Rick Matsumoto and Sinjin Eberle. This was taken at Rendezvous 2013 when Sinjin officially turned over the presidency to Rick.
Editor’s Note: Somewhat embarrassingly, we’ve managed to produce over 30 BTF posts without interviewing Sinjin Eberle or Rick Matsumoto. They were back-to-back Presidents of Colorado TU from 2010 to 2015. The organization was highly effective during this timespan in part because they led Colorado TU as a team. We’re making it up to Sinjin and Rick with this special edition of Behind The Fin in which we talk to both at the same time and learn about what made them such a good team.
BTF: Let’s start by getting some of the basics out of the way. You guys were good friends before you became involved with TU, but bonded over river conservation, right? Tell me about how you first got involved with Colorado TU.
Sinjin: That’s right, we met playing volleyball at the Denver Athletic Club and got to be good friends playing local tournaments. But I had been on CTU’s board at least a few years before that. I was recruited by Sharon Lance at a Denver TU meeting. I think she was the council VP at the time.
Rick: We bonded more because of our competitive spirit than river conservation. I’m probably not supposed to say that in an interview for CTU, but it’s true. We pushed each other to compete, and had a great time doing it. River conservation came later. I think I was just coming off a long volunteer stint with the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.
Sinjin: Oh, here it comes. Rick: Go Blue!
Sinjin: And there it is.
Rick: He’s jealous. Anyway, I was looking for another volunteer opportunity. It just happened to be right about the time Sinjin was getting started with the Buffalo Peaks project.
Sinjin led the Buffalo Peaks Ranch Restoration Project, restoring a key section of the Middle Fork of the South Platte River in 2008. This picture, taken in August 2019, shows how beautifully the area has matured since the restoration. It provides some of the best publicly-accessible fishing in South Park.
BTF: At the time, the Buffalo Peaks Ranch Restoration Project was the largest restoration project CTU had ever done. How did you decide to take on such a large project?
Sinjin: Certainly, the bigger the project the greater the risk. But the board is pretty good about evaluating projects, both in terms of conservation value and financial risk. As I recall, our confidence was high because of the parties involved - the Colorado Division of Wildlife, City of Aurora, Park County, and a private landowner. And I wanted to take it on because it was ambitious. If I’m going to volunteer my time, pull in others like Rick to volunteer their time, then let’s make sure it’s for a good reason. Let’s work on the things that are the most impactful.
Rick: There’s that competitive spirit I was talking about. As a first-time volunteer, I really appreciated that I was working on something that made a tangible difference. Too often, volunteers are tasked with bringing food or producing a newsletter or washing cars. Don’t get me wrong, it all has to be done, but I really enjoyed being outdoors, busting my ass, working with others who felt the same way, on a section of river I could visit for years to come.
BTF: So that’s what prompted you to join the CTU board?
Rick: Not exactly. I think I could have worked on CTU projects without joining the board and been content. The late Charlie Meyers, whom I first met at Buffalo Peaks, inspired me to make a difference. But Sinjin gets most of the credit, or blame depending on who you ask. I still remember a night at Sinjin’s house with Tom Jones…
Sinjin: Tom was the National Leadership Council Rep at the time, and a board member that I viewed as a trusted mentor. Many think of these years as the “Sinjin and Rick” years, but Tom was the NLC Rep for both of us. He was really the voice of reason that kept us in line.
Rick: Most of the time. We probably should have asked him about that video we posted of a bulldozer in the river.
Sinjin: Yeah, he wouldn’t have approved.
Rick: We were sitting at Sinjin’s dining table. I think Tom was drinking whiskey and I was drinking scotch. I’m not sure what Sinjin had, a Moscow Mule?
Sinjin: Sounds about right.
Rick: We talked for hours about Sinjin’s upcoming term as President. It was generally about how Sinjin felt we could bring a different approach with a different energy. I remember leaving his house thinking about his vision, how I as VP was going to help, how great it was to be able to lean on Tom for advice. Honestly, I didn’t know much about David Nickum or the other board members or the history of the organization, but I was pretty sure we were going to kick ass!
Sinjin: That was really the starting point of our next five years. Nobody explicitly said “this is our five year plan,” but we were all on the same page about how we wanted to operate and so we never thought twice about projects that might take several years to complete.
BTF: Give me an example of one of those longer projects.
Sinjin: The Roan Plateau is what first comes to mind. I only had a small part in getting it done, Nickum and Ken Neubecker deserve most of the credit, but our persistence in protecting the Roan Plateau is the thing I think about with the most pride. Especially now, when oil and gas issues are overwhelming our public lands, our work to protect that little slice of wildness is really satisfying. It took nearly a decade for all of the litigation to play out. Grand Valley Anglers was fighting oil and gas leases on the Roan before I became President and the final settlement happened after Rick was done being President, but we had several milestone victories in between because of CTU’s strong and consistent voice during both our terms.
Rick: Absolutely. The other project that comes to mind for me is the Protect Our Rivers license plate. The board didn’t even want to take it on because it had been tried before and failed. I thought, “fine, then you can watch while I do it.”
Sinjin: I had your back.
Rick: Totally. And so I did the research, got Nick at Sage Lion Media to design the plate, created the petition, got the signatures, we drafted the bill. I remember Jen [Boulton, Legislative Liaison for CTU] saying it was looking good, and then it just blew up in our faces. For some reason, the chair of the House Ag Committee shot the bill down. That was the legislative session of 2011.
Sinjin: You’re just pointing out it failed during my presidency.
Rick: Well, it did! It was really disappointing, but then the political landscape changed and we did it all over again with SB13-224. I still remember the bill number! It succeeded, during my presidency of course, but only because Sinjin had my back two years earlier. The plate went into production in 2014 and we just recently passed 3,000 plates sold. My wife and I still point out the plates and smile when we see them on the road.
Rick led the initiative to establish the Protect Our Rivers license plate. Over 3,000 have been purchased since the plate first went into production in 2014, making it a permanent offering in Colorado.
Sinjin: Rick hates to lose and in this case it drove him to persevere. I knew he would get it done. Tom and I used to call him the “hit man” because we knew we could give him an assignment and send him on his way. We didn’t have to tell him how to do anything, it would just get done.
Rick: I prefer “ninja.”
BTF: I’m seeing why you two worked so well together. Would you say these bigger, longer projects really defined your presidencies?
Sinjin: Maybe in the big picture that’s true. CTU is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, so it’s natural to look back and highlight the major achievements. But there were major achievements in every presidency, not just mine or Rick’s.
Rick: Right, I think if we’re talking about Sinjin and me together, and I’d include Tom as the mentor for both of us, we’d rather be known as the people that made some fundamental changes in the way CTU operated, and that those changes facilitated a lot of positive things happening during our five years. Some of those things were the Roan settlement and the license plate, but there were plenty of other things too.
Tom, Sinjin, and Rick at Colorado TU’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. Governor Polis kicked off the event by declaring October 15, 2019 Colorado Trout Unlimited Day.
Sinjin: Agreed. There were actually several minor victories on the Roan before the final settlement, we did the “Don’t Suck” campaign for the Upper Colorado, we created a new chapter in the Dolores River Anglers, we led the collaborative effort with Sportsmen’s Conservation and Western Water Project to hire a fundraising director...
Rick: Without the “One TU” meetings, which you created, the fundraising director would not have happened.
Sinjin: And with that fundraising director, Chris Herrman, we introduced the River Stewardship Council and made that a huge financial success.
BTF: You were both founding donors, right? And I see you are both Life Members of TU.
Sinjin: Yes, with Michael McGoldrick, Jay Boak, a few others. It was important for us to lead by example and we were fortunate enough to have the personal financial means.
Rick: Don’t forget 1% for Rivers. You got that deal done with Henry Wood at Upslope Brewing. I love seeing that logo on their Craft Lager label.
Sinjin: And you turned it into a larger corporate sponsorship program that pulled in many others, even that car wash in Highlands Ranch!
Rick: You also deserve credit for bringing the Greenbacks into the fold. You managed Nick Hoover through some rough waters, but it was an innovative approach that got a lot of attention at National TU.
Sinjin: That, I think, we can take credit for as something that was far more likely to happen with you or me at the helm. I mean the whole reason the Greenbacks came to be in the first place was because a younger, more hip group of conservation-minded people felt like TU was becoming an “old, white man’s fishing club.” We at least didn’t look like the part.
BTF: Okay, so those are all things you achieved during your presidencies…
Sinjin: Things that the organization achieved while we were presidents - I think it’s important to recognize how everyone was rowing together.
BTF: Right, but with you sitting at the front of the boat. I wanted to ask about something you said earlier, Rick, about changing the way the organization operated.
Rick: I’ve had a long career in operations, so I naturally see ways to make things more efficient or effective, sometimes both. Sinjin and I spent a lot of time in cars, driving to and from chapter and council meetings, talking about ways to do things better. For example, we made an effort to apply Robert’s Rules of Order to board meetings. Honestly, we didn’t like some of the formalities, but we needed a way to streamline the board’s tendency to have lengthy discussions that didn’t drive toward decisions. It didn’t really make the meetings any shorter, but it did make them more productive.
Sinjin: I remember now one of the first things Rick did was take control of Rendezvous. He put together a planning committee and ran weekly meetings to keep people on task. He lined up strong speakers and forced them to deliver presentations in advance, produced a slick binder and name tags, held all of us to a schedule that included time for socializing. It totally rejuvenated Rendezvous. In fact, several National TU staff made a point of attending the following year and they weren’t shy about saying it was the best council event in the country.
Rick: The planning committee gets the credit and you’re the one who got sponsors to pay for the binders and name tags. But yes, I’m proud to have created a stronger process that CTU was able to carry forward even after our presidencies were done. Sinjin did a lot of this type of fundraising work, where I think I did more in the area of non-profit governance. When you put it all together, I think it meant the business side of CTU ran a little more smoothly.
Sinjin: And when you’re confident that the business side is humming along, it allows you to flex your muscles on the conservation side. CTU has always had a great deal of conservation-related expertise and passion in its board. That expertise and passion just comes through stronger when the organization is operating efficiently.
BTF: Since this is a Behind the Fin interview, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask for a fishing story or two.
Sinjin: Superfly!
Rick: Yeah, we competed in a few Superfly tournaments.
Rick and Sinjin working the Gunnison River in the 2010 Superfly tournament.
Sinjin: Rick was so mad one year he didn’t say a word to me the entire drive back!
Rick: That was the day I decided to dramatically raise my fishing game. And I did get a lot better, and it showed in the next Superfly.
BTF: But you didn’t win?
Sinjin: Nope, I think I was the weak link that year, but Superfly is mostly about drawing the right beats. Skill plays a role too, but there was one year where everybody on the Taylor River did dramatically better than everyone else.
Rick: Speaking of the Taylor…
Sinjin: Oh yeah. We stopped at the “Hog Farm” one time, that stretch of the Taylor just below the dam. Rick hooked the hog of all hogs, got it to shore, but … it made a last ditch run and got away before I could net it.
Rick: He’s leaving out the part where he snapped my tippet with his net. It looked like he was trying to club the fish rather than land it. Complete spaz, I will never forgive him for that one.
BTF: Okay, we’re in the home stretch now. Sinjin, I wanted to hear a little bit about your work at American Rivers. It’s obviously very relevant to our work at Colorado TU and I think it gives you some interesting perspective.
Sinjin: Well, I’m the Communications Director for the Colorado Basin, handling all of our marketing, communications, and outreach. Mostly, I work with a trio of conservation campaigns: the Colorado Water Plan, the Arizona Water Sustainability campaign, and the Upper Basin Demand Management program. I also run American Rivers’ Grand Canyon campaign, which was instrumental in stopping the plan to build an aerial tramway into the heart of the canyon and limiting the expansion of the town of Tusayan.
BTF: Great, it sounds like there are similarities with the types of things CTU would be involved in. Is that what attracted you to American Rivers, just doing it for a larger geography?
Sinjin: Sure, but CTU is a much stronger grassroots organization where American Rivers is more communications- and policy-oriented. It’s that emphasis on communications that prompted me to get into filmmaking. Over the past four years, I’ve created, directed, or produced over a dozen short films. I’m having a great time making character-driven films that deliver a powerful message about river conservation. The Important Places, won several awards and generated over a million online views, so I have a lot of freedom and support to do more of this kind of work.
Rick: I think it’s super smart. I mean, the movie was great, but I’m referring to the strategy of telling these stories about people who are impacted by conservation issues without even using the “conservation” word.
BTF: That sounds controversial, almost counter intuitive.
Sinjin: I hate to say it, but films about conservation just aren’t as interesting as films about people. My latest film, Sonora Rising, is about the circular economy of water, through wheat, flour, and bread in Tucson, Arizona. The idea is to broaden our reach by making something good enough to get into film festivals. Shoot, if you get into the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, the winning films are shown on a 175-city tour. And that’s in addition to online views through YouTube and Vimeo. We’re getting a strong conservation message out to a lot of people. It’s very, very satisfying work.
Rick: And there’s that competitive spirit again. There’s no shame in pushing yourself and those around to do excellent work out of a desire to make something better. Winning film awards or council awards - Colorado TU won the State Council Award for Excellence in 2014 I think - is great, but it’s a byproduct of just consistently working hard to get better.
BTF: Good segue back to TU. One of the questions we like to ask, and this really is the last question for each of you, what advice would you have for current TU members?
Rick and Sinjin, attending the Silver Trout Award presentation at Rendezvous 2017. This distinguished award is given to individuals whose conservation work for Colorado Rivers has made a significant and lasting impact. Both are Silver Trout Award Winners.
Sinjin: My advice is to go all in, and commit to something bigger than yourself. What do you have to lose? It’s so easy to be complacent about and intimidated by the giant array of challenges facing our environment, to just throw up your hands in defeat. But the joy and inspiration the outdoors provides is worth putting forth our best efforts. Even with a small commitment of effort, we can have a real impact. Money and fame and more fly rods are all nice, but the satisfaction of knowing that you were part of protecting a place, or even better, inspiring others to give back to the landscapes we care about is like a multiplier effect for the world. Activism doesn’t have to be some dopey, granola-crunching, tree-hugger aspiration – our rivers and streams, and by extension our public lands, need our voices or they are going to be gone. What better place to spend your hard-earned time and efforts than that? Do something. Write your representative. Lean in to make change happen.
BTF: That’s tough to follow, but same question for you Rick.
Rick: Ha, it’s okay, those are the same inspiring words that brought me to Colorado TU a decade ago. Like Sinjin, I believe in “committing and going all in,” but there’s a big difference between joining the board of Colorado TU and going to a river clean-up event. I would tell members to take the initiative to be responsible for their own level of involvement. Don’t wait for someone to give you a menu of volunteer options. Go talk to other members, reach out to staff, ask chapter or council officers what they need help with. Find what’s right for you. Then commit and go all in! That’s how you control your effort, make sure you have a rewarding experience. I think Sinjin and I did an honest job of that when we first got involved. It really helped us get the most out of our time on the board, and give our best to the organization.
BTF: Great answers guys, and it’s been really fun talking with you. Thank you for taking the time to make this a truly special edition of Behind the Fin!
