The mean annual runoff and peak discharges having selected recurrence intervals have been related to the width and average depth of cross sections between channel and point bars for 53 gaged sites on perennial streams in the mountain region of Colorado. These relations and measures of channel dimensions can be used to estimate streamflow characteristics for ungaged streams in the Colorado mountain region. The standard error of estimate is 18.3 percent for the relation with mean annual runoff, and ranges from about 30 percent to 45 percent for the relations with peak discharges having recurrence intervals of 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 years. The standard error of estimate generally increased with the recurrence interval for peak discharges.

No abstract

Prior to European settlement, Native Americans actively used fire for altering vegetation patterns and for other environmental purposes. This human influence on the environment shifted after European settlement in North Ameria, when it was believed that fire, unlike other natural disturbance phenomena, could and should be controlled. This belief was reinforced by several severe fires that occurred in the early 1900's, particularly the "Big Blowup" in Idaho in August 1910. The Big Blowup consumed 3 million acres in northern Idaho and western Montana and killed 85 people. Within a year of this fire, the U.S. Forest Service firefighting program was born, and all wildfires were extinguished as soon as possible. Wildfires in the lower 48 States decreased from about 40 to 50 million acres a year in the early 1930's to about 5 million acres in the 1970's. While the potentially deadly aspect of fire was obvious and immediate, the ecological changes and long-term risks resulting from fire suppression and exclusion mounted slowly and inconspicuously over many decades. The effects of fire-suppression policies became most apparent in the aftermath of the Yellowstone National Park fires in 1988 and the 1994 Storm King Mountain fire in Colorado that, in total, claimed the lives of 34 firefighters. Scientists studying these and other recent fires concluded that century old firesuppression policies were greatly increasing the risks of catastrophic wildland fires.

No abstract

The U.S. Geological Survey is the principal Federal agency cooperating with State agencies in the collection of hydrologic data needed for the planning, development, use, and management of the water resources in Kansas.Hydrologic-data collection by the U.S. Geological Survey in Kansas began in 1895.The fiscal-year 1983 water-data program, operated in cooperation with several Federal, State, and local agencies, included 278 stations for collection of river, lake, and reservoir data; 1,940 wells for collection of groundwater data; and 58 sampling stations and 215 wells wells for collection of water-quality data.This report provides a detailed description of the waterdata program, including coordination and funding* data-collection activities,quality-assurance plans, availability of data, network design, and future needs for water data.