While the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club might be seen as just a fishing group, some of its members are going above and beyond behind the scenes to do more for the community and the lake that blesses the club's members with great fishing.

On Wednesday morning, 22 volunteers from the club, along with a dozen Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies, headed for the Bayview Marina on the edge of Bonner and Kootenai counties with the goal of hauling as much garbage out of Lake Pend Oreille as possible.

Fluffy clouds kept the sun from baking the volunteers who were on shore hauling garbage from the docks to the truck. Divers said the water was surprisingly warm enough to keep them sweating the entire four hours they were in the water.

Carts were hauled back and forth along the docks as volunteers loaded plastic, bottles, random boat parts and whatever else was pulled from the water onto a trailer loaded down with waste.

This is the second year the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club has partnered with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s dive team and Jake’s Scuba Adventures to pull waste out of the bottom of the lake.

Last year, volunteers collected roughly 4,000 pounds of trash, bottles, tires, a refrigerator and even an engine block from the lake. And they didn’t even scratch the surface of the amount of garbage that hides under the surface.

“You could do this every day for a year at Bayview,” said KCSO Deputy Cory Ragan, “and not even put a dent in it.”

This year, the talk of the town was an old stove that was pulled up in pieces by the divers.

Many divers hoped to collect their body weight in trash by the end of the day, a feat that was accomplished by multiple divers. In total, the dive teams collected 2,183 pounds from the lake.

Nancy Spence, a member of the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club, said the club started doing the Bayview cleanup when some of the club’s members had an urge to give back to the beautiful lake they said they feel fortunate enough to fish year-round.

“Most of our members just go fishing,” she said. “But a lot of us started saying, ‘We can really do more.’”

In addition to the Bayview cleanup, the club is working to collaborate with the Bonner County Sheriff’s dive team to bring their efforts farther north in the lake. In addition, some club members are working with Idaho Fish and Game to help prepare spawning grounds for the multiple species of fish in the lake in an effort to keep the lake well-stocked for all.

Information: Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club, lpoic.org