Group protests cabin removal at Lake Roosevelt National Recreational Area

SPOKANE — A land-rights group is outraged that the National Park Service is studying whether to terminate leases on 26 vacation cabins in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.

The American Land Rights Association, of Battle Ground, Clark County, calls the study a "land grab."

"Please do your part to help the cabin owners at Lake Roosevelt save their cabins from the National Park Service," the group said in a mailing to supporters. "The key here is to work together."

This week is the deadline for people to file comments to the service about the cabins.

Debbie Bird, superintendent of the Lake Roosevelt recreation area, said it's too early to predict whether the cabins are in danger of removal.

"We are doing an environmental assessment," Bird said. "It's premature to predict the outcome."

Bird rejected the notion of a "land grab," primarily because the federal government already owns the land the cabins were built on.

The 26 vacation cabins are a legacy of a 1950s-era program in which people were encouraged to lease land along the Columbia River reservoir created by Grand Coulee Dam and build simple cabins, not primary residences, Bird said. The leases, which cost $4,500 per year, run for five years, she said.

Now the Park Service is studying whether it wants to continue having the cabins, which are at the Rickey Point and Sherman Creek areas of the 150-mile-long lake. Federal law requires the environmental assessment to determine whether the cabins should be allowed and under what lease conditions, the park service said.

The American Land Rights Association is calling on its supporters to deluge the service with demands that the cabins be retained. It has sent a standard comment form, along with instructions to alter the form to look more like it is from an individual rather than part of a mass effort.

"The Park Service will try to discount this questionnaire," the group told supporters. "You can prevent them from doing that by personalizing it as much as you can.

"Please make sure you write in some personal comments."

Lake Roosevelt is a popular recreation area, especially with boaters, but relatively few people live along its banks. New homes have not been allowed on the shoreline for decades.

The land-rights association believes the Park Service should encourage more cabins to be built in the recreation area, to discourage people from abusing the shoreline.

"The superintendent should make it a priority to develop sites ... to distribute the use of the lake, broaden the carrying capacity and create additional opportunity for those who wish to have a more removed or remote recreational opportunity," the association said.