Reflecting on 30 years: Wendy Wilson, first IRU Executive Director and Founding Member
-Wendy Wilson
Idaho is the best place in the world for people who love wild rivers. But, when Idaho Rivers United was founded in 1990, no one knew how successful it would be or how many friendships would be made along the way.
“The founders of IRU who volunteered their time and spirit were visionaries. They put their faith in the goodness of people in Idaho — including boaters, fishermen, motorized users, farmers, loggers and ranchers —to rally around this new organization and protect our amazing rivers and streams.”
I came to Idaho in the mid 1980’s following a passion for wilderness canoeing. After paddling our Wild rivers, including the Middle Fork and the Selway, I just couldn’t stop. As I kept boating Idaho’s rivers, however, I found trouble in paradise.
Thirty years ago, Idaho treated its “working rivers" like sacrifice zones. Places on the Snake and the Payette would be dry by mid-summer. Idaho’s ‘minimum stream flow program’ only covered 200 of the state’s 107,651 miles of streams and river. Perhaps most urgently, there were more than 60 new applications for new dams pending federal approval.
Many people could see these problems, and some began working on them. I was inspired by conservationists like Scott Reed, who had organized to get the St. Joe River into the Wild and Scenic Rivers system, and Jan Brown who founded the Henry’s Fork Foundation, and Mary McGown who championed a state river protection ballot initiative.
It took J.R. Simplot to really make me mad. In 1988, Mr. Simplot planned to divert 16 miles of the North Fork of the Payette for a hydropower project, regardless of public opinion. I was outraged that a person could just claim a river for himself and destroy it for everyone else. Along with other whitewater boaters, we founded the Friends of the Payette, collected 9,000 petition signatures and organized to save the Payette from pure greed.
The Friends of the Payette campaign stopped the dam, mobilized thousands of people and sparked legislative action authorizing a state rivers program. So in early 1990, we planned a mid-winter retreat in the Stanley Basin attended by about 20 river conservationists. It was the longest and coldest retreat ever - we couldn’t even go outside, so we debated strategy for three days!
The group decided we had to act before it was too late. Other conservation groups clearly didn’t have the capacity to take on more work. We needed a staffed, statewide organization, politically savvy enough to continue the fight for river protection in the Idaho Legislature. So, Idaho Rivers United was launched.
Idaho River United’s first board members were all draftees roped together by Keith Jensen, a kayaking instructor from Sandy, Oregon, who was living in Idaho at the time. He called people around the state and told them that they were already nominated, so they might as well say yes. At the first meeting, the board elected themselves. At the second meeting, the board offered me the position of Executive Director. It was both a vote of confidence and a leap of faith.
My first priority as a staff person was crafting a strategy to build out the State Protected Rivers program. My second priority was printing 2,000 posters of the Bruneau- Jarbidge River and selling them across the country to anyone I could find. That’s how we made our first payroll and that’s why you still see those posters in every boater’s house across the country.
The founders of IRU who volunteered their time and spirit were visionaries. They put their faith in the goodness of people in Idaho — including boaters, fishermen, motorized users, farmers, loggers and ranchers —to rally around this new organization and protect our amazing rivers and streams.
Thankfully, it worked! Idaho Rivers has made a huge difference over the last thirty years. Thank you for being part of Idaho Rivers United. From polluted to pristine, Idaho rivers will always unite us.
Wendy Wilson, First Executive Director of IRU