IRU goes to D.C. for annual Hill Week, Wild & Scenic protections
IRU’s Conservation Manager, Nick Kunath, stands in front of the U.S. Capital, during Hill Week for Wild & Scenic rivers. PC: Nic Nelson, IRU Executive Director
Idaho Rivers United’s Executive Director, Nic Nelson, and Conservation Program Manager, Nick Kunath, traveled to Washington D.C. this month as members of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition (Coalition) for their annual Hill Week. The Coalition, composed of over 60 river conservation groups from across the nation, scheduled their annual Hill Week to focus our efforts and meet with Congressional offices and federal agency staff to discuss specific Wild and Scenic campaigns, as well as more broad discussions around management trends.
As part of the leadership team for the Coalition, IRU was part of many top-level agency meetings with staff from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. During these agency meetings, the discussion focused on emerging national trends, general administrative support for Wild and Scenic legislation, and how our organizations could work more closely with the Administration to advance the conservation goals of the President’s 30x30 campaign which aims to protect 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.
It was refreshing to be reminded that there is more that we have in common than we disagree on when it comes to the importance and management of Wild and Scenic Rivers. However, there are also issues where we do not see eye to eye with management agencies.
Top of mind for IRU was the atrocious Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest Plan and the attempt to drastically reduce Wild and Scenic protections for our rivers here at home through the use of suitability analysis during plan revision. As we’ve covered in the past, the Nez Perce-Clearwater is just the second instance that we are aware of where a Forest has used suitability, or their rather arbitrary perceived lack of suitability, to strip eligible rivers of interim protections.
Among our meetings with the Idaho delegation, the discussion included salmon and steelhead recovery, expanding river protections for the North Fork of the Payette and other worthy candidates, and the importance of working with our agencies within Idaho to manage the protections that are already in place.
Although there is always more work to do, and more trips to D.C. in our future to continue to advocate, we are glad to see that there is ample interest and momentum for expanding river protections both within Idaho and across the nation.
