Between 1966 and 2006 the total surface area of 44 Wind River Mountain glaciers decreased 38%. Glaciers and other frozen “assets†have supplied 75% of water for the western United States. Nonetheless, annual April snowpack measurements taken between 1956 and 2014 document decreasing water yield from about 80% of western mountains. Frozen-storage losses could be mitigated by liquid storage in wetlands, marshes, beaver ponds, peat beds, and other riparian features. However these wetlands, in order to retain or increase water yield, must be in proper functioning condition. We review data collected from public-land riparian systems to illustrate what has been lost. We also review successes in restoring riparian function. These successes have required 20 or more years to implement for a variety of reasons. Land management agency action to regain or protect proper functioning riparian systems has been and will continue to be successful. Under expected climate-change scenarios, worsening West-wide water shortages are likely to continue unless the liquid-water storage capacity of the region can be restored.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.