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INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME III The Sierra Ecology Project is a continuing study conducted as part of the SCPP (Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project), the Bureau of Reclamation's research program in cloud seeding for precipitation increases in the Sierra Nevada of California and western Nevada. The goal of the pilot project is to determine whether wintertime cloud seeding can be a reliable alternative for supplementing the region's water resources. The Sierra Ecology Project will help evaluate possible effects upon the region's environment over the life of the SCPP. The studies contained in this volume of the report series examine the historical precipitation, temperature, and snowpack regimes at the Forest Service's CSSL (Central Sierra Snow Laboratory), located near the SCPP primary study area (fig. 1). The information provides a comprehensive and quantitative picture of the region's extremely variable climatic and hydrologic environment. The information contained in this volume of the Sierra Ecology Project report series will serve as a firm base from which to investigate the effects of cloud seeding on components of the region's environment. Together with the findings contained in Volumes I, II, and V of the series, this volume will contribute to the development of environmental monitoring schemes carried out during the SCPP's exploratory experiment. Inferences drawn from historical climatic data in this report will serve as guideposts for the development of effective cloud seeding suspension criteria during the experiment. Part 1 of this volume presents historical precipitation and temperature data from the CSSL and examines the projected impacts of weather modification upon these factors. Part 2 examines historical snowpack characteristics at CSSL, including snowpack depth, water equivalent, and density. Dr. James L. Smith, in his role as Project Leader, Snow Zone Hydrology, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley, California, directed the Sierra Ecology Project until his death on May 7, 1980. Dr. Smith is the author of Part 1 of this volume; he shares authorship of Part 2 with Dr. Neil H. Berg, who succeeded Dr. Smith as Project Leader at Berkeley. This volume and companion volumes of the Sierra Ecology Project report series are published as part of the environmental investigations budget of the Office of Atmospheric Resources Research. Other volumes in this series include workshop reports on components of the Sierra Nevada environment (Volumes I and II), a bibliography of the environmental effects of weather modification (Volume IV), and an overview of the environmental effects of weathe:r modification (Volume V). I-ill