Life on the River
Image: The three girl HFF interns in front of Millionaires View on the Henry’s Fork.
By Taylor Burdge
B.S. Earth Systems, 2016
Summer Intern at the Henry's Fork Foundation
Read about our summer interns on the Out West student blog. Throughout the summer, the Center's interns and Research Assistants will be sending in virtual postcards, snapshots and reports on their summer work.
Determined to live out west, I interned last summer in Bozeman, MT and (as expected) fell in love with the Northern Rockies. Now, a year later, my internship with the Henry’s Fork Foundation (HFF) has taken me back to the area I love so much.
Although I gained an appreciation for the fly fishing culture last summer, nothing prepared me for the fly fishing scene at the Henry’s Fork. This 127 mile long tributary of the Snake River is prized for its superb fishing, especially dry fly fishing. Anglers are drawn here from around the world with the goal of hooking and landing one of the Henry’s Fork prized trout.
As the only organization solely devoted to preserving the Henry’s Fork, HFF interns are always busy. There are two main projects going on: a habitat study and an angler satisfaction study. A grad student from Grand Valley State, Zack Kuzniar, is researching which habitat rainbow trout prefer, and all six interns are helping him out. Prior to the start of my internship, over 40 fish were tagged with radio trackers. We then spend the rest of the summer tracking this fish to see which habitat they prefer to live in. Zach walks around the riverbank with a radiotelemetry reader to try and pick up the signals from the tagged fish. Two interns follow him carrying all of the supplies needed to survey the habitat. Once Zach locates a fish, we examine what the habitat is like by looking at factors such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, depth, water velocity, substrate size, and macrophyte growth. By the end of this summer, Zach will know what factors these rainbow trout favor.
The angle satisfaction study is the other main project the interns are undertaking this summer. The goal of this study is to let the anglers voice their opinions regarding the condition of the Henry’s Fork. Every day, two interns drive to several access points and interview the anglers as they come off the water. Many of these anglers have been fishing the Henry’s Fork for over thirty years. Their input will help HFF design new projects to improve the fishery.
In addition to interviewing anglers and surveying the habitat, there’s fences that must be fixed, trash that needs to be picked up, and water samples to be analyzed. The past month has been incredible and I can’t wait to see what the next six weeks have in store!
Read more at the Out West Blog for Summer Interns »
