The story: Friends of the Falls executive director Steve Faust, talks about the proposed whitewater park in the Spokane River gorge.

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Spokane River Dialogues is a yearlong series that profiles people that are passionate about the Spokane River.

This video features Friends of the Falls executive director Steve Faust. For the last five years his group, with public input, has been working on a master plan for the great Spokane River gorge just west of downtown. The showcase feature of this plan is the proposed whitewater park that should be completed in 2007 in an area just below the new Sandifur Bridge. It is just one of many improvements planned for the area that has a long history of human settlement dating back 1000’s of years.

The proposed changes are really exciting. If you haven’t been down to the new Sandifur Bridge you should check it out. I took a stroll through the notorious People’s Park Friday and was surprised at how beautiful the area is. It had been years since I had explored its many hiking trails that intertwine along the riverbanks of the Spokane River. Many more people are using this area to recreate and the coming changes will bring welcome improvements to the long neglected, but spectacular Spokane River gorge.