River floats share majesty of natural wonder

It’s 111 miles long, moves like a lumbering boa, strikes like a pit viper when cornered, and feeds the spirit of ancient myths. It supplicates the Spokane Valley- Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer and serves as the aquifer’s bubbling release. From Lake Coeur d’Alene to the confluence of the Little Spokane River, this body of water has been the source of dumping, disgust, environmental impact studies and now rejuvenation and recreation. Before white civilization, the river was the Salish holy spirit of earth, ice, sun, air – the invocation of salmon people and dog fish, 100 pounds each, splitting ocean atoms to reach glacial beds. The Spokane River represents much: ancient rituals trapped in the fleck of sun coming from the water; a stanza from a Sherman Alexie poem; paddling heaven. Many wonder if the river can heal – from biological accumulative toxins, dams, developers, and the flames of gasoline-fed boats. The Spokane River Forum aims to help people bond with this river, in its most urban form as well as its more wild reaches. More than 20 Forum-organized river floats this year attest to its lure, and the energy of floating it precipitates deep regard and companionship. Each voyage harkens an appreciation for the river and conviction to protect it. “I have this new appreciation for this part of the river,” said Marc Gauthier, Evergreen College wildlife biology graduate and filmmaker during a recent river trip. “I lived right up there 15 years ago, while going to Spokane Community College … I never knew all this beauty and quiet were right down here,” During the Aug. 5 float, Gauthier taped the fun, including a conversation with the river’s new River Keeper, Bart Mihailovich. The River Keeper program sponsored this particular float, which gave Bart a chance to share his vision for the river, his duties and tasks ahead, his roots in Butte, Mont., the ghost of Evel Knievel and his DNA – Italian and Herzegovinian-Montenegrin. “(Bart) can give and take a punch, a perfect combination,” chimed in Down to Earth blogger, Paul Dillon. The float moved from Upriver Dam to downtown Spokane, ending nicely at C.I. Shenanigans. Osprey, suckers, and a lot of regular folk along its banks soaked up the water’s cooling properties. This afternoon outing precipitated philosophy and worldviews. “I see us being part of a transitional generation,” said Mike Lascuola of the Spokane Regional Health District as he briefed the 22 kayakers on the river’s health. He discussed cleaning up the sins of our fathers – PCBs in the hydraulic fluids and transformers that propelled industry. But these relic toxic sites also have pushed carcinogens into sediments and fish. More than 15 years of cleaning beaches and managing hazardous materials has paid off, in Lascuola’s way of thinking, as he discussed the multilingual “don’t eat the fish” pamphlets. Those warnings instruct people to watch what they consume, and how to fillet fish if they do want to eat it: (remove lipid tissues that hold up to 50 percent of the PCBs.) Lascuola would love to see a river open for subsistence fishing with no worries about toxins. In the eyes of sustainability proponents, changes to the river caused by human greed, competition and commerce are not the kind they relish: too much nitrogen in waterways, sedimentation of rivers, acidification of oceans, imperiled freshwater water sources, invasive species and mass extinction of species yet to be observed and named. Floaters that afternoon included students specializing in environmental law at Gonzaga Law School. Lindsay Arnold, another Evergreen graduate, sees her role as a second-year law student as a young person ready to fight for rivers, species, and ecosystems in a highly competitive field that pays a pittance. One of her GU instructors, Mike Chappelle, and another lawyer whose clients include the environment, also floated the river that day. A land use planner paddled around, as well as a woman from the U.K. and a 16-year-old girl who had never kayaked – they shared a tandem kayak provided by the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department. The float’s leader, Ryan Griffith, loves helping people recreate, especially through rapids. He spent his youth around Mount Rainer helping family members who owned an outdoor recreation business take people on mountain climbing trips, back country treks and river runs. Griffith worked on a degree from Eastern Washington University in outdoor recreation management, spent two years with Mountain Gear as a guide and organizer, and now is with Spokane Parks and Rec. Wildlife, people, water, and water-light movement, those are the elements to a successful trip, according to Griffith, who sees each outing differently, not only because each portion of the Spokane River is highly unique, but because each group of participants comes together with a new collective spirit and synergy. His job is to make sure people have fun, learn the power of moving water and appreciate what many around the world would consider a jewel in Spokane’s crown: a rural/urban river possessing great potential to pull together recreation, education, community development and economic progress. Our job was to appreciate the dynamic overlay of water, rapids, riverbank flora and fauna, and the fact that we were cutting through a city – the whoosh of autos just above the banks. Mihailovich sees his River Keeper job as protector and educator. He wants to get up to speed on laws, like the Department of Ecology stormwater permitting process. The agency is proposing one set of regs for the west side of the state and more lax ones for this side. He doesn’t support watering down rules. He’s planning on working with Ecology experts in Olympia, and he admits his learning curve will be steep. He’s a tough-willed young guy from Butte, who was just recently wedded. He brought up his grandma and Evel Knievel, since the legendary daredevil also hailed from the same hometown. His devotion to the fight for the river is as determined as Evel’s when it came to jumping a Harley over a garish Las Vegas fountain: “I think I coulda landed on a dime. I really do.” For Mihailovich, these floats mean seeing the Spokane River for what it is – a wildlife corridor that intersects with culture. He wants to land on a formula that says this river runs through it – us, Spokane — but comes out clean. That day we felt the city was around us as evidenced by bridges and people futzing around the beaches. For the River Keeper, his eye was on the prize – not net loss and plenty of work to bring the river’s allure and health into the very heart of its caretakers, us, citizens of River City, USA.