Lake Roosevelt NPS

10/06/2026

🔥 Smoke will be visible near Rickey Point Road on Wednesday, October 7, as crews conduct a prescribed underburn. This prescribed fire will be along Lake Roosevelt, adjacent to Highway 25 near Ricky Point. Smoke will be visible from nearby roads during the operation and could linger afterward.

Fire crews from the National Park Service, in cooperation with the Wildland Fire Service, will conduct the operation. Learn more about fall prescribed burns at Lake Roosevelt and their benefits on forest health: https://www.nps.gov/laro/learn/news/fall-2026-prescribed-fire-burning-notice.htm

Questions or concerns? Call 509-754-7800.

NPS Photo

Image: A fire crew member in a black hard hat, tan shirt, green pants, and heavy grey backpack, sprays water out of a hose towards a smokey tree. In the background, orange flames burn in a ring shape on the ground. Smoke billows up towards the tops of the trees, creating a light brown sky surrounding the crew member.

10/06/2026

Potential prescribed fire locations at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area have been announced today. Check our press release for locations. https://www.nps.gov/laro/learn/news/fall-2026-prescribed-fire-burning-notice.htm

These prescribed burns are part of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area’s ongoing fire management program. They will promote forest health, reduce wildfire fuels near homes and infrastructure, and improve plant diversity. The burns will also return nutrients to the soil and help maintain forests that are more resilient to fire, insects and disease.

Fire managers carefully plan prescribed burns and conduct them under specific weather and fuel conditions. Wildland fire management activities conducted by the National Park Service are guided by agency management policies and federal wildland fire guidelines.

Fall 2026 Prescribed Fire Burning Notice

09/29/2026

Great news! Our campfire ban will be lifting on October 2. For more information check our press release. https://www.nps.gov/laro/learn/news/campfire-ban-lifted.htm

Campfire Ban Lifted

09/23/2026

Hardhats, roadwork, and shotcrete, oh my! 👷‍♂️🚧

It’s been a summer of construction down at Hawk Creek. This well-loved campground and fishing spot has been getting a full makeover to create long-lasting repairs and make the road in and out of Hawk Creek safer and more stable for the public. Main project goals include widening and paving the road, stabilizing the creek bank to prevent erosion, building retaining walls along the hillside, restoring disturbed areas, and installing guardrails for your safety. Soil nail retaining walls are completed and crews are focusing on culverts and road building. The campground, boat launch road, and parking areas will also be repaved, extending the project till October 17th.

We know that this project has been a long time coming so we wanted to share some behind the scenes from this summer. Check out the shotcrete (spray concrete) retaining wall made to look like natural columnar basalt and the extra wide road we can look forward to!

Many thanks to Federal Highways, Lincoln County Public Works, and NPS contractors, sub-contractors, and employees who have worked tirelessly all summer to work on these improvements. 👏

NPS Photos

Images:
1) A vertical wall of grey and rust red faux rocks create a concrete retaining wall along a brown dirt road.
2) Three vertical pieces of brown and grey concrete are made to look like tall slabs of rock in a construction zone.
3) Dark grey concrete and metal anchors create a near-vertical wall alongside a tan dirt road.
4) Looking down from above, construction workers work on reinforcing an asphalt road.
5) A gravel road winds uphill where construction equipment works on widening the road.
6) A dirt road winds up into a valley with green grass spreading off to the right.
7) A river travels alongside a dirt road with reinforcement between the two to prevent erosion.

09/21/2026

Protect Lake Roosevelt Year Round

Fall is a great time to check your boat before storing it. Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are small, but they can harm our lake and wildlife. By stopping their spread, we help keep Lake Roosevelt safe and healthy for everyone.

Fall AIS Checklist:
• Remove all plants, mud, and debris from your boat, trailer, life jackets, and other gear.
• Drain water from bilges, live wells, and equipment.
• Make sure everything is completely dry.
• Fill out the mussel-free self-certification form next time you launch.

Together, we can keep Lake Roosevelt clean and healthy for everyone to enjoy.



NPS Image

09/17/2026

Seeing a cute animal can make for a great photo, but the best way to help wildlife is to let them stay wild.

If you let a squirrel check out your car, bigger animals like black bears might start looking for food there too. Animals learn fast. If they find food, trash, or things that smell good near cars, campsites, or picnic areas, they’ll keep coming back.

You can protect wildlife by putting away all food and things that attract animals, closing coolers tightly, packing up snacks, and never feeding or getting close to wild animals. These simple steps help keep wildlife safe and make special moments like this truly wild.



NPS Image

09/10/2026

Did you know Lake Roosevelt wasn’t the first lake to fill this valley?

During the last Ice Age, a huge glacier blocked the Columbia River near where Grand Coulee Dam is today. This created a much bigger lake called Glacial Lake Columbia. It covered much of the upper Columbia River basin and even reached into North Idaho. Over time, this lake helped shape the steep canyons and wide coulees we see now.

Massive floods from another ancient lake, Glacial Lake Missoula, rushed in from the east. When these floods poured into Glacial Lake Columbia, they spilled south and carved famous features like Dry Falls, Steamboat Rock, and the Channeled Scabland. These places are some of the best evidence we have of huge Ice Age floods anywhere in the world.

Glacial Lake Columbia covered nearly 500 square miles on average. Today’s Lake Roosevelt covers only about a quarter of that area, and even less when compared to the lake’s largest size. The old lake’s surface was about 1600 feet above sea level. At full pool, Lake Roosevelt reaches 1290 feet—still high enough to cover many of the cliffs around it.

This valley is also part of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail NPS. Visitors can explore landscapes shaped by ice, water, and time on a truly massive scale.

NPS Image

09/10/2026

FYI for those who are planning to go sturgeon fishing at Lake Roosevelt. Sturgeon season begins September 16 and lasts till November 30.

More on sturgeon regulations: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/reports/creel/sturgeon -roosevelt

Beginning Sept. 14, WDFW, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians will conduct a four-week setline survey for juvenile white sturgeon in the upper portion of Lake Roosevelt. This overlaps with the annual sturgeon season, so if you're going fishing you may want to look at the survey schedule at the following link to know where work will be taking place:
https://wdfw.wa.gov/newsroom/news-release/lake-roosevelt-biological-survey-work-white-sturgeon-begins-sept-14

Photo of a woman kneeling in the water holding a large sturgeon courtesy of Jordan Conley.

09/02/2026

Extreme makeover, Fort Spokane edition! 👷‍♂️

Fort Spokane Visitor Center (also known as the Guardhouse) has been closed this summer for preservation work. The park brought in the Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) team to help restore this historic structure within the park. Crews have been hard at work with a variety of projects at Fort Spokane and at Fort Vancouver’s woodshop in Vancouver, WA. So, here is an update on the work they’ve been doing this summer! Join us in giving a huge round of applause to the HPTC team! 👏

🧱 Repairing cracked bricks with new bricks and mortar on the outer walls and chimneys of the Guardhouse. Brick and mortar replacements are meant to match as close as possible to historic elements in color, texture, and material (Images 1 and 2).
🪟 Crews brought historic wood windows to the woodshop at Fort Vancouver for restoration. This involved repairing wood sash (the pieces of wood that hold the glass panes together), then sanding, oiling, applying epoxy, glazing, and painting the windows to restore them as accurately as possible (Images 3 and 4).
🎨 Custom color matching paint for repainting windows to match existing paint for exterior trim, doors, and windows (Image 5).
🏠 Repairing the shingled roof of the Guardhouse by replacing sheathing and adding fire protection and water-resistant layers in between (Images 6 and 7).
🪵 Repairing the porch and ramp at the front of the Guardhouse by replacing deteriorating boards with new rough saw Douglas Fir (Image 8). The porch was also prepped and painted to match preexisting colors (Image 9).

The Fort Spokane Guardhouse was originally constructed in 1892 as part of the Fort Spokane Military Reserve till 1898, then later used as part of the Fort Spokane Indian Boarding School from 1900 to 1907, and later as a tuberculosis hospital in 1929. Keeping the Guardhouse intact will allow us to continue using it as a visitor center and continue sharing complex, heavy, and diverse stories over a long period of history.

NPS / K. Dixon and A. Wisernig

Images:
1) Replacing mortar between red bricks.
2) Carefully removing damaged bricks.
3) Wood repair on a window.
4) Repainting a window frame.
5) Custom color paint matching.
6) Pulling nails in preparation for underlayment.
7) Replacing wood panels on a roof.
8) New wood panels laid out on the porch, replacing old wood boards.
9) Painting new wood panels on a porch.

08/20/2026

The National Park Service has selected Devon Bradley as superintendent of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. He will assume the role October 4, 2026.

Devon brings nearly three decades of military and federal government experience to the position, with extensive experience in park operations, facilities management, budgeting, project management and organizational leadership.

Full press release: https://www.nps.gov/laro/learn/news/lake-roosevelt-national-recreation-area-welcomes-new-superintendent.htm

NPS Photo

Image: Portrait of a male park ranger with a wide-brimmed straw hat, black-rimmed glasses, and a grey button-down shirt smiles for the camera.