A tree-ring reconstruction
of Animas River streamflow and its use in water management
Durango, CO - June 13, 2008
Workshop
Participant List
This half-day workshop was a follow-up to a workshop
I presented in Durango in May 2007. The participants at that
workshop showed a strong interest in a streamflow reconstruction
for the Animas at Durango, so I developed the reconstruction in
spring 2008, and returned to Durango to "deliver" this
new product in person. The Mountain
Studies Institute (MSI), based in Silverton and Durango, again
served as co-sponsor of the workshop, with MSI director Koren
Nydick coordinating the outreach and local logistics.
There were 12 participants from the Durango area,
representing federal resource agencies, irrigation districts,
private water consultancies, colleges, and tribes. Half of them
were had participated in the 2007 workshop. Most of the workshop
was occupied by my presentation, which covered "Tree-Ring
101", the development of the new Animas reconstruction, and
examples of how reconstructions are being used in water planning
elsewhere in the West. The final part of the workshop was spent
in a group discussion of potential applications of the new reconstruction,
with each participant describing how they foresaw using the reconstruction,
and any needs for additional data or information. (Link to Koren's
discussion
summary.)
There was consensus in that discussion, reinforced
by feedback on the workshop evaluations, that it would be helpful
to have a public outreach tool similar to the brochure I showed
in the presentation, which was developed for the Rio Grande Water
Conservation District. So I will work with Koren and hopefully
the Southwestern Water Conservation district to make a brochure
or fact sheet for the Animas basin.
Presentation:
Jeff Lukas: A
tree-ring reconstruction of Animas River streamflow and its
use in water management (PDF)
Streamflow reconstruction data:
Animas
River at Durango (Excel)
Jeff Lukas,
University of Colorado & WWA
Reconstructed (green) and gaged (blue) annual
streamflow, with a 3-year running mean, for the Animas River at
Durango. The reconstruction covers the period 1470-2002. Note
that the reconstructed hydrologic drought for several 3-year periods
prior to 1900, notably 1845-1847, match or exceed the severity
of 2000-2002, the lowest 3-year flow during the gaged period.
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