9506

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9506
• Author: Cooper, D. J. and C. Severn.
• Title: Wetlands of the Escalante Ranch Area, Utah
• USFW Year: 1994.
• USFW - Doc Type: Hydrology, Water Chemistry, Vegetation, Invertebrate Communities, and Restoration Potential.
• Copyright Material: NO

preserve the organisms. Three surface water invertebrate samples
were collected from each sample station for each sample date.
Water depth was measured for each sample to be used in
calculating the volume of water sampled.
Benthic samples were collected with a piston core sampler
which was 6.1 cm diameter and 29 cm2 in area. Samples included
only the top 2 cm of sediment, making each sample 58 cm' by
volume. Only one sample was collected from each station on each
sample date because we thought that picking invertebrates from
this mud would be extremely labor intensive. However, the
sediments proved to be largely of coarse-textured material which
could be sorted with sieves. All data for all parameters sampled
are summarized here and the data presented in appendices.
No quantitative vegetation data was collected because of
time constraints. This information would have added somewhat to
our analysis of landscape patterns in the study area, but we did
not feel it would be a critical component to evaluating the
capability for supporting fishes.
We also provide a review of "Green River Hydrologic Study of
the Escalante Wetlands", authored by J.S. O'Brien, of FLO
Engineering, Inc., Breckenridge, CO. This report, dated 1
December 1993 presents the authors data, interpretations and
hypotheses on river sediment movement, wetland hydrology and
ecology. He also provides a design for creating overbank flows
from the Green River into the wetland.
One of the goals of our study was to determine how the
Escalante Wetlands function today, and how they may have
functioned in the past. By function we mean its present and past
hydrologic regime, flood characteristics, sediment movement,
water quality, vegetation, and habitat for fishes and other wild
animals. In general, this site has undergone tremendous changes
since 1937. These changes have allowed the current wetlands to
develop and we must accentuate that the wetlands existing today
provide tremendously important wildlife functions, particularly
for sandhill cranes and waterfowl. Another of our study areas is
the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge, and we feel that the habitat
for water birds provided at Escalante is superior to the created
and managed wetlands occurring at Ouray. Thus, extreme caution
must be exercised in devising any landscape changes which will,
modify the hydrologic and sediment regime of this site.
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