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downstream of Razorback Island (RM 310.8) (Figure 35), with the following exceptions: <br />continuous open leads, one-quarter to one-third of the river width, were observed within the <br />Ouray National Wildlife Refuge (RM 251.3-254), along Hamacker Bottom (RM 270-276.4), <br />near Collier Draw (RM 286.5-287.2), and near Bonanza Bridge (RM 288.8-289.8). In the <br />remaining reaches, isolated, discontinuous leads were fairly common, but they accounted for <br />only a small portion of the total ice-covered area. Between RM 310.8 and 314.5 the river made a <br />gradual transition from a complete ice cover to open water (Figure 35). An ice jam 90-m long <br />was observed on 24 January 1997 in the bend below Chew Bridge at RM 316.3. No ice was <br />observed from the Chew Bridge to the confluence of the Yampa River and it is likely that the <br />main channel of the Green River was open to Flaming Gorge Dam. No floating frazil was <br />observed from Split Mountain Campground to Chew Bridge during 23-30 January. Air <br />temperatures in the study reach moderated during 25-28 January 1997 and the snow and ice <br />around the edges of open leads was wet. Shoreline cracks were also wet in places, indicating that <br />melting of the ice cover was occurring. <br />An aerial inspection on the afternoon of 28 January, approximately 3 days after the <br />propagation waves associated with peaking operations at Flaming Gorge Dam had started <br />passing through the study reach, revealed that the small ice jam below Chew Bridge had broken <br />up and that the leading edge of the ice cover had moved from RM 310.8 to RM 309.8. Surveys <br />of ice cover distribution from 29-30 January found that the stationary ice cover had retreated to <br />RM 306 (Figure 36). Otherwise, ice conditions appeared similar to the conditions that existed on <br />25 January (Figure 35). Based on these observations, the movement of the location of the <br />leading edge of the ice cover occurred in two stages: the first movement was from RM 310.8 to <br />RM 309.8 by 1500 hours on 28 January 1997, and the second was movement of the leading edge <br />from RM 309.8 to RM 306 early on 29 January. The ice motion detector at RM 308.2 indicated <br />that the ice cover at that location broke up at 0600 hours on 29 January. A team arrived at this <br />location five hours later to find an open channel with small ice pieces and floes floating past. <br />The post-breakup water level was approximately 1.2 m lower (based upon examination of the <br />location of the shear walls of ice remaining along the shoreline [White and Zufelt, 1994]) than <br />the pre-breakup ice surface elevation, attributable to the increased conveyance of the river after <br />removal of complete ice cover. One mile downstream, between RM 307.2 and RM 306.0, the <br />river made a gradual transition from completely open to entirely ice covered. There was little ice <br />debris at the leading edge location at RM 306.0, so ice pieces had either melted in transit or had <br />been carried beneath the upstream edge of the ice cover. Within this transition reach, at <br />1140 hours on 29 January, a 100-ft-long ice jam spanned the open portion of the channel at <br />RM 307.0. Floes colliding with the upstream edge of the jam, passed beneath the accumulation, <br />and emerged at the downstream end. Downstream of the new leading edge location (RM 306.0) <br />the condition of the ice cover appeared unchanged from conditions that existed during the steady <br />flow observations made on 23-25 January. <br />During a subsequent aerial inspection of the study reach on 20 February 1997, it was <br />-18-