‘Working For the People’

When lawmakers wrote the water rights for the Snake River over a century ago, they made sure downstream Idaho farmers would always have enough water to grow crops in arid parts of the state.

That's why even in this drought year, the Snake was running high while the Jackson Lake Dam neared all-time lows.

By the end of the season, aquatic species that live in the side channels were left out to dry, stranding thousands of fish in pools that no longer reached the main stem of the river.

KHOL's Jenna McMurtry joined biologists tracking the dam releases while they're also saving the next generation of river dwellers.

[water sloshing] On an early fall morning in October, about a dozen fish enthusiasts hop into rafts at the main Grand Teton National Park put-in for the Snake River.

After a 20-minute float in the park, a group of trout advocates and fish biologists will have arrived at their first data collection stop of the day.

So now that the ramp down from Jackson Lake Dam is over, there's a lot of isolated pools that have fish strandings on them.

Alicia Brisson is the conservation associate for the local chapter of Trout Unlimited.

She's coordinating an outing with advocates from the Snake River Fund and biologists from Wyoming Game and Fish, plus a handful of volunteers.

She takes direction from the state's Snake River fish biologist, Diana Miller.

Try not to stick your hands in the water.

We are obviously wearing gloves, so you should be protected, but, um-

Together they hop off the boat and walk a quarter-mile inland to side channels that have dried up since federal dam managers released the last major outflow of water for the season.

That process is called the ramp down, or dam drawdown.

So just be careful when you're, when you're in the water with the electricity.

Try not to-

Brisson wears a clunky backpack with wires hanging into the pools.

Operating like a battery, the device sends electrical currents into the water and zaps the fish.

Today we are doing a fish rescue, and we're going, and we're gonna electrofish each of those, um, isolated pools and return those fish safely back to the Snake River.

Stunned fish are drawn to the current, making them easier to scoop into nets for transport back to the main stem of the river.

Miller then releases the fish back into the Snake.

Sucker, dace.

Sucker, dace, dace.

But not without first counting each species of fish.

Dace, dace.