Ledbetter Lake may lose public access

[ruthven78]

Well it appears the residents of Northern Pend Oreille County may have lost their public access to Ledbetter Lake. I contacted the property owners (Lees Land & Cattle) and they confirmed the road has been permanently closed to the public.

I am checking with Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife to see what's going on on their end. The lake was listed on their 2020 state stocking plan. The plan stated the lake was set to receive 5000 triploid rainbow trout fry/fingerling in May/June.

Also trying to contact Idaho Forest Group to see if they would be willing to put in an access road and hand launch on their property.

The property around the lake is owned by two corporations. Hopefully IDFG would be willing to put in a public access road if Lees Land & Cattle isn't willing to reopen the road on their property. IDFG owns the southern 3rd of the shoreline.

Lees Land & Cattle (AKA The Lees Group) stated the reason for their road closure was due to vandalism and garbage.

[Kastmaster 777]

alot of places being closed because of vandalism and garbage. Carls lake access in Pend Oreille County appears to have been closed last year.

[ruthven78]

alot of places being closed because of vandalism and garbage. Carls lake access in Pend Oreille County appears to have been closed last year.

That's sad.

I did talk to WDFW Biologist Bill Baker and he is going to contact the property owner to see if this can be mutually resolved. Also, there is debate on whether the road that the owner put the gate on is a county or private road. A county commissioner is looking into it.

Also sent an email out to the other company that owns land around the southern end of the lake to see if they would be interested in putting in an access road and hand launch site. Dont know if I will even hear back from them