Wild and Scenic Rivers Hill Week 2027

There are many ways to connect with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition, including participating in Wild and Scenic Rivers Hill Week, hosted annually in Washington DC.

March 8-12

• Monday,
  • Travel to DC
  • Welcome Dinner, 7-9pm, at Ambar – Capitol Hill, 523 8th St SE (open to Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition members and accompanying constituents only, cost is approximately $60/person for multi-course Balkan cuisine, RSVP required by March 3)
• Tuesday
  • Congressional meetings
  • Congressional briefing, noon-1pm (day is TBD)
  • Wild Rivers Night Happy Hour, 5:30-8:30pm, Mission Navy Yard, 1221 Van St SE (public reception for DC-based colleagues, partners, and Congressional members and staffs, no-host drinks and Mexican dinner fare provided)
• Wednesday
  • Congressional meetings
• Thursday
  • Agency leadership meetings (Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service)
• Friday
  • Travel home

Congressional meetings are scheduled by your campaign group. Congressional offices do not generally schedule meetings far in advance. It is common to finalize all of your travel arrangements before you have any confirmed meetings (i.e. do not panic). Plan to dedicate significant time during the 2-3 weeks leading up to Wild and Scenic Rivers Hill Week to scheduling your meetings–this may required repeated inquiries and proactive followup. If you do not have contacts for a specific office, ask Lisa Ronald (lisa@wildriverscoalition.org). Monitor your email while in DC, as your meetings may unexpectedly shift and/or get confirmed at the last minute, sometimes day-of.

The Congressional briefing, agency leadership meetings, and Welcome Dinner and Wild Rivers Night Happy Hour are all planned and scheduled by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition. Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition members and constituents are welcome to attend the briefing, but food is reserved for Congressional staffs. Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition members can attend agency meetings as listeners, but must register in advance for security purposes. Agency meetings are confined to Thursday so as not to conflict with Congressional meetings. Forest Service headquarters and the Main Interior building are not near one another, and both require 30 minutes transportation time to/from Congressional buildings. All agency buildings require at least 15 minutes to get through security with a REAL ID, and our agency hosts must fetch the full group at the front security office. We cannot fetch latecomers once agency meetings start. If you schedule Congressional meetings on Thursday and are also attending agency meetings, plan accordingly for transportation and security time.

Including and Leveraging Constituent Voices

Begin budgeting now for travel for constituents to accompany you to DC–not just for the impact they will bring while in DC but to nurture their continued engagement following their visit in the form of letters to the editor and other activism. Bringing constituents (e.g. local business owners, outfitters/guides, county commissioners, Tribal Nation representatives, local landowners, other influencers etc.) are important in the early years of a campaign to built the attention and clout you need as your campaign matures. Having constituents request member meetings can also increase the likelihood of securing a member meeting and member support. Develop a strategy for the meeting ahead of time that best elevates constituent voices rather than those of your organization. Constituents without lobbying experience who have never been to DC before are sometimes overwhelmed the first time–it’s fast and furious and easy to get lost inside government buildings. Inviting the same constituents more than one year in a row empowers them to become more experienced and influential advocates. Following Wild and Scenic Rivers Hill Week, constituents are often fired up and empowered to do more–have a strategy in place to further engage them immediately or in the months following and when members are in district (e.g. trip with staff or Congressional member on the river, local events/fundraising, op/ed or other media pieces etc.).

Coming to DC without constituents can also be an important step for mature campaigns (generally, those with bi-partisan sponsors and bicameral bills) and can provide the opportunity to focus on, the priority your bill occupies with its sponsor(s), bill passage strategies and vehicles, and power building with caucus members and the natural resources committees.

Accommodations

Attendees are responsible for their own travel, hotel, metro/cab/uber, and food expenses when in DC. We recommend booking accommodations proximate to, or within easy travel distance of, Navy Yard and making travel arrangements EARLY to avoid significant cost increases that happen as we approach Cherry Blossom Season (March 20-April 11).

Resources

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition supplies resources to use during Congressional meetings including:

• Access to government affairs consultation so you can ask questions about your strategy
• Collective spreadsheet to track and recommend meetings
• Topic specific leave-behind sheets
• Advice and coaching for first-timers

Other resources

• Wild and Scenic Rivers and Congressional Districts Interactive Map

Learn more about successes from past Wild and Scenic Rivers Hill Weeks.