Editor’s Note: This story is part of "Headwaters to Harbor," a project by The Chronicle to document the Chehalis River from Pe Ell to Grays Harbor while highlighting people and issues connected to the river along the way. Our coverage is compiled at www.chronline.com/Chehalis-River
In the 1980s, New York’s Hudson River was more or less a dump.
Fishermen who had spent decadeslong careers on the river could no longer earn their livelihoods there due to fish decline.
The notoriously-polluted waters became a major point of interest to environmental activists in 1983, who started an organization called Riverkeeper.
That became a launchpad for water-related activism across the country with groups calling themselves “baykeepers” and “soundkeepers,” etc. By 1999, a group called the Waterkeeper Alliance was formed, with a central goal for the diverse representatives of creeks, inlets and oceans alike: protect bodies of water.
Lee First is a Waterkeeper, one of three representatives of the Twin Harbors Waterkeepers, whose reach covers Grays Harbor, the Willapa Bay watershed, the Chehalis River watershed and all tributaries in those systems, including the Humptulips and Elk rivers.
Like the Waterkeeper Alliance, First is from New York.
She attended Western Washington University in Bellingham and moved to the Independence Valley area a few years ago.
As someone sworn to protect the waters, First has paddled from Pe Ell to Hoquiam on the main stem of the Chehalis River three times. She’s taken about 50 main stem day trips and many paddling trips on various tributaries including the Chehalis South Fork, Wynoochee, Satsop and Black rivers.
In early May, Chronicle photographer Jared Wenzelburger and I joined First and fluvial geomorphologist Paul Bakke for a paddling trip from Oakville Boat Launch #1 on the Black River to Oakville Boat Launch #2 on the Chehalis. Because of her extensive experience, she taught us how to avoid wood — the most major threat to a paddler’s safety — stop for a rest in eddys where current flows differently, understand where the water will pull you and other tips.
Bakke described how rivers move large and small sediment together along their bottoms (and taught me the definition of fluvial geomorphology). He runs a free website, https://www.thescienceofrivers.com/, where members of the public can read about his subject.
First has been an avid canoer and kayaker since childhood, she said. After knee replacements, she set aside a passion for mountain climbing in favor of more time on the water, which she noted is easier on her joints.
First said she literally “patrols” the waters where she considers herself a keeper. Head on a swivel, she searches for opportunities to help and educate. As with conservation districts, her agency is non-regulatory and can only make suggestions.
The Twin Harbors Waterkeeper organization applies for grants, often from the Department of Ecology, funding advocacy and awareness campaigns related to issues of water systems including pollution, beavers, fish, varied sediment, wood and other key pieces to the health of the river. She sees the Chehalis River Basin Flood Control Zone District’s proposed water retention facility as a threat to the river, along with drought and other factors that she said could drastically change the habitat for the declining population of spring Chinook salmon.
First sees opportunities in the river, as well.
She referred to a project by the Lewis County Conservation District, where seven more miles of the Chehalis River above Pe Ell were opened to salmon after Weyerhaeuser cut it off in the 1960s.
Since coming to Washington, it’s been First’s mission to dedicate herself to the waters and the life they support. Why?
She simply loves them.
“When I’m on a river, it’s like a drug,” First said. “In a good way.”
Read more about First and her organization at https://twinharborswaterkeeper.org/.
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