WMOD00593

• Contract/Permit #: 14-06-D-7052
• Title: Ecological Impacts of Snowpack Augmentation in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado
• Date: 3/1/1976
• State: CO
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

One important aspect of the initial basic decision to study snow-related
processes was the realization that the ecology project would produce a
great increase in environmental knowledge of the San Juan Mountains for
its own sake, regardless of whether or not the cloud seeding project
proved effective, or socially, environmentally and economically acceptable,
as a basis for long-term operational pursuit. Thus this study began at
the same time as the cloud seeding pilot project and proceeded parallel
with, but independent of it. Some twenty senior scientists and a large
number of graduate students, field assistants and support staff were
involved. This report, therefore, represents the results of a large and
complex undertaking. Principal Investigators and primary graduate student
assistants are named as authors of the major segments of the report and
every effort has been made to ensure that individual scientists are
credited with the results of their studies and conversely are responsible
for the conclusions that are drawn. Some sections, however, required a
concensus and in the final assessment, the Editors, as the principal
contracting officers for the primary contract to Colorado State University,
and the main subcontract to the University of Colorado, hold the ultimate
responsibility for the conclusions and recommendations.

Chapter I discusses the history and objectives of the San Juan Ecology
Project and provides a brief description of the study area and commentary
on the present status of winter cloud seeding technology. It also includes
the final results and conclusions of the entire research period in the
form of a summary of key conclusions. Several participating scientists
have contributed to an ecological overview assessment that forms Chapter II,
which is intended as a general statement that can stand independently of the
bOdy-of the main report. This describes system-wide conditions and processes
and concerns itself with potential long-term effects of winter cloud seeding.
It should be understood that this chapter necessarily involves a higher level
of speculation than will be found in the summary of key conclusions or in
the individual final subproject reports. It is offered as a partial
solution to the problem of drawing conclusions about long-term ecosystem
effects on the basis of a short-term study. Chapter III contains an
evaluation of the entire project as originally planned and executed.
The aim here is to assist other researchers and planners who may be
involved in future weather modification projects. Finally, the individual
research reports that comprise Chapter IV are the bases for the summary of
key conclusions and the synthesis and discussion. Each one describes the
experimental conditions, results, and conclusions of a particular investi-
gation. These reports are a summation of work undertaken during the
entire period of the project and, as such, they supersede all previous
publications. Three report categories have been established according to
specific or general ecosystem application. Alpine tundra and forest
ecosystem investigation are therefore grouped separately, while a third
group contains those reports that are generally applicable to the entire
San Juan Mountain area. Technical editing of this volume was managed by
editors Sally McVey, for the Tundra Ecosystems and Paleoecology and by
James Sweeney and Roger Sleeper for the Forest Ecosystems.

It is stressed that the results of 5 years of ecological research
described in this report, are but one component required for the decision-
making process of whether or not operational cloud seeding should be
undertaken. Other components include: a technological assessment of the
effectiveness of winter cloud seeding itself; economic, social and legal
implications; and finally, evaluation of the relative merits of alternate
methods of solving the water-shortage problem facing the entire Colorado
River Basin. Regardless of the outcome of this decision-making process
we hope that our efforts will prove to have made a significant contri-
bution to an understanding of the ecology of the San Juan Mountains.
It is largely in this context that the report is considered as a
contribution to the United States UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB)
Program in general and to MAB Project 6 in particular. MAB Project 6, the
study of the impact of human activities on mountain and tundra ecosystems
should become a focal point for mountain and tundra research, with the
intention of aiding policy making in the area of land-use planning.

Contractually, of course, this is a report specifically to the Bureau
of Reclamation under Contract No. 14-06-D-7052, and the project was well
under way by the time UNESCO had established the planning phase for MAB.
Nevertheless, the international objectives for MAB Project 6, and more
especially the formulation of a United States national program for MAB

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