In 1981, Bob Bumstead, an active member of the McKenzie Flyfishers, read in The Eugene Register-Guard that the Springfield Utility Board and the Emerald People’s Utility District had filed, under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, to put five hydroelectric dams on the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. 

Passed into law in 1978 to promote energy conservation and promote renewable energy, PURPA focused on the development of small hydro projects. It created incentives for investors to build projects on small streams like the North Fork. 

The North Fork starts at Waldo Lake and meets the Middle Fork near the former mill town of Westfir. In the first three miles the river drops 2,400 feet in 34 separate waterfalls and flows on through a rich and diverse landscape of Douglas-fir, Western redcedar and bigleaf maple. 

Bumstead was an avid flyfisher. The North Fork was a revered and precious river for its beauty, and for its wild, native rainbow and cutthroat trout, and it was one of only a small handful of streams managed by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for wild fish. The proposed hydro projects would destroy a unique fishery and a pristine river, replacing it with an industrial canal. 

Bumstead decided he needed to stop them.

He and the McKenzie Flyfishers went to work creating a brochure and starting a petition drive. They distributed pamphlets at fly shops and sports stores and public events. And they created a slide show about the river, to take on the road. One of the first places they took the show was Oakridge, a community that knew the North Fork well. 

Mason Williams, Emmy- and Grammy-award winner and head writer for the popular Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Saturday Night Live TV shows, had recently moved to Eugene from Hollywood. He often spent time at his family home on Salt Creek in Oakridge, a home his mother purchased in 1949, and where Williams lived as a boy. A fly fisherman himself, Williams heard about the North Fork presentation and decided to check it out. 

The presentation by the McKenzie Flyfishers strengthened a deep desire in Williams to do something to help protect not only the North Fork but rivers in general. “I went with several other citizens from Oakridge to a public forum held in the high school auditorium to discuss the matter. Everyone was adamantly against the idea of the dams. Feelings ran high,” he said.

“After the meeting, in spite of the fact that all felt they had done their best to speak on the river’s behalf, for me the idea persisted that if only somehow the river itself could have been at the meeting to speak for and defend itself, it would have made the most eloquent statement of all.”

It dawned on Williams that the river actually could have a voice, in the form of the songs and music rivers have inspired over the years. Music could bring the river to the meeting. He began searching for songs about rivers and water, and he collected more than 400.

He then recruited a band of talented musicians and created a concert to promote river conservation, calling it “Of Time and River Flowing.” The concert would present songs about rivers and water that have been popular throughout history: “The intention was to show our long-standing relationship with rivers — that they run not only through the land, but through our hearts and minds as well.”

In March 1983, the McKenzie Flyfishers and Williams joined forces to present three benefit performances at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. They sold out all three shows. Bumstead and the flyfishers then used the money to do something truly remarkable.

With no legislative experience at all, Bumstead and the McKenzie Flyfishers convinced state Rep. Carl Hosticka and Sen. William Fry to introduce the North Fork Scenic River Bill, to put the North Fork and Waldo Lake into the State Scenic Waterway system. They somehow lobbied the bill through all of the hurdles, committee hearings, multiple meetings and votes necessary to pass a bill. 

And, on July 6, 1983, Gov. Vic Atiyeh signed the bill, adding the North Fork and its headwaters, Waldo Lake, to Oregon’s system of protected State Scenic Waterways. Hydro projects were prohibited on State Scenic Waterways. The North Fork and Waldo Lake were saved!

Williams didn’t stop there. He wanted to do more to heighten public support for protecting rivers. He perfected his “Of Time and Rivers Flowing” concert, recruited more band members and took the show on the road to advocate for rivers. 

The concerts would draw attention to “the universal experience that is the river.” They made a large audience “aware of the potential of our collective personality.” And “by giving the river a voice — a chance to speak through the music it has inspired — it can remind us of what we mean to each other.” According to Bumstead, “The emotional impact of 23 songs about rivers made dedicated water conservationists of almost everyone who heard them.”

Between 1983 and 1989, Williams and his band performed his tribute to rivers in over 60 different locations across the Northwest. As a direct result of the concerts, the governors of Washington and Oregon and the mayors of Seattle and Portland proclaimed August 16 through 22, 1987, as “Northwest Rivers Week,” including Williams’ concerts as inspiration in the formal declarations. The final concert was in Oakridge, where it all began. 

And, in 1988, thanks to increased public interest in protecting rivers, Congress passed the Oregon Wild & Scenic River bill. The bill, spearheaded by Congressman Peter DeFazio, added 53 rivers and 1,221 miles of Oregon rivers, including the North Fork, to the National Wild & Scenic River system. “All in all,” Bumstead said, “saving the North Fork was my most memorable environmental action.” 

Based in Eugene, the McKenzie Flyfishers is an inclusive group of anglers with a love of fly fishing, fish conservation and fishing education. Bumstead still lives in Eugene. He still flyfishes the North Fork and he still fights to protect rivers. Williams lives in Eugene. He continues re-mastering his voluminous catalog of music. But, just ask him, and he will say that he is most proud of the role he played in giving rivers a voice, especially The North Fork. 

Bob Warren retired in 2012 as the regional business development officer for Business Oregon for Lane, Lincoln, Linn and Benton counties. Prior to that, he was a senior policy advisor to Gov. Barbara Roberts and district aide and natural resource advisor for Rep. Peter DeFazio.