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<br />The scientific design for a winter project was drafted in 1970. <br />at a time when the water resource problems along the ~orth Platte <br />River appeared to be beco~ing more acute. The preliminary design <br />and survey work occurred through fiscal year 1973 but were reduced <br />as part of a major retrenchment of the entire research program in <br />fiscal year 19i4. Only a few key snow and streanflow measurements <br />have been continued. Otherwise, the program is in suspension <br />and its resumption in the previous or a revised form is uncertain. <br /> <br />If the project is resumed, goals in the legal, adninistrative. <br />sociological. and economic fields will be coordinated with those <br />of the High Plains Cooperative Program. These two projects are <br />concerned with aspects of overlapping water resource systens in <br />the same area. <br /> <br />The anticipated Sierra Cooperative Prograill and Xorth Platte Pilot <br />Project maintained a low-expenditure profile through FY 1977 for <br />planning and preliminary studies, with funding after 1977 depend- <br />ent upon analysis of future program requirenents. <br /> <br />Other research programs. the analytical and laboratory studies, <br />have decreased during recent years but may increase slightly in <br />the future. The exact nature of these studies cannot be foreseen <br />at this tine. <br /> <br />1.5. Past programs. - The following description of past Project <br />Skywater prograns is included for the value it may have in illus- <br />trating the scope of the program. typical methods and operations, <br />and the development of the goals that characterize the present and <br />planned activities. <br /> <br />1.5.1. Past field programs. - <br /> <br />1.5.1.1. Colorado River Basin Pilot Project (CRBPP). - The <br />CRBPP, the nation's largest orographic research program to <br />date, completed five winter seasons of operation in the <br />spring of 1975. Its goal was to test the feasibility of a <br />specific clouc seeding technology for increasing the snow- <br />pack in the headwaters of the Colorado River and thus the <br />streamflow in the upper reaches of the river. Its locale was <br />the headwaters of the San Juan River in southwestern Colorado. <br />specifically the southerly slopes of the San Juan ~ountains. <br /> <br />The CRBPP consisted of four interrelated field projects: <br />(1) the recognition and treatment of seedable events; (2) col- <br />lection of data; (3) study of ecological effects; and <br /> <br />1-22 <br />