Henry’s Fork Watershed Council tour the Ashton Dam
ASHTON, Idaho (KIFI) - The Henry's Fork Watershed Council was first formed in 1993. Their main goal is to talk about water management in the area, how it can continue to succeed and how it can be improved.
As part of their meetings every year, they tour someplace to talk about the water usage and the water management in the area. This year, they toured the Aston Dam.
"That particular facility is up for relicensing right now. It's in the five year relicensing process. And so this tour was a perfect opportunity to get a lot of different stakeholders in the region together and talk about not only the dam, but Pacific Course holdings here, wildlife management, recreation, power generation, and then water management and how that impacts irrigation downstream at times of fisheries," Henry's Fork Foundation Executive Director Brandon Herron said.
The tour included a few different areas that surround the Ashton Dam and the Reservoir such as the Ashton Boat Launch, a PacifiCorp Wetland Complex, an Anglers launch and the dam itself.
Participants represent the different parties interested in the successful management of Eastern Idaho's waters.
"We could always use a few more landowners, a few more citizens and public members to show up to our Henry Fork Watershed Council meetings that would make it even better. But overall, great attendance today by various interests and a lot of people that need to communicate and work together to the betterment of water management in Eastern Idaho," Herron said.
This year's tour covered the future plans for the dam and the impact on the local farming and wildlife.
"We're having some really positive impacts on not only what's available for agriculture, but the fisheries, the health of the fisheries, water quality, water quantity. So we're doing really good work collaboratively here through the Council and it's something to really be proud of," Herron said.
