I apologize for being a bit late with this post. In my defense, I was busy wrapping up the summer and my internship with the Henry’s Fork Foundation and Friends of Harriman. Part I of this blog was about rejection. Part II is about everything else: small lessons, strange encounters, and the bittersweet feeling of closing a chapter.
This internship was educational in unexpected ways, and I learned a few things:
Not Just Work
Of course, it wasn’t all data collection and sending emails. I got to do some exploring- Sawtelle Peak, Mesa Falls, swimming at Cliff and Wade Lake, and road-tripping to the Tetons. I even managed to see Lord Huron in concert.
And then there were the people. I had Dara (another W&L student) plus plenty of catch-ups with old friends I hadn’t seen in over a year. Being back in Island Park reminded me of how weird and wonderful small-town connections can be. You can leave, but somehow, everyone still knows exactly where you’ve been.
This summer wasn’t about dramatic breakthroughs; it was about showing up every day, asking questions, and listening when people let me. It was about remembering what Harriman means to people and the reasons they visit year after year, generation after generation. And it was about realizing that even when the goats are on the table (literally or metaphorically), the mess is still worth it.
So, that’s it, my second and final blog post of the summer. I’m walking away with a bit of sunburn, a lot of stories, and the reminder that sometimes the best work is the kind nobody sees, but everybody benefits from.
Until next time,
Ella Paini
As it is the afternoon of December 31, I am closing the year with my annual fish-of-the-month blog, this one at the end of my 11th year of catching a fish in my home waters in each month of the year. To spare you the math, that’s 132 consecutive months of catching a wild trout or whitefish (and in some years I’ve fair-caught suckers and shiners, too) within a three-hour drive of my home in
In this blog post, we 1) present our turbidity and suspended sediment data, 2) explain our suspended load calculations, and 3) provide some additional information justifying why we think that a substantial amount of bed load was transported into the Henry’s Fork in addition to the suspended load. Since first observing high turbidity in Thurmon Creek and the Henry’s Fork downstream associated with the Silver Lake drawdown in November 2025, HFF’s Science and Technology team
Written by Doris Squeri Tom and I met on our first day of grad school back in 1982. We were both broke and stressed, and we both loved the outdoors, so I decided that an affordable way to relieve some of that stress might be to learn how to fly-fish. We had learned to fish with our dads when we were very small, but it was bait fishing, and we wanted to try something new.
The Henry’s Fork Drought Management Planning Committee (DMPC) met on Monday, November 24 to set this winter’s outflow and reservoir-fill strategy for Island Park Reservoir—an annual decision with implications for winter trout habitat in Box Canyon and the Ranch. Winter Outflow: What’s Coming on December 1 Beginning December 1, outflow from Island Park Dam will increase, bringing winter streamflow through Box Canyon to ~380 cfs from December through February*. That equates to 76% of Box
