HEAD COACH: an interview with Executive Director Brett VandenHeuvel

Brett became Columbia Riverkeeper’s executive director in 2009 after serving as staff attorney. Before joining Riverkeeper, Brett conducted research on climate change during field expeditions to Antarctica and New Zealand, taught kids at the Hancock Field Station in eastern Oregon, and started a legal practice representing nonprofits. Brett’s work with Riverkeeper has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, Fox News, The Seattle Times, and OPB.

HEAD COACH: an interview with Executive Director Brett VandenHeuvel

Brett became Columbia Riverkeeper’s executive director in 2009 after serving as staff attorney. Before joining Riverkeeper, Brett conducted research on climate change during field expeditions to Antarctica and New Zealand, taught kids at the Hancock Field Station in eastern Oregon, and started a legal practice representing nonprofits. Brett’s work with Riverkeeper has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, Fox News, The Seattle Times, and OPB.

Young Brett
Young Brett
What sports coach inspires your leadership style?

My father. He gave up a successful varsity coaching job to coach my brother and me in middle-school basketball. He had all the corny coach sayings like, “There is no ‘I’ in team,” and “Prepare to be prepared.” We snickered at the time, but looking back, he was always prepared. He was always the hardest worker. And he put the team first. Those values have hopefully rubbed off on me.

You took the helm at Riverkeeper 11 years ago. What was your strategy going into the job, and how has it evolved over time?

Number one: be bold. Don’t shy away from important and difficult issues. It’s easy to try and make everyone happy, but I wanted to work on a team that creates real changes. Number two: be a good listener. Listening and learning from our members, staff, and allies is a critical part of this job.

Over time, I’ve recognized more and more the importance of working in coalitions. Riverkeeper tackles hard problems: working together is more effective and fun. So we’ve built wonderful and inspiring coalitions on many issues. I didn’t recognize how important that was early in my career.

 

You’ve attended countless public hearings. Share a favorite story that captures the essence of Riverkeeper’s playbook in action.

Our strategies came together in an amazing way at the Tesoro oil terminal hearings in Vancouver. Tesoro reserved all the rooms at the Convention Center to block us from having a place to gather. I remember walking into Tesoro’s hospitality suite, an enormous room filled with giveaways. And there was no energy, just 20 people looking like they had to be there.

We got the leftovers: a barn on a freezing cold winter day. But when I walked into that barn, it was like a rock concert, with inspiring speeches from a longshoreman, a doctor, a local pastor, a climate activist. More than 1,000 people attended the hearing to oppose Tesoro. The combination of elevating local voices, appreciating all the knowledge that diverse communities bring to the table, and combining that with a strong legal case against Tesoro proved to be a winning game strategy.

You spent four months in Antarctica studying climate change. How did that experience influence you?

I developed a deep understanding of climate science, which informs my work at Riverkeeper. I later decided I wanted to be an advocate instead of a scientist, but that science foundation sure helps.

We lived in a tent and worked 18-hour days in difficult conditions: strong winds, 40-below temperatures. Most things after that just feel tamer. This may sound funny, but it really gave me an appreciation for living things—vibrant greens, the smell of flowers, bird songs—after being in the most desolate environment on Earth.

After the BP Horizon explosion and oil spill, you traveled to the Gulf of Mexico to experience firsthand the devastation and response effort. What did you take away from that experience?

That was an emotional trip. It really shook me. I saw how local economies that depend on clean water were decimated. Fishing fleets docked. Bait shops empty. Restaurants shuttered. Families suffering. I saw how deeply the oil industry is woven into the fabric of everyday life. Sure, people were distraught and angry about the BP spill. But in conversations, nobody blamed or spoke about the oil industry. I was saddened that the oil industry was so powerful, so engrained, that people could not question it. A moment that is seared into my memory is standing on a dock discussing the cleanup, and looking out over the Gulf and seeing oil rigs dotting the horizon as far as the eye could see.

I also walked away with lessons from Big Oil’s playbook. After the catastrophe, BP rushed in with claims trailers for people to sign away their rights. Five years later, I saw a similar scene unfold in Mosier after the oil-train derailment and explosion. Along with the first responders, Union Pacific Railroad’s lawyers and claims trailer appeared, too, with a slick public relations team in tow. Knowing that strategy shaped Riverkeeper’s and our allies’ playbooks. We held media events everyday for a week, elevated local voices, collected our own information and videos, and shared information with the public instead of listening to Union Pacific’s spin.

In summer 2015 roughly 250,000 adult sockeye salmon, including 96 percent of the critically endangered Snake River sockeye run, died prematurely in the Columbia and Lower Snake because the rivers were too hot. How did that summer influence Riverkeeper’s playbook?

That experience of watching sockeye die made us more aggressive. Sometimes our strategy is tied to whether we can succeed, or a new opportunity arises to effect change, and we seize the moment. But for the issue of hot water killing salmon, the situation is dire and that demands action—even if there are no easy solutions. I think we waited too long for a good opportunity and watching all those fish die jump-started new efforts to address hot water, like our lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

You’ve argued in court. You’ve testified before various government bodies. Do you get nervous or intimidated?

Yes. Last month, Riverkeeper was invited to present at Yakama Nation Tribal Council, a huge honor. Let me set the scene. These are the highest elected officials of a sovereign nation. There are established protocols to follow. Many people on the council have been deeply involved in conservation and salmon issues their whole lives.The council table is the shape of an arrowhead and I stood at the point. I was definitely nervous! I started by talking about campaigns where we’ve partnered with Yakama Nation over the last decade— from stopping a proposal to ship Hawaiian garbage to Yakama Nation territory, to passing better laws to reduce toxic pollution, to prevailing over the Tesoro oil terminal. Afterward, council members went around the table to express their appreciation of Riverkeeper’s work in solidarity with Yakama Nation. I smiled at my coworkers Simone and Dan, whose hard work helps build these strong relationships.

Last year the Longview Daily News ran a feature story on Riverkeeper, “Columbia Riverkeeper: Stronger than ever?”, in which the president of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council shared his view that Riverkeeper is unwilling to accept any new development along the Columbia. How do you respond?

That’s silly. He’s correct that we will absolutely draw the line on dangerous fossil fuel developments, including coal, oil, and fracked gas terminals. But that constitutes just a fraction of new development projects along the Columbia. Overall, protecting clean water, fisheries, and livability helps the economy thrive and is good for local jobs and our region. In Vancouver, for example, we partnered with 101 local businesses to promote small businesses over the oil terminal. Fortunately, our economy in the Northwest is not tied to big fossil fuel corporations.

Did becoming a father to Gus and Mick, eight and six years old respectively, change your approach?

They’ve taught me a lot. I’ve learned that the negotiating skills I use as an attorney are completely useless when up against a stubborn six year old. Somehow he always ends up with the popsicle and I’m always reflecting on what went wrong. They’ve taught me to slow down and discover new things with them: Simple things like worms after a rainstorm or the joy of jumping off a dock.

We talk about protecting the river and we’ll yell “booooo” when oil trains go by. But mostly I just want them to be curious and love being outside. I don’t want to burden them with adult problems. They will have plenty of time for that. And I want them to be kind and just. A lot of good can flow from kindness and justice. Maybe that’s the most important lesson they are teaching me.

The Playbook Issue: How Columbia Riverkeeper is tackling corporate polluters, staving off fossil fuel giants, and inspiring people to fight for clean water.