Brook Trout Genetics

Although I am back at school at Colgate University now, I will continue to update the blog to provide more information on what the Henry's Fork Foundation interns got up to this summer. The second-biggest project we worked on in addition to the Caldera Project tributaries study was collecting brook trout genetic samples for Trout Unlimited. This project started when TU approached the Foundation and requested that we help them out for a project seeking to assess the genetics of the invasive brook trout in the streams of eastern Idaho.

You may wonder why researchers care about the genetic quality of brook trout when it is the pure strain of yellowstone cutthroat that most anglers are after. However, in our long term monitoring of many different streams in the Henry's Fork watershed, the foundation has found that some streams can support both yellowstone cutthroat and brook trout without the brook trout ever completely taking over the area and wiping out the native cutthroats. On the other hand, some streams have seen the brook trout completely out-competing the native trout. While many factors could be at play here, it would be interesting to see if the genetic stock of the trout has any affect on the balance of species in these streams, i.e. if one (or a few) particularly well-suited groups of brook trout are capable of wiping out cutthroat while other less well-adapted brookies are not able to fully invade. This project will help to establish the genetics of the brook trout in the watershed and will hopefully help further the Foundation's goal of promoting the health and abundance of wild cutthroat.

To undertake this project the intern crew and Anne Marie Emery-Miller traveled to four widely distributed and ecologically varied streams within the watershed in order to collect a sample of brook trout from a wide range of habitats. The streams we visited included the East Fork of Dry Creek, Targhee Creek, Warm Springs Creek, and Squirrel Creek. Over a number of days we visited these sites and collected 35 brook trout from each stream, with around 10 fin clips being taken at each site. This method allowed us to gather a useful collection of genetic material for analysis by Trout Unlimited. Hopefully the results from this study will contribute to furthering the Foundations goals in the future. Check out the sites from this study in Google Earth and look at our photos from this project at our Picasa page (links also on the right-hand sidebar). Stay tuned for more news about the summer crew's work.

The Caldera Project and Saying Goodbye

It's hard to believe that I'm leaving in only 2 days! Where did the summer go? As I ponder this question, I begin to reflect on the projects that the other interns and myself have been working on for the past 8 weeks. I will focus on the Caldera Project for this post, as I have worked on this project for the past two summers.

I am a bit of an anomaly in the history of HFF interns as I have worked as an intern for the HFF for two consecutive summers (I loved it here so much I couldn't stay away!). One of the benefits of being here for two consecutive summers is the ability to see how the work you performed the past summer affects the momentum and success of the projects the following summer.

The Caldera Project has been one such occasion where I can look at the data collected from the 2009 electrofishing forms and compare them to the data from this 2010 summer. The Caldera Project is in part, a means to examine fish passage between the tributaries of the Henry's Fork and the main stem of the Henry's Fork. The tributaries that have been monitored include Blue Springs Creek, Fish Creek and Thurmon Creek. The data collected on these three tributaries throughout the past few years suggests that in the summer, fish density in the tributaries drops dramatically, most likely due to warmer temperatures and lower flows. This in turn suggests that the fish that wintered in the tributaries pass back into the main stem of the Henry's Fork in the summer, seeking cooler temperatures. This is good news for the summer angler!

Although this aspect of the Caldera Project is one in which the summer interns have had the most exposure both this summer and in 2009, there are many other working parts to this research machine. For more detailed descriptions of the Caldera Project, please check out this link: http://www.henrysfork.org/node/12. Furthermore, if you would like to see a map of where the interns and Anne Marie have conducted studies, click on this link. For each site on the map, if you click on the site there will be a slideshow of the trout that we found.

On a more personal note, I will be sad to leave the HFF after having two wonderful summers working on such a beautiful and dynamic watershed. I hope this is not the last I see of Island Park or the Henry's Fork, or of the friends I have made at the HFF. I wish you all the best for this year, and don't forget to write us if you have any questions or comments!

Intern blog ready!

As the summer is starting to wind down here at the Henry's Fork Foundation we have finally found time to collect and organize all the data we have collected over the busy summer field season. Over the next week we will be posting updates on the many projects we worked on, including the Caldera Project tributaries study, a brook trout genetics study for Trout Unlimited, cattle fencing, a survey of Blue Springs Creek, checking the Buffalo River fish trap with Americorp Intern Chris Schaller and a bio-restoration project with North Fork Native Plants and Intermountain Aquatics. All of these projects can be explored through Google Earth by downloading this KML file. Simply open up the file in Google Earth and then expand it to see a list of all the projects. Double click on a project title to zoom to it and explore it further. Stay tuned for posts from the interns about their summer experiences. Any questions or comments can be directed to .