Throughout history, cultures have gone extinct through ignorance, stupidity and stubbornness. In his book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” writer Jared Diamond chronicles the missteps of Easter Island dwellers who chopped down all their life-giving trees, and the stubbornness of Vikings who settled in present-day Greenland and eventually starved to death because they refused to eat fish.

People are as fragile as the environments they live in. During times of transition, these frailties surface. Bayview, Idaho, has a setting on Lake Pend Oreille that is a stunning mix of rock, mountain and water. Bayview is in transition from rural know-everybody- in-town to a potential Lake Tahoe.

The tensions between those who wish Bayview to develop slowly and carefully and those in a hurry for it to become a hot tourist destination had been simmering beneath the surface. Not anymore. Illegal construction at Lake Pend Oreille changed all that. On April 17, while expanding a marina, developer Bob Holland had steel beams pounded into the bay where fragile kokanee salmon spawn, destroying the spawning beds. The kokanee were the foundation of the lake’s sport fishery initiative, worth $17 million to the local economy. Holland did not have the necessary state permit.

Bayview residents are aghast. “We’re not opposed to development, but we want it done according to the rules,” said Hobart Jenkins, chairman of the development analysis committee for the Bayview Chamber of Commerce.

Residents are organizing to pressure Idaho leaders and agencies to enforce the regulations in place to guarantee responsible growth and development.

They wonder, and rightfully so, why the Idaho Department of Lands can only slap a $2,500 fine on Holland. It’s often cheaper to pay fines than correct mistakes. The Legislature would have to hike those fines, and Bayview residents are lobbying for that. They are also considering a civil rights violation suit, because they feel their civil rights have been violated. The fish that were killed belonged to all Idaho residents.

When done right, housing and retail development add vitality and longevity to a community. But when growth laws get violated, it’s a regression. Few leaders, or agencies, have stepped forward to make certain North Idaho doesn’t destroy its natural beauty in pursuit of “progress.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for instance, will no longer review proposed developments that might impinge on wetlands.

The societies that self-destructed long ago could have been saved. Easter Islanders could have rescued their culture had they realized early on that losing their trees meant losing essential shade and water.

One prescient Viking could have explained how holding out for beef in an area where it was impossible to raise livestock was tantamount to suicide.

In Bayview, angry residents are sounding the alarm about the possible destruction of their rock-mountain-water uniqueness. Idaho leaders need to listen and act now.