The Waterlife Discovery Center (WDC) at 1591 Lakeshore Drive in Sagle, Idaho, was once a fish hatchery. It sits on the shores of the Pend Oreille River, downstream from the lake. An old cabin on the property, once the hatchery manager’s home, now serves as an educational center for adults and children alike. Bald eagles nest in nearby trees and often fly overhead.
The first time I went to the WDC, it was to learn about mushrooms. Art Church, a man with white hair and deep-set hound-dog eyes, reminisced about picking them with his mother as a child and taught us how to avoid the poisonous ones. Not long after, I found my first morels on Delyle Ridge.
Ken sautéed them in butter. Served them with fish.
Weeks later, I went back for a Bear Aware class taught by Idaho Fish and Game and hosted by the Idaho Master Naturalists (IMN). I practiced using bear spray while an electronic grizzly charged at me.
I returned again to learn about birds. Walked the Wetland Forest Trail and listened to them sing. Inside the educational center, a woman from the Bureau of Land Management explained that ducks can fly with half their brain asleep while the other half stays active.
Soon, I signed up to become an IMN. I began volunteering. We planted trees. We built bee motels for leafcutters and mason bees to nest in. I sold them at a plant fair, where I explained to interested buyers that mason bees don’t sting and pollinate more flowers than honey bees.
At the WDC, I’ve watched children chase butterflies across the lawn toward the pollinator garden. I’ve heard them ooh and ahh over the rainbow trout in the viewing pond. Each year, Master Naturalists teach kids to fly fish in that water.
The grounds are open year-round. The classroom is staffed only in summer, usually Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., from early June through early September. Dates shift. Idaho Fish and Game posts the current season and a self-guided tour.