Seattle Times

There was an article about the Rose Lake area in the Seattle Times yesterday. One would hope that the article would deal with how great the area is. How beautify the mountains, rivers, valleys, lakes are. How the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, a 75 mile paved bicycle runs though the area and is considered one of the best bicycling trails in the country. How clean Rose Lake is with excellent fishing, etc. How there isn't a stop light for 20 miles any direction. How gorgeous the stars are at night with no city lights nearby.

Nope, our claim to fame is that the swamp just south of the lake is killing migrating swans. The sediment is polluted with lead from all the mining up the Coeur d'Alene River from here. Some swans eating roots in the swamp injest too much of the stuff and end up with lead poisening. Rose Lake is clean since its at a higher elevation than the river and doesn't get it's runoff. OK, so the rail trail was a super fund clean up effort. It, and the area are still wonderful and I like it here.

p.s. I'm actually starting to feel a little more like a normal person.