JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton Conservation District Executive Director Carlin Girard dove into the management challenges and opportunities of the Snake River in an essay featured in the recently published book “A Watershed Moment: The American West in the Age of Limits.”
The three editors — author Robert Frodeman, Rochester Institute of Technology Philosophy Professor Evelyn Brister and Teton County Commissioner Luther Propst — spearheaded the book project during a brainstorming workshop with a team of authors at the Murie Ranch in Grand Teton National Park over a year ago.
Girard, who is an expert in water conservation, sat down with Buckrail to discuss the book and his essay “Heading Downhill: Management Challenges on the Snake River.”
“I see this book as a compilation attempting to synthesize the challenges that are unique to the west … in an effort to try to position ourselves better as we move up against these challenges in different communities.”
Girard explained that there are limitations in the American West, even though it can be perceived as a land of unlimited opportunity and growth.
“For a long time, this has been the place with space, expanse, wildness and resource,” Girard said. “And I think this book is trying to acknowledge where some of the constraints that exist with regard to natural resources and healthy communities.”
Girard wrote about the Snake River’s downstream passage in three different geographic locations: the headwaters in Wyoming, the southern Idaho section and the Washington State section, from its confluence up to Hell’s Canyon.
“This was a different writing exercise for me and I really enjoyed it,” Girard said. “I had this idea to create a case study on the Snake River, breaking it into three sections.”
Girard explained that each section faces different management challenges. He said that the downstream Washington section has large dams, hydropower and anadromous fish, meaning the fish are born in freshwater, migrate to the ocean as adults and return to freshwater to spawn. According to Girard, salmon and steelhead trout in the Snake River are endangered in this section of river.
The Idaho section of the waterway has a lot of agricultural pressures, including agriculture irrigation and a system of dams, according to Girard. He described the Wyoming section of the Snake River as “one of the best examples of a large wild river system that has an intact native fishery.”
“The upper Snake in Wyoming is a rare example of a fishery that requires very little management compared to what we see downstream,” Girard said. “The end goal of fisheries management that we should be shooting for is a system that functions on its own without heavy augmentation and huge amounts of financial resources.”
To come up with possible solutions for managing water systems across the west, Girard emphasized that it’s important to recognize the value of water in all of its competing uses.
“In the upper Snake, we often feel that our need for the water here is the most important, and we want it to be prioritized,” Girard said. “It’s good to also recognize that as we move downstream, there are other needs. We can be opposed to agricultural water use, but it is also how we get our food.”
In his essay, Girard presented how this range of different challenges and opportunities on the Snake River is analogous to many of the river systems across the west. He stressed that learning about different perspectives can help communities and state legislators better evaluate strategies for multiple water use.
The book is a compilation of essays from different author perspectives that delve into issues of sustainability and development across the western landscape. The contributors are policymakers, government employees, land and water managers, urban planners, biologists, Tribal members, writers and academics.
Girard will join other book contributors for a public discussion at the Beers and Banter event about the project at the Jackson Hole History Museum on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to all.
