Waterlife center opens for the summer
Local students are pictured at the amphitheater at the Waterlife Discovery Center. The fish viewing windows and Lake Pend Oreille can be seen in the background.
(Photo courtesy IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF FISH & GAME)
The Waterlife Discovery Center, 1591 Lakeshore Drive, Sagle, is open for the summer. The center is a habitat education and interpretive area on the shores of the Pend Oreille River near Sandpoint.
Naturalists on duty are available during certain days and hours, to show you around the property and answer questions. NODS are members of the Pend Oreille Chapter of Idaho Master Naturalists, an energetic core of members from across the Idaho Panhandle who enjoy volunteering at and developing Fish and Game’s Waterlife Discovery Center.
Naturalists are on duty Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. through August.
Folks are welcome to stop by at anytime to tour the property, but the building is open to the public only when a naturalist is on duty.
The property consists of 3.5 acres of developed interpretive exhibits and a 6.5-acre forested wetland with trails and interpretive signs. The area is home to white-tailed deer, moose, muskrat, mink and river otters. Birds are found in abundance. Bald eagles, osprey and waterfowl grace the river while woodpeckers and songbirds prefer the wetland forest.
The former hatchery manager’s home is now a small science center with short movies, many displays, and a replica of the very first manager’s home in the early 1900s. This hatchery isn’t used to raise fish at this time, but the outside runs are used to hold rainbow trout in the spring, coming from southern Idaho, before being distributed to area lakes.
Today, a partnership between Fish and Game, Pend Oreille Master Naturalist Chapter, the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the local community has created the WaterLife Discovery Center.
Kara Campbell is a regional communications manager for Idaho Department of Fish & Game.