We welcome all individuals and groups to volunteer with us at Idaho Rivers United. We offer public opportunities throughout the year, or we can coordinate something specific for your group. Fill out our volunteer sign-up form and you’ll be the first to hear about volunteer opportunities and events!

Current Volunteer Opportunities

If you have questions about upcoming volunteer opportunities or want to learn more about our programs please email IRU’s Volunteer and Engagement Manager, Lindsey Paynter.

Table an IRU booth: This is an opportunity for you to connect with our local communities while informing the public about current issues affecting our rivers and fish. IRU is looking for a few outgoing individuals interested in helping IRU run a booth at our outreach, educational, and fundraising events occurring across the state of Idaho.
Special Event Volunteers: IRU hosts special events throughout the year and we rely heavily on our volunteer team to help us run these events. Role descriptions for volunteers vary depending on the event, please see specific events for more details.
Lonesome Larry Costume: Our wild, sockeye mascot costume is a great way to interact with the crowd and engage with guests at various events throughout the year. IRU is always looking for “Larry” volunteers.

Email IRU's Volunteer Manager

Volunteer Sign Up Form

Volunteer Portal

Join Idaho Rivers United in the beautiful valley of Stanley, Idaho to celebrate the 900-mile journey that salmon and steelhead take to spawn in the headwaters of the Sawtooth Mountains. We are looking for some salmon-loving volunteers to help us promote the importance of this great migration and salmon conservation during the Sawtooth Salmon Festival!
This event is important to highlight the need to protect Idaho salmon and our team has decided to expand this festival into a weekend long celebration with speakers, panels, concerts, and so much more. We are going to be relying on our volunteers more than ever for this event and you are critical to the success of this event -- as a volunteer you will help us create a fun, educational, and positive atmosphere for our festival attendees!
Festival dates: Aug. 22-24
Festival location: Stanley, ID and the surrounding Sawtooth Valley
Volunteer Activities (include but are not limited to):
- Event set-up & tear down
- Helping Vendors, musicians, and festival staff
- Assisting with Salmon Redd Tours
- Hospitality
- Green Team
- And so much more!
Eligibility: Must be at least 16 years of age (volunteers under 18 will need a waiver competed by a parent or guardian). We are unable to provide transportation or accommodations, so please be sure to plan your logistics accordingly.
Sign-up to volunteer HERE!
Questions? Contact Lindsey at lindsey@idahorivers.org
This program is dedicated to helping Idaho Rivers United maintain our adopted section of the Boise River Greenbelt.
Our adopted section of the greenbelt runs through the heart of downtown Boise from Capitol Boulevard to Broadway Avenue and it is a highly used section of the greenbelt. We are looking for volunteers who are passionate about the health of the Boise River and want to help us keep this section clean.
As our Adopt-the-Greenbelt volunteer team expands for this program, it is our goal to increase our impact to neighboring sections of the Boise River.
Adopt-the-Greenbelt Volunteer sign-up
Our Urban River Steward Ambassadors are required to organize and host two community riverbank cleanups during the 2025 URS program from April-October. URS Ambassadors select the location, time, and date for their cleanup and invite you to volunteer with them to remove debris from the banks of the Boise River.
All cleanup supplies will be provided by Idaho Rivers United, but you are welcome to bring your own.
To sign-up for one of the dates listed below click HERE.
Ambassadors Madeleine & Kendall (Beacon & Parkcenter Greenbelt Parking lot)
- May 24th 10 -12 PM
- June 12th 6-8 PM
- July 26th 8:30-10:30 AM
Kayla (Glenwood & Marigold Greenbelt Parking Lot)
- June 12th 5:30-7:30 PM
- July 19th at 10-12 AM
Sue (Ann Morrison Footbridge - Northside)
- June 26th 5:30-7:30
- July 19th 10-12PM
Devyn
- May 12 4-6 PM (Ann Morrison Footbridge - Northside)
- June 29 4-6 PM (Location TBD)
Sam & David
- June 28 9 AM (Veterans Memorial Park)
- August 2 9 AM (Kristin Armstrong Park)
IRU is hosting our second annual End of Float Season River Clean-up at Idaho River Sports in Boise! We’re always looking for great volunteers to help at the event, or sponsors!
Email Lindsey, our Volunteer & Engagement Manger to learn more!
Application for Boise River Clean-ups for Businesses, Organizations, & Groups
- Please check out our available clean-up dates for our Adopt-the-Greenbelt program and the list of clean-ups led by our stewards in our Urban River Stewards program. If none of these dates work for your organization please submit an application.
- The IRU team will review applications in January, March, June, and September. We will select 1-2 organizations depending on staff availability. You will notify you if your organization has been selected by phone or email. If you're organization is selected each volunteer attending the clean-up will need to complete an IRU volunteer waiver.
- These programs take staff time and financial resources to host. If selected, we kindly request that your business or organization makes a financial contribution to help cover the cost and support our programs.
Join us for our annual benefit!
- Set-up & take-down volunteers
- Check-in volunteers
- Auction flaggers
2025 date is TBD.
Email lindsey@idahorivers.org if you are interested in signing up to volunteer!
Our third Urban River Stewardship season launched on April 24th with significant momentum and growth. This year's program is filled with 35 passionate stewards excited to make a difference for the Boise River Watershed. To complete their stewardship, each steward will engage in three activities that benefit the overall health of the Boise River and conduct a water quality survey that includes three sampling locations.
Seven of our 35 river stewards applied to join our River Ambassadors team -- Kayla, Sam, Kendall, Madeleine, David, Sue, & Devyn. Our River Ambassador are responsible for leading and hosting two community cleanups, conducting two water quality surveys, and helping facilitate IRU's larger cleanup events. River Ambassadors are also responsible for helping the IRU team train our new URS volunteers.
At our training we had a full house of Urban River Stewards eager to start the 2025 season. Our training included a presentation from our Mining and Policy Manager, Sydney Anderson. Sydney's presentation dived into the importance of the Boise River, the issues the Boise River faces, an update on the CuMo mining project, and an overview of IRU's new water quality testing kits. We also had two guest presenters -- Connor O'hora from CATCH and Christa Howarth, the Water Educator at the U of I Extension.
In 2024, our URS Stewards donated 203 hours to remove 2,450 gallons of trash, led 16 community cleanups, and conduct 25 water quality surveys. We are very enthusiastic about the expansion of this program and the impact it will have on the Boise River this season; please stay posted for updates on our 2025 URS program efforts.
On Saturday, April 5th we set up six cleanup stations across the Treasure Valley on the Boise River Greenbelt. Ten of our River Ambassadors hosted stations from Kristin Armstrong Municipal Park in Boise to Reid Merrill Park in Eagle. In total we had 105 volunteers from our community work together to remove 638 pounds of trash for the Boise River Banks. Some of our most interesting finds were a television, a refrigerator rack, and bike tires.
We want to give a big shout out to our volunteer team, our local business partners -- AIRE, Boise Co-op, Dawson Taylors Coffee Roasters, Alchemist Coffee, Cascade River Gear, Idaho River Sports, and the Garden City Library for donating supplies for the event, snacks for our volunteers, volunteer thank you gifts, and space for supply stations.
Interesting in supporting our 2026 event please email lindsey@idahorivers.org .
IRU staff’s ambitions are big, but we are a small crew and often require office help from our amazing volunteer team. If you are interested in helping IRU with various administrative tasks around the office, this is the role for you!
Email Lindsey, our Volunteer and Engagement Manager, to learn more at lindsey@idahorivers.org.