Whitewater Legend Rob Lesser on the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
These thoughts are taken from a talk Rob gave at the North Fork Championships River Symposium, a stewardship minded event put on by Idaho Rivers United and American Whitewater aimed at bringing river runners together to take action, drink beer and raise their voice for river conservation.
Nineteen sixty-eight is a year I remember well, but mostly for the wrong reasons. I was a 22 year old graduate student in Zoology at the University of Montana in Missoula dodging the draft by staying in school. Vietnam loomed over everything. Then came the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Chicago dissolved into chaos at the Democratic National Convention. LBJ dropped from consideration for another term. Racial protests occurred throughout America and at the Mexico City Olympics. It was a time of unrest in America, eerily like today’s political scene in many ways.
But there were some positives as well. Apollo 8 would orbit the moon and the next year Apollo 11 would land there. The seminal photo of “Earthrise” featured on the Whole Earth catalog cover gave us pause for thought about our finite planet. A major environmental movement was on the horizon.
Also later in 1968 came 4 pieces of forward thinking environmental legislation, all signed by President Johnson on October 2. Redwoods National Park was created, the National Trails System Act became law, North Cascades National Park was created and finally, and most important to river enthusiasts, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act became law.
Immediately protected were eight nationwide river segments with two being wholly here in Idaho. The Middle Fork of the Clearwater which included the Lochsa and Selway. And the Middle Fork of the Salmon from its origin to the confluence with the Main Salmon. Also recommended for study in the bill were the Bruneau, Moyie, Priest, St Joe and Main Salmon, many of which have come under the law’s protection in subsequent years.
My own commitment to rivers started in 1968 as well. Just down the hall from me in the Health Science Building in Missoula was a key advocate for the creation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers bill, Dr. John Craighead. He ran the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Unit and on their walls were pictures of kayaking the Middle Fork and rafting the Flathead. That year I borrowed a two-person Metzler Inca raft from the Wildlife Unit to race in the annual Clark Fork River race. The next year I borrowed it again to support my climbing partner as he christened his new Missoula built kayak on the Roundup Bar section of the Blackfoot River. But as we prepared to launch on the Clearwater River before it joins the Blackfoot, Rob Erickson put me in his pristine fiberglass boat and pushed me off. An instant love affair with the kayak and free flowing rivers occurred. 15 days later I had my own kayak. 9 years later I was battling for the preservation of the North and South Forks of the Payette. As the Idaho Whitewater Association we were successful in stopping those dam projects and in 1988 Friends of the Payette and later Idaho Rivers United carried the torch of river protection in Idaho much further.
There are approximately 3.6 million miles of rivers in the United States. Of these at least 600,000 miles (17%) are impounded behind more than 75,000 dams. Only 12,734 miles are protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (0.35%).
50 years have come and gone since the act was passed. Those of us who have lived those years know one thing for certain. World population has grown exponentially. When I was born 2.4 billion humans inhabited the planet. Now the estimate is 7.6 billion. The wildness of our natural world is declining. We need to do everything we can to protect what remains. As river advocates I urge you to join the fight to add more special river miles to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
My thanks to Sam Goff for pushing me to do this and to think about the great significance and importance of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
