Wildlife officials advance Chapman Lake land deal

A long-running effort to restore access to a lake southwest of Spokane has taken a significant step forward.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted last week to acquire 530 acres at the south end of Chapman Lake from the state Department of Natural Resources, a move that advances plans to provide a way for boaters to get their craft onto the lake.

Access to the lake, a well-known kokanee salmon and bass fishery just south of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, all but disappeared in 2011, when a resort on its south shore that provided a boat ramp closed. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife looked at buying the resort property, but those talks fell apart after the owner died.

Karen Edwards, real estate manager for WDFW’s wildlife program, told the commission Friday that the DNR transfer was “plan B.”

“DFW has been working for over a decade to change this,” Edwards said. “Acquiring this property is the first step.”

The next step is approval from the state Board of Natural Resources. A DNR spokesperson said the panel will consider it when it meets in January.

After that, WDFW would take ownership of the property and begin looking into possibilities like building a boat ramp on the land, which would require approval from Spokane County.

Chapman Lake sits amidst scattered timber and rocky outcroppings. It’s been a well-known fishery for decades, prized by anglers who like filling their freezers with kokanee.

WDFW has been stocking kokanee in the lake for years, and continued stocking them even after the main access point closed.

Randy Osborne, a WDFW fisheries biologist, said in an interview that the agency kept stocking the fish to ensure that the fishery was intact whenever access was fully restored. He said stocking every year is important to ensure there’s a full complement of age-classes of kokanee, which spawn once and die.

There are also a number of warm water species in the lake.

“There’s smallmouth, there’s yellow perch, black crappie,” Osborne said. “That is quite the bass fishery.”

After Chapman Lake Resort closed in 2011, WDFW made significant advancements toward purchasing the property. Osborne said they’d received grant money to buy it and redevelop parts of it.

When the deal broke down after the owner’s death in 2016, so did all that progress.

WDFW turned its attention to the DNR property surrounding the southernmost arm of the lake.

It briefly intersects with South Cheney Plaza Road, which offers a walk-in access point that some anglers have continued to use, though finding the right place to park and walk in can be challenging.

The property changing hands won’t immediately change access. Osborne said they’ve identified a spot where a boat ramp could be built, but they’d first need an amendment to Spokane County’s Shoreline Master Program and money to fund construction.

Still, the vote from the commission represented a major step forward.

The proposal went through the state’s Trust Land Transfer program, a way for DNR to cede underperforming trust lands to other government agencies.

Once the transfer is complete, DNR will request money from the Washington Legislature equal to the value of the land it gave away so it can buy a replacement property.

The Chapman Lake land was valued at about $1.4 million, according to WDFW’s presentation to the commission on Friday.

It comes with a grazing lease, which WDFW would have to honor.

During the meeting, Dan Wilson, the co-chair of the Washington Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, told commissioners that acquiring the lake would benefit birdwatchers, kayakers and more, in addition to anglers.

He also said it would make worthwhile the effort and money WDFW has put in to keep the lake’s aquatic ecosystem intact.

“The opportunity to get a return on those investments is right now with this acquisition,” Wilson said.