Category: Community

Categories
Club Events Community News

Rescue Class, May 21/22, 2022

WRRR is once again partnering with Wet Planet to
get a River Rescue Certification course on the Cedar
River May 21st & 22nd ‘22. The course cost is normally
$285, but WRRR is subsidizing the course so our members only pay $144.45. There was some confusion with
membership status’ last year, so this year we are tweaking it just a bit by asking applicants be in good standing
as of 11/1/2021 (roughly 6 months prior to beginning
of the class) to enroll in the course. There is a 12 student maximum limit.
To apply for the course send me, (Paul Rogers) an email
at 4paulyr#gmail.com. I will then check your membership status and reply with the link to Wet Planet’s registration system. Wet Plant still has COVID-19 Safety
Protocols in place for all of its business.
This course will take your river rescue to a new level of
safety and understanding, the 2-day River Rescue Certification (RRC) course is a hands-on, scenario-based
rescue course designed specifically for whitewater
boaters: kayakers, rafters, cat boaters, SUP paddlers,
river boarders, and canoers. Students will receive internationally recognized certification through Sierra Rescue International. This fast-paced course emphasizes
on-river scenarios in order to help students develop
the ability to choose good actions when a river rescue
becomes necessary. Taught by paddlers who spend a
good portion of their lives on whitewater in a professional capacity, this course will focus on quick, efficient, low-tech techniques for rescue that utilize the
basic gear that you are likely to carry with you on the
river in your boat. Focusing on rescue scenarios that
you are likely to encounter while paddling, students
will practice rescue techniques through a variety of
on river scenarios. The course is perfect for private
paddlers (kayakers, rafters, cat boaters, etc.). Everything in class will be designed to challenge folks that
spend time paddling in Whitewater Rivers. Scenariobased learning will challenge students with realistic
rescue situations. We know that the gear kayakers
and rafters carry is different than the gear carried by
Search and Rescue professionals.
More on the course can be found at
https://wetplanetwhitewater.com/package/rrc-riverrescue-certification/
–Paul Rogers

Categories
Community News

Please support our newest sponsor TEROCO Whitewater

Categories
About WRRR Community News

WRRR Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

During this time of cultural reflection, WRRR like the rest of the world community, has taken time to reflect on diversity and inclusion in our club and the whitewater sport we love. We acknowledge that whitewater, like many outdoor sports, has a limited number of people of color participants. Our club wants to be a part of improving the diversity of the sport we love and making WRRR a more inclusive space. As part of the larger conversation we are looking for ways we can take real action to actively amplify diversity in our club and sport. We are committed to taking a critical look at our internal system and process to discuss inequities that keep WRRR from being a place where all people from various backgrounds and life experiences can experience the love of whitewater. Below outlines some of our initial actions and mission.

Actions Taken:

  • Assembled a preliminary committee on diversity and inclusion
  • Provide an initial response and set of priorities and mission

Top Priorities/Mission

  • Reevaluate our brand partnerships
    • Moving forward we will be conscience of partnering with brands who share our organizations values
  • Formalize our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee
    • In our next board meeting we will move to make a diversity and inclusion committee a permanent part of the WRRR board
    • The committee will have members from the board, membership, and we will seek out participation from resource experts and organizations that advance diversity and inclusion.
    • Work to support and partner with other organizations that facilitate diversity and inclusion in whitewater and/or outdoor sports to underrepresented communities
    • Educate ourselves and club members on how to be allies.
    • Support and collaborate with organizations doing the work to make positive impact on whitewater or outdoor diversity
  • Evaluate all of our club communication and documentation with a lens of equity and inclusivity

We undertake this knowing there are no easy solutions or overnight fixes and that this represents just the start. We also acknowledge that we can’t do this alone and that for it to be successful we will need the breadth of our community voices to participate in the challenging conversations and encourage participation in the committee and in respectful discourse on the topics.

Categories
Community News

FOG Tacoma Negotiations

HERE’S A CHANCE FOR PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT RIVERS TO HELP PROTECT THE GREEN (DUWAMISH) RIVER

If you believe rivers and their ecosystems and wildlife – including salmon — need protection, now is the time to do something to take care of the Green River. Friends of the Green River, a small non-profit organization, will need help once again from you and your friends to negotiate with Tacoma to get the best deal possible for the salmon, listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened, for the instream flows on this river, for the boaters who love the Green, for the conservationists and recreational users who want to continue to enjoy one of their favorite rivers in Washington.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT OF LEGAL ACTION

BETWEEN FRIENDS OF THE GREEN RIVER

AND THE CITY OF TACOMA

BEGIN AGAIN

Friends of the Green River and City of Tacoma are about to start up another round of negotiations to nail down specifics of the “Settlement Agreement Between City of Tacoma, King County, and Friends of Green River.”

Way back in the mid-1990’s, Friends of the Green River (FOG) appealed the issuance by King County of a Shoreline Substantial Development Permit to Tacoma to build a 2nd water transmission pipeline that would divert approximately 100 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water from the Green River. This would be in addition to the 100 cfs of water they had been diverting from the Green since they built a dam and pipeline in the early days of the 20th Century.

Friends of the Green went through the process of an Appeal to the King County Hearings Board and then appealed to the State Shoreline Hearings Board. At some point during the process of getting ready for that hearing, FOG decided to try negotiating a settlement with Tacoma. We reached an agreement with Tacoma at the end of 1995, after about a year’s work.

Rachael Paschal of Center for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP) was our most faithful advisor through this long process and found us an attorney to do much of the formal work preparing for the Shoreline Hearings Board hearing and then writing the Agreement. So thanks to Rachael, we had, in effect, 2 attorneys guiding us through the process.

One point in the Agreement said that it would not go into effect until Tacoma had built and commenced operation of the Second Supply Project. The Pipeline that is the subject of this Agreement was not completed until approximately 10 years from the date the parties signed the Agreement.

Once it was in effect, both sides looked at the Agreement and decided that what we had written 10 years previously, now needed some details that would clarify what was meant in the original Agreement. FOG began a series of meetings with our constituents and members – primarily whitewater boaters and conservationists. These meetings preceded and then ran parallel with the negotiations sessions between Tacoma and FOG (and included FOG members and constituents). Eventually the negotiations petered out because of personnel changes in Tacoma and then because of difficulties getting started again.

Now, Tacoma has asked us to again resume negotiations, and is proposing some changes of its own. One point Tacoma makes is that they owe us, by terms of the Agreement, $123,000 which they would pay to American Whitewater to be held as a source of funds to be used for grants for purposes to be determined by FOG. It’s possible that a close reading of the entire Agreement could yield even more dollars than Tacoma has indicated. We need your eyes to be sure FOG and our allies get everything the original Agreement grants us.

Additionally FOG needs you to help us think creatively in asking for the kinds of things that would be best for the Green River and its Friends. Some items in the original Agreement no longer make sense and Tacoma recognizes that. We need to consider increased Land Use in the Middle Green River area and its effects on the river, its salmon and other aquatic life, and on aesthetics and recreation. And what about the increasing impacts on water quality and adequate – even optimal – flows on the Green River? And think about the effects of Climate Change on this river – how can we work with Tacoma to make things better for the river and its ecosystem? For its wildlife and the humans who love it? Could the Green River be an example of how to think about other rivers of the State, to protect them all better for all of us and our wildlife and fish?

Please contact Friends of the Green to help with this new phase of our efforts.

For more information, please see the original FOG/Tacoma Agreement here:

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Document/view/documentid/250/

Thanks,

Pat Sumption, president

Friends of the Green (Duwamish) River

sumptionp@gmail.com, 206-525-1708