Stephen Gentile

Hey everyone, this will be my last blog post for the summer! I’m heading back to Boise State University in a couple of days. Since my last blog post, I’ve been checking the fences regularly and electro-fishing a lot. The fences have been doing well, although I had a couple of instances where those pesky calves were getting under Last Chance’s fence. I actually watched one tauntingly nudge itself through the barbed wire onto the right side of the fence! To fix this problem, I started lowering the distance between the barbed wire in the area they were hanging out at. I also tied wire perpendicular to the barbed wire so that it couldn’t be raised as much when the calves push themselves through.     Electro-fishing has continued to be the highlight of my summer, especially one day, I got an amazing view of the Tetons on our way to an alpine lake outlet. We barely got any fish from the creek exiting the lake, but the views made the whole trip worth it. The hike was around 19 miles for the entire day, so I was dead tired after that! A lot of my remaining electro-fishing sites have been

To whoever is reading this blog post: H.F.F. members, conservationists, future Byers Interns, Anglers, and anyone else who may have stumbled upon this… You may be wondering, “What does the Byers Intern even entail?”. My name is Stephen Gentile, and as the 2025 Byers Intern, I’m here to tell you!  Before we begin, I want to talk a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Rexburg, Idaho. I discovered the Henry’s Fork Foundation in high school while taking a class called Environmental Solutions. H.F.F. gave a presentation on the equipment they use to collect data at Warm River. Fast forward a couple of years, and now I’m going into my junior year at Boise State University. My major is biology with an emphasis in ecology and evolution, and I’m glad to be able to gain some fieldwork experience in my “backyard” this summer. First off, I’m primarily in-charge of maintaining riparian fencing along the Henry’s Fork to keep the river in prime condition. Riparian fencing is important because it prevents erosion along the streambanks and excess nutrients (cow manure) from entering the river. We have two stretches of fence that Henry’s Fork Foundation looks after. One is