From the Snake to the Sea: An Evening Celebrating Our Shared Work and Supporting Washington TU Featuring Keynote Speaker Nez Perce Chairman Shannon Wheeler

Connect with hundreds of dedicated conservationists and partners at the Washington TU banquet and fundraiser. We’ll start the night off with a cocktail reception, appetizers, networking and prize perusal, followed by dinner featuring our keynote speaker, Nez Perce Chairman Shannon Wheeler.

Wheeler, an affable and extremely capable leader, is the seventh of 11 children raised to hard-working parents in Lapwai, Idaho. After a successful entrepreneurial and business career spanning everything from owning multiple convenience stores in the region, to graphic design and screen printing, at 56, Wheeler has risen as the voice for salmon and for his people.

Wheeler’s perspective is an angler’s perspective. He grew up on the rivers and streams, fishing with his family. The Selway, the South Fork Salmon River, Big Creek, the Seesch, Rapid River.

Today he is one of the leading advocates for the opportunity that Representative Mike Simpson’s “Northwest in Transition” proposal presents for his tribe, as well as the other tribes of the Columbia Basin. But he also believes that great opportunity lies ahead for the agricultural community, transporters and river communities in the Snake River Basin. But the fish need to come back and they can only come back if the dams come down. All four of the Lower Snake Dams.

Later in the evening the volunteer Embrace A Stream Committee will share the results of their annual grant awards meeting that day and celebrate the dozens of local chapter conservation projects receiving funding.

A hybrid in-person and online auction and sweepstakes will help raise funds for important TU work done by volunteers from the Washington Council, local Washington TU chapters and the Northwest Youth Conservation Fly Fishing Academy.

This event requires “all inclusive” registration, Saturday registration or separate meal purchase.