8252

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8252
• Author: Allred, T. M. and J. C. Schmidt.
• Title: Channel Narrowing of the Green River Near Green River, Utah
• USFW Year: 1999.
• USFW - Doc Type: History, Rates, and Processes of Narrowing.
• Copyright Material: NO

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CHAPTER 2
CHANNEL NARROWING OF THE GREEN RIVER NEAR GREEN
RIVER, UTAH: HISTORY AND RATES OF NARROWING1

INTRODUCTION
~he adjustment of landforms to changes in the magnitude and frequency
of their formative processes and to changes in vegetation is of long-standing
geomorphic interest. Twentieth-century climatic change, nonnative vegetation
invasion, and construction of large dams have altered the character and
function of riverine ecosystems in the semiarid western United States. Habitat
availability at critical life stages of endemic endangered fish, the quality of river
recreation, and the magnitude of sediment transfer to downstream reaches
have also been altered. The Colorado River system has been greatly affected
by each of these climatic, biotic, and anthropogenic changes. In an era when
dam operations are being revised to mitigate and improve downstream river
environments, it is essential that we understand the magnitude of twentieth-
century channel change and the relative roles of climate, vegetation, and dam
construction in causing those changes.
This study concerns adjustment of the Green River near Green River,
Utah (Fig. 1). This reach has been known to geologists since John Wesley

1Coauthored by Tyler M. Allred and John C. Schmidt