IRU Board Member, Pete DeLuca, shares his story on how he fell in love with Idaho’s rivers.

“When I was 15 years old, I had my first white water experience….We paddled Navy surplus rubber rafts and had two guides (rowing team members from Harvard). The first two days, I was terrified. But by the time we reached Shoup, I was hooked on whitewater.”

I was eager to share my knowledge from my Nez Perce National Forest and Nez Perce Tribe experiences protecting the watersheds from excessive and careless logging and road building. The Forest Management Team changed the extractive resource models to new holistic approaches that favored water quality and adramous habitat.

IRU allowed me to share that experience first hand.