Dianna Suarez, serves as president for Friends of Bear River, a 501c3, and the Facebook Administrator for Friends of Bear River facebook page. She also has a YouTube channel called Bear River Flows, (2) Bear River Flows – YouTube . Dianna went to work for the US Forest Service while a student at UC Santa Cruz. Over a period of 36 years, working in a wide variety of departments including Fire, Fuels, Timber, Recreation, and Silviculture, she grew to love and appreciate the forest and all the beings that make up the living world. After retiring in 2011, she got involved with the Buffalo Field campaign based in West Yellowstone Montana. Dianna was drawn into the campaign for Bear River when Nevada Irrigation District proposed a fifth Dam on the already industrialized watershed in 2014. Having visited the river almost daily for many years, the living biosphere and especially the ancient trees spoke to her heart. She was deeply involved in attending meetings, writing letters to the editor, making speeches, and standing up for this living River in alliance with the local indigenous people. This led to the Nisenan Declaration of the Cultural and Biological Rights of K’umim Seyu, T’umim Sew’, aka Bear River at the California Worldfest, on July 17, 2022 by the Lizzie Enos Nisenan Family Foundation. https://youtu.be/2MuDELwAnWU?si=ukFZZje5eyfAt_aT
Finally, Mission Accomplished! On September 25th, 2024, the NID Board voted to pursue raising Rollins dam and canceling Centennial dam. On November 18th, 2024, the District withdrew their application for WR 5634×01 on Bear River. The dam was stopped but the work goes on. Dianna continues to advocate for Bear River at the state and local levels. The future must be about restitution, restoration, and reconciliation with peak and pulse flows, functional flows, and restorative unimpaired instream flows for the entire living Bear River ecosystem.