Retired Andrus Busy As Adviser, Resource Activist At Public Policy Center, He Relishes Post-Governor Role As Illuminator

Cecil Andrus, Idaho’s governor for a record four terms, is not exactly relaxing in retirement.

“I’m just as busy as I was when I was governor of the state of Idaho,” Andrus said. “I say yes to things too frequently. I’m having to learn to say no.”

The former U.S. secretary of the interior from 1977 to 1980 starts each morning at 5:30 by taking his dog, Toby, for a two-mile walk. He then spends his days doing consulting work, serving on boards or running a think tank on natural resource issues - the Andrus Center for Public Policy.

The Andrus Center fills the largest chunk of his time. Andrus, 64, said he expected to spend about 20 percent of his time on the non-profit organization he founded when he left office in January. It turns out that the job, which does not pay, is taking about half his time.

“I could spend seven days a week on this stuff,” he said.

The pace is very busy now. The center is holding a two-day conference this week on the beleaguered Snake River.

Stretching from the Wyoming border to Lewiston, the Snake is a battleground for competing users - power generators, farmers who draw water for irrigation, companies and communities who use it to carry away waste, and recreationalists.

The river is clearly degraded, Andrus said, but it is still in better shape than many of the country’s waterways.

“We’ve abused our water in Idaho tremendously, but we haven’t destroyed it yet,” he said. “If we don’t come to grips with the problems and find solutions we are going to destroy what always has been the lifeline of Idaho.”

Andrus sees his task as bringing different sides together. “My role before was as problem solver - that’s what a governor is, a glorified problem solver. Now I’m more of an illuminator.”

The conference, called “Snake: The River Between Us,” is the second held by the Andrus Center. The first focused on the bull trout, a sensitive resident of mountain streams that the federal government is considering adding to the endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced at that conference that it was holding off listing the fish because the Northwest states had started efforts to protect it.

Andrus still takes on national issues. He has, for example, been working to prevent Congress from opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, calling up members of Congress and arguing that the risk is too great.

“All the way down the coastline, it’s the only spot where man’s industrial footprint has not trampled,” he said. “It’s such a fragile land.”

Andrus said he has priorities beyond solving natural resource puzzles.

“I have spent the last 30 years of my life protecting parts of Idaho and the world,” he said. “I never had time to enjoy the places I spent time protecting. Now I do.”