This quarterly report discusses tasks undertaken and progress made on the USU REMAP project during the period July 1 to September 30, 2000. The primary task on the project during this period was completion of summer 2000 fieldwork. Within this report, we provide a quick overview of the watersheds examined this quarter. This report is organized into the following subsections:
- Watersheds evaluated the quarter
- Watershed 2000 presentation
In the previous quarterly report, we provided a discussion of the five watersheds that would undergo analysis during this summer field season. Field data collection for two of the watersheds, located in Arizona, were completed during the first part of the summer in the previous quarter. During this quarter, fieldwork was completed on the three remaining watersheds:
- Dugout Creek Tributary Watershed, Wyoming
- Summit Watershed, Idaho
- Lower Sheep Watershed, Idaho
Figure 1. Location map of watersheds investigated during year
2000. Dugout Creek tributary, Summit, and Lower Sheep watersheds were investigated
during this quarter.
Summit and Lower Sheep watersheds are located within the Reynolds Creek watershed in southwestern Idaho--a USDA experimental watershed since 1960. The temperatures regime in Reynolds Creek creates seasonal snowfall precipitation and runoff due to snowmelt on frozen soil. (Lower Sheep has a complete, meteorological station.) Vegetation cover consists of cool season grasses and several types of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.). The Lower Sheep watershed is characteristic of the "smooth" topography (Figure 2), sagebrush cover, and frozen-ground runoff characteristic of the upper part of the Reynolds Creek watershed. Although the flow network at the upper end of the watershed is relatively xeric, more mesic vegetation conditions occur near the outlet (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Upland conditions characteristic of the Lower Sheep
watershed.
Figure 3. Well vegetated riparian zone in the lower part of
the Lower Sheep watershed.
Summit watershed has a more rugged topography, is characterized by shallow bedrock, and has runoff resulting primarily from rainstorm events. Vegetation is much sparser (Figure 4) than at Lower Sheep and the species mixture is of more xeric species. Summit has an active precipitation gage, but a streamflow and sediment monitoring station at the outlet has been inactivated.
Figure 4. Summit watershed, Idaho.
Dugout Creek Tributary watershed is situated in a grassland prairie in northeastern Wyoming. Although cool season grasses and sagebrush are the predominant vegetation cover in the watershed, more important is the high percentage of bare ground (Figure 5) due to the watershed's unusual geology and soils. Thin soils derived from shale allow little infiltration; therefore much storm rainfall runs off rather than infiltrates. A discontinued US Geological Survey gauging station monitored flows from 1965 to 1983 at the watershed’s outlet.
Figure 5. Dugout Creek watershed has a high percentage of
bare ground, particularly on divides.
WATERSHED 2000
A presentation of USU's REMAP Poject monitoring concepts were made at
the Watershed 2000 meeting held in Vancouver, British Columbia from July
9th to 13th. Craig Goodwin presented Rangeland Watersheds: Integrated
monitoring and Modeling within a GIS. Co-authors for the poster were
Allen Rasmussen and Jim Dobrowolski. The paper
is available on line and the slide
show presentation may also be viewed on line.
