Wend: How did your early experience with whitewater lead you into conservation?
O’Keefe: For literally as long as I can remember I’ve been playing on rivers and lakes in boats. My parents had a summerhouse on a lake, and we grew up fishing and canoeing in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. In the 1970′s there was the issue of acid rain in the Adirondacks. It was coming from Midwest power plants. I was only twelve but I remember being so disturbed that this acid rain was affecting the water and my experience that I wrote a letter to New York Congressman Sherwood Boehlert reflecting on the issue. He sent a response. I actually met him for the first time a year ago in Washington D.C. It was a really neat moment getting to connect with him on that.
Wend: Tell us about your history with AW.
O’Keefe: I started volunteering with AW in 1995. When I moved up to the Pacific Northwest, I continued that commitment and volunteered several hours a week. In 2005, the conservation director left the organization and I was approached to see if I might be interested in some contract work. At the time I hadn’t intended or planned to leave academia. I enjoyed the research and teaching I was doing at the University of Washington. So I started do a little bit of contract work and it turned into more and more hours and then all of a sudden I found myself doing it full time.
Wend: Tell us about AW.
O’Keefe: Our mission is to conserve and restore America’s whitewater resources and enhance opportunities to enjoy them safely. We’re among the most effective advocates for river conservation, particularly on the nation’s headwaters. We’re also huge advocates for public access to rivers. Having folks out there enjoying rivers is essential to creating a base of advocates for the resource. We educate the public on safe boating so people can be out enjoying these places. The restoration component is some of the most exciting work that we do, though. It wasn’t long ago you thought of a 200-foot high dam as permanent. Now we’re removing some of those. And highlighting the recreational benefits to restoring free-flowing rivers has been a great thing.
Wend: Tell us about a rewarding dam removal project you’ve worked on.
O’Keefe: I think one of the most rewarding ones that I’ve worked on here recently was the removal of Condit dam on the White Salmon River in Washingon. That project has been nearly two decades in the making. It’s taken a lot of effort to weave that project through the final stages of the regulatory process and the thought that we actually have a date on the calendar in fall 2011 to drain the reservoir and restore that river is incredibly satisfying and exciting.
Wend: Tell us about dam removal on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park.
O’Keefe: We’re probably on the third generation of activists with that one. It started with this idea that was kicked around in the 1970′s and wasn’t clearly formulated until the 1980′s. In the 1990′s a plan was put together about how the removal would occur. I came in sometime after that when the big question was where the funding would come from to make it happen. It’s required consistent pressure and advocacy to pull the resources together to make the project possible. The Elwha is just an amazing river. The same geology and characteristics that make it such an incredible salmon nursery are also the same attributes that make it an incredible whitewater resource. I’ve paddled several of the sections of the Elwha and am excited with the prospect of being able to string the whole thing together as one continuous free-flowing river.
Wend: Tell us about the process of removing dams.
O’Keefe: Each dam is different. But the biggest concern isn’t the physical removal of the dam so much as how to manage the sediment. For the Elwha the basic plan is to step it down by removing the two dams in stages, slowly moving some of the sediment through the system while leaving some of it in place. Over a period of two-to-three years we’ll remove the two dams completely, piece by piece. In contrast to that is the Conduit Dam on the White Salmon River, where we’re going to do a quick flush. Instead of stepping it down in pieces from the top, we’re going to bore a tunnel at the base and drain the whole reservoir in six hours to try and flush as much sediment through the system as quickly as possible out into the Columbia River.
Wend: How can our readers get involved?
O’Keefe: If you paddle, take a friend out. Take a child out. The thing that makes my job easy is just having an informed and engaged constituency that is out there enjoying these places. When my members are talking about a river, they can speak with an authenticity that very few people can. And that really makes a difference when you’re talking to policy makers, elected officials, agency staff. In the end, having folks who are out there engaged and connected to the resource is what really sells the work that we do. 
