sensitive indicators of water quality and ecosystem health, are sounding an alarm that demands immediate attention.
The threat to this special place
For over 17 years, The Idaho Club has been trying to develop this special place. Their latest proposal calls for a commercial marina with 88 boat slips, a breakwater, parking lot, and seven luxury homes with private docks. To build this, they hope to excavate 12,500 cubic yards of lakebed and part of an island totaling 3.2 acres, remove natural vegetation that stabilizes the shoreline and protects water quality, and harden over 3,800 feet of shoreline.
This is not just a marina and development project—it would be a transformation of a delicate ecosystem into a hub of boat traffic, noise, garbage, pollution, and human disturbance. An absence of plans for sewage pump-out stations and public restrooms threatens water quality, along with polluted runoff from houses, lawns, and parking lots.
Increased boat traffic risks oil and gas leaks and the spread of invasive species. And a growing body of research raises concerns that electric and magnetic fields emitted by boat traffic may interfere with navigation and migration patterns for fish like bull trout, which rely on the magnetic field of the earth to find their way back to their spawning grounds.
Permitting and approvals: What you need to know
Public agencies are entrusted with safeguarding public trust values: clean water, healthy fish and wildlife populations, and places of natural beauty. Trestle Creek embodies these values and deserves to remain intact and undisturbed.
Despite overwhelming public opposition—evidenced by thousands of comments and hundreds of voices at hearings over the past few years— in 2024 Dustin Miller, the director of the Idaho Department of Lands, approved the marina permit. Miller’s approval was stamped in spite of the hearing examiner recommending denial after a quasi-judicial proceeding.
The project also requires a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The Corps is required to ensure that projects like this don’t jeopardize the survival of threatened and endangered species. Their draft Biological Assessment (BA) found that the development was likely to adversely affect bull trout—an important recognition of the risks to this threatened species. However, in a suspicious turn of events, a private contractor was authorized to rewrite the BA, and the conclusion was changed to say that the project is not likely to adversely affect bull trout. This change definitely smells fishy. We will be closely scrutinizing the BA to determine if its conclusion is supported by science and satisfies the Endangered Species Act.
While there isn’t an immediate official opening for the public to raise concerns, soon the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will issue a draft water quality certification for the project. At that time, there will be a 30-day public comment period. The Idaho Conservation League (ICL) is closely monitoring the process and will inform members, supporters, and the public when it’s time to speak up.
A community united for Trestle Creek
North Idahoans cherish Trestle Creek—not only as a natural refuge but as a place where families and schoolchildren can witness the extraordinary spectacle of spawning kokanee salmon and bull trout. The loss of this habitat is not just an environmental issue; it’s a loss of community heritage and a connection to the natural world.
The bull trout’s decline is a warning—like a canary in a coal mine—and a call for us to act with urgency and care. Protecting Trestle Creek means protecting the future of bull trout, the health of our waters, and the wild spirit of North Idaho. If we let this precious habitat be compromised, we risk not only the survival of a threatened species but the loss of a treasured place where life’s cycles inspire us.
Together, we must keep raising our voices, demanding accountability, and standing for stewardship that honors the land, water and their inhabitants. Trestle Creek’s magic is not guaranteed—it is something we must fight to preserve, for today and generations to come.
Our attorneys and conservation experts are carefully studying every detail of the proposal, the BA, and the laws that protect places like Trestle Creek. We are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure this special place remains intact.
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