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Water seems to be more and more in the news. In California, it’s lack of water—this spring was the driest ever in San Jose, which has been keeping records since 1875. The same week I began this trip there were 842 wildfires burning in California—most of them started by dry lightning (think regular thunderstorm where the rain evaporates before it hits the ground).
In the Midwest it’s too much water and massive flooding.
Here in the Denver area, it’s been something like 20 straight days of 90+ temperatures, which beat a record set in 1874. I spent a good part of the afternoon up to my neck in the Boulder Reservoir. Zella doesn’t care for water. She’s a ridgeback, a dog bred for the desert with small knuckly paws and almost zero body fat. Even Zella was in the water—she looks like an oversized muskrat when she swims.
Almost every Forest Service employee I’ve talked to in Colorado brings up water, or lack thereof. Water is a major reason we have national forests. The Organic Administration Act of 1897, which established the national forests, sets forth only three reasons why a national forest can be established: “To improve and protect the forest,” “to furnish a continuous supply of timber,” or “to secure favorable conditions of water flows.”
There is a growing sense within the Rocky Mountain Region that providing water will be a major 21st century mission.
“Water is the big ecological issue in the context of climate change,” a San Juan NF employee told me.
“Water’s just a huge issue for us,” a GMUG line officer told me. Grand Mesa alone has 300 small reservoirs that provide water for municipalities and irrigators.
“Water, water, water and water,” a line officer on the Rio Grande told me when I asked him to name the top three (3) issues he deals with. On the Rio Grande, water is even more important than oil and gas. 140,000 acres of gas leases between Monte Vista and South Fork were deferred because farmers “are nuts about water protection.”
“We’re just starting to try and figure out the effects of climate change on water storage, just starting to ask ourselves: How are we going to be responsive to what’s coming” one senior Rocky Mountain Region planner told me several days ago in a meeting in Golden. Several people have told me they foresee more hydropower development on national forest land. Many people have told me it’s likely that the Forest Service will be asked to construct more high elevation reservoirs to capture snow pack runoff. There will be less snow pack, and it will melt earlier, possibly earlier than irrigators need it for crops. Hence more reservoirs.
Forest dynamics impacts water. Most people in the know will tell you that 3 million acres of lodgepole will be dead within the next five years. In twenty years, most of those trees will be jack strawed on the forest floor. The fire and fuels guys say this huge fuel bed will burn the heck out of soil when there’s a fire. There could be widespread watershed cumulative effects that impact water delivery.
Grazing affects water. More on that later.
Oil and gas development impacts water quality. Dozens of reservoirs in Colorado have mercury warnings. Researchers are starting to notice dramatic changes in acid neutralization capacity in alpine lakes from gas development emissions.
Climate change impacts water.
People impact water. More people require more water.
Invasive species impact water. Zebra mussels and Quagga mussels are starting to have big impact on water recreation on national forest lands.
Moose impact water. When Lewis and Clark traveled through the Rockies they didn’t see one moose. Since then thousands of moose migrating from the north have been tearing up riparian areas, suppressing willow growth. Ditto elk. Managers are trying to reduce the elk herds on most national forests in Colorado. Wolves have migrated into the north part of the state. Research in Yellowstone shows wolves can improve riparian conditions by chasing elk out of dense wolf hiding cover in riparian areas into more open upland zones (“the ecology of fear” is what OSU researchers call the phenomenon).
Many riparian areas in the Rockies are in bad shape because cottonwoods are aging, declining, and not being replaced by young cottonwoods. Cottonwoods have a tiny seed that only competes on silt deposited by floods. Most rivers are regulated by dams and there’s no flooding.
There’s the Ditch Bill, the 1996 Colorado statute that lets the Forest Service permit existing irrigation ditches on national forest land (“ditches, ditches, oh, ditches, yeah, we deal with a lot of ditches” one line officer told me, his eyes audibly rolling around in his head). He paused for a long moment.
“Water is a huge issue for us.”
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