Summer Volunteer News at IRU
Thank you to all of our wondering IRU volunteers for your stewardship efforts! All photos by IRU Staff
IRU’s volunteers are jumping into this volunteer season and making a huge splash for our rivers!
Our volunteer crew started this season off by joining the City of Boise’s Park and Recreation department for a 0.5 mile riverbank cleanup behind IRU’s office. We had 21 volunteers attend the event including a volunteer group from Topgolf Boise. We collected enough litter to fill two four-wheeler beds and a truck bed with over-heaping piles. Most notably, volunteers dragged a large carpet and multiple bicycles off the river bank.
At the cleanup, our crew also helped Boise Parks and Recreation replace old meshing around black cottonwood trees to help protect the trees from damage caused by beavers.
IRU’s 2024 Boise Urban River Stewardship (URS) program is now in full swing! Our URS stewards are responsible for completing at least one water quality survey and completing two other activities that benefit the Boise River watershed.
We had twenty river stewards at our initial training who were eager to learn about the history of the Boise River, its importance to our local community, and the threats the river currently faces. IRU’s conservation associate, Sydney Anderson, also led a water quality assessment training for our stewards.
This year, we added a Lead Stewardship position to the program for our returning stewards. Lead stewards are required to help with the URS training, run a station at the Earth Day River cleanup, organize two community river cleanups, and complete one additional activity that benefits the Boise River. We had four returning stewards join the Lead Stewardship program and we’d like to give them a huge shout out for all of their hard work, thank you lead stewards Kayla, Kendall, Madeliene, and Sam. Please keep an eye out for updates about additional cleanup opportunities that are being organized by our four new Lead URS Stewards.
On April 27th, we celebrated Earth Day by hosting an outsized Boise River Cleanup - with six different teams dividing across the river throughout the Treasure Valley to clean up six miles of river bank.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and contributed to making a significant difference for one of our most cherished urban rivers. We had over 180 volunteers attend the cleanup making it one of the largest Earth Day cleanups in the history of Idaho Rivers United. We set up six stations across the Treasure Valley extending from Reid Merrill Park in Eagle, ID to Kristin Armstrong Park in Boise, ID. Each station featured at least one IRU volunteer who helped lead volunteer groups from our community.
In total, the Treasure Valley community helped remove over 1,560 gallons of litter from the Greenbelt - filling 120 13-gallon sized trash bags.
Our volunteers are preventing debris from entering our waterways that can have a negative impact on water quality, protecting wildlife and plant life, and keeping our outdoor spaces clean.
We wouldn’t be able to host events like these without the support of our volunteers, members, and the community and we just want to say thank you. We are also incredibly grateful for the support we received from our community partners!
AIRE for sponsoring all 2024 IRU Boise River cleanups
Idaho River Sports and Cascade River Gear for hosting cleanup stations
Holdon Bags for donating bags
Dawsons Taylor Coffee Roasters, Alchemist Coffee, and The Human Bean for supplying coffee
NRS and Natural Grocers for supplying snacks
