A Major DRA Transition
Written by Greg McMillan
Each of us has a few individual days that we can recall that changed our lives. One of mine was in early August of 2011, now approaching ten-years ago. I had just retired a few months prior and was about to resort to an old habit of floating the lower Deschutes River and fishing for steelhead on alternating weeks as I’d done during fall time ten years previously.
The first night in camp I noticed that there were no caddis flies in my lanterns. None. Zero. Zip. The same was true on nights two, three and four. It was like being in a science fiction movie where a neutron bomb had gone off, killing whole species but not damaging physical structures.
It shook my sense of reality so profoundly (after all, what is the Deschutes in summer without caddis flies?) that after returning home I called my friend and former Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist Steve Pribyl. He said he had noticed the same thing. He asked me if I’d noticed how few swallows there were in the canyon in that summer. I noticed that from then on, as well as the absence of other insect eating birds as well as bats.
One of my next calls was to my longtime friend Rick Hafele, thinking he’d have an answer to what was going on, if anyone would. But he didn’t.
And thus, began ten-years of investigation, research, fieldwork, meetings, fundraising, organizational management, even more meetings and then legal efforts to attempt to get the Deschutes River back to being the river we all knew and loved.
Now ten-years later it is time to allow others to take over the task of saving our river. As each day brings me closer to 70-years old, it’s becoming harder to devote my decreasing energy to the task of saving the lower Deschutes River. Especially given what I believe is the energy level needed to accomplish that task.
Dan Ellis will be taking over as president of the Deschutes River Alliance later this summer. Dan is a highly qualified individual who has been preparing to take over the DRA for the past six-months. He has my confidence as well as that of the Board of Directors and our staff. The transition to Dan’s leadership should be as smooth as could ever be possible. He will deserve your confidence too.
The DRA also has excellent staff. Sarah Cloud, Ben Kirsch and Robert Casey will be continuing to provide the work needed on a day-to-day basis and do so with excellence.
I’ll continue to be around serving as a member of the Board of Directors and act as an advisor and consultant for as long as the board desires.
In the meantime, I want to give a very heartfelt thanks to all of those of you who have supported the DRA since its inception in 2013. Without that support, we wouldn’t be where we are today, and we won’t be able to get to where the DRA is headed in the future. The DRA has plans to strengthen our pursuit of cleaner, colder water for the lower Deschutes River. It is my hope that you will continue to support that goal.
Again, thank you, and my best wishes to each and every one of you. May your love for the Deschutes River carry us to success in the future.