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Little research has been conducted on how western juniper directly influences specific components of the water budget for a given watershed. Yet juniper control projects often cite increased water availability as an objective, and there is a significant amount of anecdotal evidence indicating that removal of western juniper results in increased water availability, expansion of riparian/meadow habitats, and increased vegetative productivity. For this pilot study soil moisture probes and 1 meter exclusion cages were set up in 2010 in six wet meadow/seeps (< 1 ha in size) surrounded by western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) in Lassen County, CA. Western juniper was removed from upland areas surrounding three of the wet meadow/seep monitoring sites, while the upland juniper stands surrounding the other three monitoring sites were left intact. Data loggers continually monitored soil volumetric water content (m³/m³ VWC) and soil temperature (° C). Vegetation from exclusion cages was clipped and weighed annually. While seasonal soil moisture curves vary by site and by year, effects on soil moisture and vegetative yield due to juniper removal could not be clearly established over the current monitoring period, and may be over-shadowed at least partially due to drought.