I just thought that the article stated biologists having concern that saltwater flushing would damage the ecosystem. If that really was true, then why would they have allowed it to happen in the past? Besides, what would they have to lose? Most birds that I have seen on the lake are seabirds and so they wouldn't be affected by saltwater being mixed into the lake.

As for other living things like fish, I didn't think that the environment was really that conducive for them to live comfortably.

I would say that in just the 3 years that I have lived here, the lake and mouth of the Deschutes River has accumulated quite a bit of silt. I was down there walking around end of march when flows were low and man, the mouth of the Deschutes is just a network of built up bars of sediment. According to Lee Pilon, one of the hatchery techs at the Tumwater hatchery, Percival Cove has gone from 10-12' deep to about half that, thus part of the reason for closing down the net pen operation down there.

Yeah, I heard that they used to host hydroplane races during Lakefair and that the lake had to be dredged to allow for boating.

I just find the complexity of this issue to be fascinating.