My Week — River Conservation in the Time of a Global Pandemic
While I have some new challenges with restrictions on travel and an inability to meet with people in person, my work continues on river conservation. I have worked from home for the past 15 years and have a dedicated office space but I am now joined by my wife and two kids which adds a little more activity — our French Bulldog Gunner is thrilled with all the attention he gets now and would be most pleased to have this all continue. We have enjoyed the time together as a family starting the day with a full breakfast and less stressful mornings. We all start our days around 9am with work for mom and dad and homeschool for the kids that includes a combination of reading, writing, math, science, art, and physical activity. We discuss learning goals in the morning and the kids have been doing a pretty good job of staying on task. We have our low points too but we are doing our best to make it all work and if we have one learning success a day I’m happy.
In my work I typically travel throughout the Pacific Northwest, and occasionally to Washington DC, for meetings and site visits with elected officials, agency staff, conservation colleagues, outdoor recreation business partners, and members of the paddling community. In the past week all of my meetings and trips were cancelled: a meeting in Bend to discuss instream flows on the Deschutes River, a site visit and workshop on the Nooksack River to design a new river access point, a field workshop on river access the National Park Service invited me to teach in Rhode Island, the River Management Society workshop and conference in Virginia, and our board meeting that was planned for Bend, Oregon.
It’s striking how quickly things have changed. I was in Washington DC the first week of March doing the rounds on Capitol Hill in what turned out to be the final week of normalcy in Congress. We were riding high with the news from a Presidential Tweet that Trump was poised to sign a bill for permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and institute a new fund to invest in unmet maintenance needs at our National Parks, with a last-minute addition to include other federal agencies like the Forest Service (something I had personally been working on for over a year). With the rapidly-expanding public health crisis, quick action on this legislation — Great American Outdoors Act — remains elusive but doors can open in unexpected ways. Meanwhile the pace of federal deregulation continues unabated so my work continues to track and engage in regulatory proceedings.
As I shift to working exclusively at home here are a few of the things I have been working on this past week:
1) River Access Planning
Over the past two years I have worked on a project with the National Park Service Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance program and my colleague Jordan Secter to publish a guide to better design river access sites. I do a lot of work with hydropower companies who are required to develop river access as part of mitigation for their hydropower projects. Some come out well (e.g. PGE Clackamas River Access) and others leave much to be desired (e.g. PG&E’s Pit 1 Access). I wanted to explore why some projects come out well but others don’t and provide those developing river access with some improved guidance. Following publication of our guide, the National Park Service requested my assistance in leading training workshops on river access design. I taught one workshop in Missouri earlier this year and through the support of the River Management Society and National Park Foundation, I was going to teach another in Rhode Island next month. That workshop has been postponed but I am still working on putting the course materials together and spent time on it this week.
2) Protecting the Clean Water Act
The current Administration has proposed a number of new administrative rules that would have devastating impacts on our nation’s rivers; they would affect our ability to restore flows and mitigate for impacts to recreational opportunities — not to mention the health of fishery resources — on rivers impacted by hydropower. We pride ourselves at taking a pragmatic approach to hydropower licensing but the proposed rules so fundamentally shift the balance we currently have, that we need to prevent their implementation. I was on the phone with some of the best attorneys and hydropower experts in the West discussing our strategy to ensure that in the face of the global health crisis we are facing, the Administration does not just jam the new rules through with the hope that nobody is paying attention. I am.
3) River Safety
Last year we received funding from the US Coast Guard to develop standards and an open-source toolbox for river safety signage — I am called upon regularly to help hydropower operators, river managers, small communities, and land trusts develop safety signs. We have selected a firm to work with and I spent this past week working on the final details of our contract and developing a plan to start work on this project.
4) Klamath River
The nation’s largest river restoration effort is set to get underway in a couple of years with the removal of 4 dams on the Klamath River. This project continues to move forward and I have focused on ensuring that accommodations are made for how the public interacts with the restored river and surrounding landscape. The dam removal will impact existing recreational opportunities but new ones will emerge. My job is to ensure that infrastructure to support these new opportunities is well designed and managed. I was on the phone this past week with the states of Oregon and California to discuss a pathway forward for an in-person workshop we had planned next month — we will be moving it online.
5) Nooksack River Access
Those who paddle the North Fork Nooksack River know that the Forest Service has a nice access point at the Horseshoe Bend Trailhead across from Douglass Fir Campground. It serves as a take-out for the Horseshoe Bend run and is also the put-in for the Nooksack Canyon. Those using it as a put-in discover that no designated place to take-out exists. One former Forest Service employee called it the Hotel California run, “you can check in, but you can’t check out.” An 8 mile run from the Horseshoe Bend Trailhead takes you down to Milepost 27 on the Mountain Loop Highway. A couple take-outs on private property can be found here including one right at the milepost marker that may be within the highway right-of-way; it’s always been a little unclear. A few years ago we discovered that the Washington Department of Natural Resources owns a parcel of land near milepost 27 and we are now in the process of developing a plan that could be used to secure funding to formally develop it for public use. We had planned an in-person workshop to develop a conceptual site plan and spent this past week working to transition to an online workshop.
6) Federal Investments in Infrastructure
It’s hard to tell how Congress will act in the face of the current health crisis with economic impacts that are rippling across the nation. A decade ago we found ourselves in a situation where Congress was actively seeking “shovel-ready projects” as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This led to funding for projects like removal of the Elwha Dams and Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue. While I will not be the one making decisions on what Congress will do to respond to the economic crisis we are facing, it seems likely that we could see an investment in projects that put people to work. I spent time this past week identifying projects that would benefit local communities and the environment.
7) Getting Ready for Legislative Opportunities
I expect Congress will be under tremendous pressure to move legislation to stimulate the economy. When legislation is moving you need to be alert for opportunities to include good stuff for the environment and outdoor recreation while remaining vigilant for actions that could harm rivers. I am in regular contact with our elected officials to keep a pulse on what is happening with legislation.
It’s been a busy week trying to stay on top of all this while checking in on the kids and their homeschooling every couple hours. The good news is I work for an organization that is extremely well managed with sound finances. I anticipate a rough year ahead with corporate and charitable giving but remain committed to the work I do to protect the health of our rivers and enhance opportunities to enjoy them. I hope to see everyone back out on the water someday soon (a few thoughts on rethinking our recreational pursuits in the meantime). I feel lucky that I have the resources and support to keep an eye on the health of our rivers through all this.
