When Deb Ryun was hired in 2009 to be the executive director of the St. Croix River Association, the organization had 300 members and an annual budget of $35,000.
She was the first – and only – employee.
As Ryun readies for retirement, the organization now known as Wild Rivers Conservancy of the St. Croix and Namekagon has more than 1,300 members, an annual budget of $1.4 million, and 13 full-time staff members and 13 part-time staff members.
Ryun’s last day will be June 28. A national search for her replacement is underway; the application period closed Friday.
The Osceola, Wis.-based organization serves as the nonprofit partner of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. It works with the National Park Service and different conservation partners on land conservation, water-quality protection and river corridor and watershed stewardship.
Ryun, 67, of Trade River, Wis., said leaving the organization is bittersweet. “I am both excited and sad,” she said. “But after working for 50 years, it’s time to relax a little bit.”
Accomplishments
Ryun’s first job was working as a “grunt” at a greenhouse in her hometown of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. She was 15. “I watered plants, toted dirt, repotted plants, you name it,” she said.
Ryun later worked as a naturalist, a communications and education coordinator, and as the executive director for Conservation Districts of Iowa in Chariton, Iowa.
Some of Ryun’s proudest accomplishments at the Wild Rivers Conservancy include broadening the mission of the organization from “a one- or two-issue organization” to an organization that has a “watershed-wide scope” in the St. Croix River basin.
Deb Ryun (Courtesy photo)
Another major accomplishment: In 2011, the Wild Rivers Conservancy of the St. Croix and Namekagon became the official nonprofit Friends group for the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, supporting and complementing the National Park Service’s work within the riverway, she said.
“The biggest issue facing (the riverway) is development – whether it be urban or rural,” she said. “People want to build closer to the river and bigger than what is allowed.”
Invasive species are a huge threat, and there are always concerns about water quality, she said. “We have to watch for nutrients constantly,” she said. “Another issue is the PFAS plume heading our way. If people are fishing in water that has PFAS in it, well, suddenly people can’t eat the fish.”
‘Heartbeat of the organization’
Ryun said her post-retirement plans include a weeks-long road trip with a friend to Glacier National Park in Montana. “I’m going to relax for a bit,” she said. “I hope to be in my kayak an awful lot this summer.”
Ryun has been “the heartbeat of the organization for as long as she has been there,” said Board Chairman Stu Neville, of Hayward, Wis.
“What would this organization be without Deb Ryun?” he said. “She is very passionate, she is very persistent, and she has a really strong grasp of the issues facing the entire riverway. There is always so much going up and down the entire riverway and the watershed, and Deb has the ability to see the entire picture.
“She also has a really true and abiding love for the riverway itself. She loves to spend time on the Namekagon and St. Croix more than anything.”
Interviews for Ryun’s successor will begin next week, Neville said, and the board hopes to have someone hired before Ryun leaves in order to “facilitate a clean transition” between the two.
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