Our History

In 2011, Dana Loseke organized local Sierra Club members to volunteer time to help develop South Dakota’s Blood Run State Park. One day, after a morning of pulling up old, barbed wire fencing, the group was taking a break at the overlook of the Big Sioux River. A group of kayakers floated into view just below the overhang and proceeded to get out on a sandbar for a lunch break just below. The park manager waved at them from above and then yelled at them, “… have fun, but make sure you don’t drink the water!”

The park manager then turned to Dana and said, if you’re really looking for something to work on in your retirement, you should do something about cleaning up the Big Sioux, stating it was the 13th dirtiest river in the United States. He went on to say that there were five state parks within 30  minutes of Sioux Falls, but the public couldn’t safely use the water for recreation at any of the parks due to the contamination.

From that conversation Dana started meeting with a small group of friends at a local library. The group started inviting city officials and other Big Sioux River watershed officials to speak on watershed topics. Some people  started attending the East Dakota Water Development District (EDWDD) board meetings to learn more about water policies, best management practices, and laws governing the river and waters in South Dakota. Based on what was learned and the complexity of who manages water use, it was soon decided by the group to move the task of clean water outside the Sierra Club and form an independent group focused on clean water.

The group decided on a name and logo, and then developed a vision and goals. The primary goal was to create awareness and interact with stakeholders to initiate change. The group felt we had to have an aspirational goal that was easy to espouse and resonated with the public. So “Swimmable by 2025”  became our elevator speech.

Committees were formed to divide up the work. The first major project was to start citizen water monitoring through EDWDD Dakota Water Watch Program. Sites were selected and several volunteers were trained and assigned testing sites.

RJ Thompson reached out to then Mayor Mike Heuther about the need to have a clean river flowing through his city that matched his vision for Sioux Falls. Mayor Heuther agreed and initiated a “Mayor’s Summit” on the progress being made in cleaning up the Big Sioux River. This summit has continued to the present. FBSR also prodded the Sioux Falls Environmental Department to restart the annual Big Sioux River Clean-up. This has become an annual event with volunteers from businesses, civic clubs, and individuals picking up tons of trash along the Big Sioux stream banks.

By 2015, the need to incorporate as a non-profit 501c3 was recognized by the leaders. In March of 2015 Friends of the Big Sioux River received its approval from the federal government and registered its incorporation and trademarked its logo with the state of South Dakota. By-laws were enacted and a board of directors elected.