J.D. Meads had a strange feeling when he filled out the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts' survey on the Camp Easton land swap, he said.

It didn't seem very fair, the 16-year-old said.

"Any way you answered the questions, they could be turned into a way that could support the sale of Camp Easton," said Meads, an Athol Boy Scout with troop 218.

So he and members of his troop found a clearer method of expressing themselves.

Meads' troop, collaborating with other troops in the area, has organized a march in Spokane this Saturday to protest the land exchange proposed by developer Discovery Land Company.

Under the proposal, Discovery would obtain the scouts' Camp Easton property at Gotham Bay, after purchasing land at Sunup Bay and building a new camp there. The Arizona developer would also provide a $2.5 million endowment for maintenance of multiple camps.

Meads said he and other scouts have been upset for months about the proposal.

"Camp Easton has been around for well over 80 years, and it's actually not as bad off as the council says," he said, adding that he has staffed at Camp Easton for two years. "It's an excellent camp. It just needs a bit of fixing up. I don't think any sale or land exchange is warranted."

The scouts are staging the event across the border, Meads noted, because they worry North Idaho interests aren't being fully weighed by the INC boards that will give the final word.

"We're hoping enough of the council members will be influenced by the dissatisfaction of the scouts and the community that they'll be able in good conscience to vote in opposition to the sale," Meads said.

Sandra Williams, mother of boys in troop 218 who is helping the scouts organize the event, said adults are encouraging the protest as a citizenship exercise.

"Their merit badges talk about civic duty, so they're just acting on what they've learned through scouts," Williams said. "To be respectful, but to also use their voice."

The event is scheduled at 10:30 on Saturday at the Diamond Parking lot by the Boone and Howard intersection.

The scouts, and anyone who wants to join, will march from there to the BSA headquarters.

Coeur d'Alene eagle scout Justin Smith plans to march because the new camp couldn't equal the current one, he said.

"They haven't given an adequate substitute to us, just some artificial environment with a lack of good waterfront and the possibility of shooting ranges," the 17-year-old said.

Scott Kennedy, a Coeur d'Alene scout, is getting involved because he doesn't want to see Camp Easton destroyed, he said.

"It's just so well set up, I don't think it should be bulldozed and made into condos," the 12-year-old said. "It's too beautiful for that."

Tim McCandless, INC scout executive, said the INC supports everyone's right to speak out.

"The response is a clear indicator that people care deeply about scouting," he said.

He reminded that the INC boards have not approved the swap yet. Where the endowment dollars go, and what is included in the camp, are "not set in stone," he said.

The INC's survey presented the swap as an idea the council believes has merit, he said.

"We gave (responders) the option to challenge that," McCandless said. "Whatever happens, we'll have a fantastic Boy Scout camp on Lake Coeur d'Alene."