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<br />Biological issues. comment to SWSI, August 2004
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<br />Laubhan, M.K., and L.H. Fredrickson, 1997, Wetlands of the Great Plains: Habitat Characteristics
<br />and Vertebrate Aggregations. Pp. 20-48 in Knopf, F.L. and F.B. Samson, Eds., 1997,
<br />EcoloGV and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates. New York: Springer.
<br />Lewis, W.M., Ed., 2003, Water and Climate in the Western U.S. Boulder: University Press of
<br />Colorado.
<br />luecke, D. et aI., 2003, What the Current Drouaht Means for the Future of Water Manaaement in
<br />Colorado. Available on.line from Trout Unlimited. <www.cotrout.org>)
<br />MacDonneU, Lawrence J., Charles W. Howe and Kathleen A. Miller, 1994, Water Banks in the
<br />West. Natural Resources Law Center. University of Colorado School of Law.
<br />Madden, E.M., R.K. Murphy, A.J. Hansen, and L Murray, 2000, Models for Guiding Management
<br />of Prairie Bird Habitat in Northwestern North Dakota. AmeriCan Midland Naturalist 144: 377.
<br />392. Prairie birds, in ~steep decline'" require the full mosaic of successional types of
<br />environments to maintain futl diversity, with diverse management indications..
<br />McGranahan, D.A., 1999, Natural Amenities Drive Rural Pooulation Chanae. USDA Economic
<br />. Research Service, Agricultural Economic Report No. 781, Sep. 1999.
<br />Miller, M.W., andT,D. Nudds, 1996, Prairie Landscape Change and Flooding in the Mississippi
<br />River Valley. Conservation Biology 10(3): 847-853. Interesffng piece of the big picture
<br />because it compares the Canadian and U.S. land use changes with differing results in flow
<br />rates. Increased flooding in the Mississippi Valley "may be at least partially related to
<br />extensive changes in agricultural land use resulting in reduction of natural upland vegetation
<br />and wetland drainage" (abstract, p. 847). Competing explanations include climate change
<br />(would have had same effect both sides of border), channel morphology change, and
<br />landscape change; they find the last.
<br />Murkin, H.R., E.J. Murkin and J.P. Ball, 1997, Avian Habitat Selection and Prairies Wetland
<br />Dynamics: a 10-Year Experiment. Ecoloaical Aoolications 74(4): 1144-1159. Closely-
<br />observed demonstration of the importance of the variety of mosaic of wetlands types for
<br />different habitat values for different species, with temporal dfmensions as well.
<br />Nadeau, T., and S.G. Leibowitz, 2003, Isolated Wetlands: An Introduction to the Special Issue.
<br />Wetlands 23(3): 471-474. Note: issue recommended for reviews of several topics. Impoltant
<br />poinHor SWSI concerns breadth of support for treatment of -isolated- wetlands as actually not
<br />isolated as part of habitats and resources used; they are not biologically isolated. Also
<br />impoltant that private decisions control resources now much more appreciated.
<br />Nadler. C.T., and S.A. Schumm, 1981, Metamorphosis of South Platte and Arkansas Rivers.
<br />Eastern Colorado. Phvsical Geoaraohv 2: 95-115. This is not a vegetation study, nor oriented
<br />to biological interests, but it is he basic study of channel morphology responses to water
<br />management changes. By 1895 there were 20 major irrigation diversions on the Arkansas,
<br />and more on the South Platte, raising water tables, increasing late season floWs, and
<br />dramatically increasing the riverine woody vegetation as wide, braided streams became
<br />narrowed, deeper channels, sinuous but no longer meandering as they had. The -rivers..;
<br />have undergone dramatic historic changes that are so extensive that they can be termed a
<br />metamorphosis. ... the complete change of river morphology... - (P. 95.) The Arkansas had
<br />lost 80% of its wi~h near Bent's Old Fort by 1952; below John MaJtin sediment deliveries
<br />were reduced by 86% beginning in 1944. The role of invasive tamarisk is also big, in root
<br />support of banks, increased roughness and sediment capture as well as phreatophytic water
<br />consumption and competition with the native vegetation. Using historic observations, the
<br />South Platte was estimated to have been reduced to almost a tenth of its former width before
<br />widening again a little.
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<br />Interestingly, Nadler and Schumm (p. 111) commented that, -When the South Platte and
<br />Arkansas Rivers changed from intermittent to perennial flow due to irrigation return flow, the
<br />change was analogous to a climatic change. Vegetation became denser and flow became
<br />perennial. - What does this suggest for potential actual climate change in the future?
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<br />National Research Council, 1992, Water Transfers: Efficiency. Eauity and Environment.
<br />Washington: National Academy Press.
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