Anglers are economic force on Henry’s Fork

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — A new study of anglers and boaters who ply the blue-ribbon trout waters straddling Idaho and Wyoming shows they spent $46 million in their pursuits last year and would pay $32 million more annually if there were more — or bigger — wild fish in the Henry’s Fork and South Fork of the Snake River.

Conservationists, who helped pay for the survey of nearly 800 anglers last year that formed the basis for the study, said it’s the first time a dollar figure has been placed on the tourism business generated by trout fishing between Jackson Hole on the upper Snake River in Wyoming and the Henry’s Fork River in eastern Idaho.

“This survey shows fishing, as long as it is managed properly, is an economy that can use the renewable resource in perpetuity,” said study author John Loomis of Colorado State University.

Steve Trafton, executive director of the Henry’s Fork Foundation, said the research demonstrates that trout fishing is a powerful economic engine in eastern Idaho, generating 1,192 jobs in Fremont, Jefferson, Bonneville, Madison and Teton counties in the Henry’s Fork and Upper Snake River drainages. Another 1,460 jobs depend on fishing and boating in Teton County, Wyo.

Loomis and students from Idaho State University contacted 787 anglers and boaters along 11 river segments from Wyoming’s Jackson Dam on the Snake to Idaho’s Island Park on the Henry’s Fork between May and September last year. In addition to asking anglers about current spending habits, researchers asked how much they would spend if they caught twice as many fish or caught fish that were 25 percent larger.

The study estimates anglers in pursuit of bigger or more plentiful fish would create another 1,000 jobs and generate $32 million in additional revenue.

Trafton said conservationists hope the study’s findings will catch the attention of politicians, federal land management agencies and water managers, encouraging them to work to improve local trout fisheries. He points to the Henry’s Fork downstream from St. Anthony, northeast of Idaho Falls, where the wild trout numbers are a fraction of what’s found on the upper stretches of the river. Groups such as the Henry’s Fork Foundation and Trout Unlimited believe wild fish populations could be improved in the lower reaches with trout-friendly water releases from upstream dams and by installing screens to prevent fish from swimming into irrigation canals.

Chris Jansen Lute, water resources program manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s regional office in Boise, monitored the study and said the dollar figure is important to policy decisions.

“This study demonstrates that careful water management can support not only a strong irrigated agricultural economy, but a healthy fishery economy as well,” Lute said. “Done well, we can have both.”