The Henry’s Fork watershed in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming encompasses 1.7 million acres and over 3,000 miles of rivers, streams and canals. High mountain streams and warm natural springs form the headwaters of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, which flows through deep canyons as it descends to the agricultural land of the upper Snake River Valley. This rich watershed supports healthy populations of fish and wildlife, including several threatened and endangered species, as well as high-quality recreational experiences.

There are about 40,000 people who live in four Idaho counties in the watershed — Fremont, Teton, and parts of Madison and Clark— plus the southwest corner of Yellowstone National Park and west slope of the Teton Range in Teton County, Wyoming. Mormon and Lutheran homesteaders, who originally settled the basin, built irrigation canals and storage reservoirs for water in the late 1800s. Canals divert water from the Henry’s Fork, Fall River, Teton River and smaller tributaries, and dams built on Henry’s Lake Outlet and the Henry’s Fork store irrigation water. Over 235,000 acres of farmland are irrigated from surface or groundwater sources in the basin; potatoes and grains are the primary crops. Other important sectors of the economy include recreation and tourism services, government, timber products and livestock.

As interests in the basin diversified over the years, the Henry’s Fork sustained intense pressure to satisfy irrigation demand, hydropower requirements and instream flow needs for fisheries and recreation. These issues were the focal points of the Henry’s Fork Basin Plan passed by the 1993 Idaho Legislature. As a result of the Plan, new developments such as dams, diversions and hydro projects were prohibited on 195 miles of the Henry’s Fork and its tributaries. Recommendations in the Basin Plan also addressed water quality, fish and wildlife protection and irrigation water conservation. In order to implement the recommendations and achieve long-term goals in the basin, an innovative, consensus-building process was sought to include all parties with interests in the watershed.

In 1993 citizens and agency representatives began to craft a new approach to reconciling watershed issues in the Henry’s Fork Basin. The various interests recognized the importance of working together as a rural community to resolve the ecological problems in the watershed and to work towards a sustainable future for all concerned, and in 1994, the Henry’s Fork Watershed Council was organized and chartered by the Idaho Legislature.

The Council is comprised of citizens, scientists and agency representatives who reside, recreate, make a living or have legal responsibilities in the basin, thus ensuring a more collaborative approach to resource decision making. Meetings begin and end with community building to help build relationships among participants, but work sessions are divided into three component groups comprised of a citizen’s group, a technical team and an agency roundtable.

The Henry’s Fork Watershed Council is cofacilitated by two representative citizen organizations from the basin, the Fremont-Madison Irrigation District and the Henry’s Fork Foundation. The Facilitation Team is chartered to attend to the administrative and logistical needs of the Council, coordinate its public information activities and submit annual reports of its progress to the Legislature. The Henry’s Fork Watershed Fund was established by the State of Idaho to help fund projects in the basin and to defray Council administrative expenses. Contributions to the Watershed Fund are also received from the private sector.

Henry’s Fork Watershed Council duties identified in the Legislative Charter include cooperating in resource studies and planning that transcend jurisdictional boundaries, respecting the mission, roles, water and other rights of each entity, and to review and critique proposed watershed projects and Basin Plan recommendations, suggesting priorities for their implementation by appropriate agencies. Other duties are to identify and coordinate funding sources for research, planning and implementation and long-term monitoring programs, with financing derived from both public and private sectors and to serve as an educational resource to the Legislature and the general public, communicating the Council’s progress through regular reports, media forums and other presentations.

Projects are reviewed by the Council using the Watershed Integrity Review and Evaluation process. Projects seeking endorsement of the Council through the WIRE process may seek funding assistance, political support or interagency cooperation in their implementation. An annual “State of the Watershed” Conference is held each fall to monitor the progress of Council-endorsed projects and to present research and monitoring results.