The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Idaho Falls Regional Office has received the Henry’s Fork Foundation (HF) Conservation Award, honoring its collaborative efforts to help resource managers better understand and address water quality concerns in the upper Snake River watershed.
For several years, DEQ’s Idaho Falls office has helped support HFF’s water quality monitoring in the Island Park reservoir by providing water quality sampling equipment and field support. Idaho Falls DEQ staff deployed a new water quality monitor in the Teton River that now provides data to HFF’s existing real-time river conditions data network.
Idaho Falls DEQ also worked with HFF to develop water quality models to understand factors influencing temperature dynamics in the Island Park Reservoir and the Henry’s Fork River.
Over the next five years, Idaho Falls DEQ, HFF, and Idaho Fish and Game will collect continuous water quality data at several locations in Henrys Lake to better understand how water quality affects Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout production.
