McCall Idaho Headline News

The proposed rules pertain to activities termed "exclusive use" that are .normally prohibited on B of R land, waters and facilities which the agency has "by exception" authorized over the years at certain water bodies, among them Lake Cascade.

The B of R recognizes three categories of boating facilities on Lake Cascade:

• Public docks and launches such as those owned by Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation and adjacent cities.

• Private docks of landowners who have given the B of R a "flow easement" to flood their land.

• "Exclusive use" facilities operated under permits from the agency.

The proposed new rules focus on the last group only, Short said.

Ledgerwood asserted the bureau has had an agenda stretching back 20 years to eliminate private docks.

The bureau's Lake Cascade Resource Management Plan, completed in February 2002, froze all new individual boat docks but it allowed renewal of existing permits and permits for new community docks in place of individual docks.