PSW-MISC-77

July 2006

Cover Photo: David Simeral

United States

Department of 

Agriculture

Forest Service

Pacific Southwest

Research Station
Co-Chairs

Henry F. Diaz, NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO USA, and

Constance I. Millar, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Sierra Nevada 

Research Center, Albany CA USA

with

Daniel R. Cayan, University of California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA USA

Michael D. Dettinger, USGS Water Resources Division, La Jolla, CA USA

Daniel B. Fagre, USGS Biological Resources Division,West Glacier, MT USA

Lisa J. Graumlich, Montana State University, Big Sky Institute, Bozeman, MT USA

Greg Greenwood, Mountain Research Initiative, Berne, Switzerland

Malcolm K. Hughes, University of Arizona, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research,Tucson, AZ USA

David L. Peterson, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle,WA USA

Frank L. Powell, University of California,White Mountain Research Station, San Diego, CA USA

Kelly T. Redmond, Desert Research Institute,Western Regional Climate Center, Reno, NV USA

Nathan L. Stephenson, USGS Biological Resources Division,Three Rivers, CA USA

Thomas W. Swetnam, University of Arizona, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research,Tucson, AZ USA

Connie Woodhouse, NOAA, Paleoclimatology Branch, Boulder, CO USA

Citation: CIRMOUNT Committee. 2006. Mapping New Terrain: Climate Change and America’s

West. Report of the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains

(CIRMOUNT), Misc. Pub., PSW-MISC-77, Albany, CA, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest

Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 29 pp.

CIRMOUNT is endorsed as a regional pilot project of the 

Mountain Research Initiative

CIRMOUNT on the Web: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/

For more information, contact:

Constance Millar, ph: 510-559-6435, e-mail: cmillar@fs.fed.us

Henry Diaz, ph: 303-497-6640, e-mail: Henry.F.Diaz@noaa.gov

CIRMOUNT Executive Committee
CIRMOUNT

The Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains

Daunting challenges confront the mountains of the American West. Among the greatest 

of these is maintaining a sustainable water supply in the face of a growing population

together with a variable and changing climate. Global warming may have far-reaching,

though as yet unknown, consequences for the mountain environments of western North

America. Consensus has been developing among a diverse group of researchers and

resource managers in the West that climate change will seriously alter the mountain

snowpack—the principal source of the West’s precious water—and with it, ecosystem

function, landscape integrity, and concomitant socioeconomic activity in the region, and,

ultimately, the nation.

Out of the growing recognition that the climate of the West is changing, and that impacts

are rapidly emerging in the form of changes in streamflow patterns, plant phenology,

ecosystem structure, wildfire regimes, and the like, a group of scientists representing a

wide range of disciplines has developed an informal consortium to address these issues.

By crossing traditional disciplinary lines, exchanging ideas, and coordinating research

efforts, Consortium participants seek to identify the greatest threats to western

mountains arising from climate change and to develop priorities for a research strategy

that addresses those concerns.

With this publication, Mapping New Terrain, Consortium participants intend to promote

effective responses to the problems identified. We wish to inform decision makers and

the public of the nature of our concerns, and highlight critical areas where monitoring

and research are needed to develop appropriate coping strategies for future changes.

CIRMOUNT Co-Chairs

Henry F. Diaz

NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO USA

Constance I. Millar

USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Albany, CA USA

From the Consortium Chairs
Statement of Purpose

CIRMOUNT is a collaborative, open consortium dedicated to 

enhancing understanding of climate variability and change and its 

role in sustaining western North American society.The goals of 

CIRMOUNT are to define regional vulnerabilities to climate variability and 

change; to measure and understand climate-driven changes in the unique 

landscapes that define western North American mountains; to develop 

information, products, and processes to assist natural resource decision makers

throughout the West; and to respond to the needs and challenges of western

society for mountain resources by anticipating potential impacts of future 

climate change.

CIRMOUNT responds to four urgent situations in western mountains:

• Mountain regions are vastly underinstrumented for measuring climate and 

long-term changes.

• Research on western mountain climates and ecosystems is intensive, but 

scattered and poorly integrated.

• Demands on western mountain ecosystems are escalating, placing new 

and cumulative stresses on mountain communities and the natural 

resources that sustain them.

• Climate change has been widely overlooked in mountain land-use 

planning and natural-resource policy.

The recent severe and sustained drought in the West (2000–2004), which

exposed the region’s vulnerability to water shortages, huge forest fires,

widespread tree mortalities, insect infestations, and outbreaks of disease,

demonstrates an urgent need to pool the region’s and the nation’s resources to

address these problems more effectively.

CIRMOUNT’s specific goals include the following:

• Promote and implement coordinated high-elevation climate, hydrologic, and 

ecosystem monitoring.

• Catalyze and coordinate integrated research within and among mountain 

regions.

• Communicate research findings among diverse disciplines and provide sound 

science for effective resource planning and management.

• Develop and promote long-term, policy-relevant mountain-climate and 

ecosystem databases for public information and decision support.

• Develop CIRMOUNT as a pilot regional model at the international scale and 

engage CIRMOUNT projects and scientists in global mountain-climate 

science and assessments.
Contents

Executive Summary 4

Climate and Society: Challenges Facing America’s West 6 8

Climate Change 8

Water Supply 10

Forest Dieback 12

Wildfire 14

Urban-Wildland Issues 16

Biodiversity and Wildlife 18

Launching CIRMOUNT 20

Coordination of CIRMOUNT 26
4

Executive Summary 

The Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains

CIRMOUNT www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount

Climate variability and sustained change presage far-reaching transformations across America’s West, an expanse dominated

by immense mountain ranges and interspersed with important urban centers.These mountains provide the region’s life

blood—water that courses through its streams and runs out its faucets, power that fuels its industries and lights its cities, and

natural resources that feed its economy and provide many of its jobs.The West is a land where life is written in water—from

vast ranchlands and farmlands, to large densely populated urban areas—and the communities of the West are intricately tied

to it.

Why should we be concerned about how climate change is affecting the mountains? Despite their imposing grandeur and

apparent fortitude, the mountains contain highly sensitive environments that support delicately balanced physical and

natural systems. A warming of only a few degrees has major implications for mountain regions—for the integrity of the

seasonal snowpack, the extensive forests that western mountains support, and for the people who make their home

there. Such changes are already affecting water supply, energy availability, fire severity, and recreational opportunities.

Continuing climate change may significantly alter the western landscape, where one encounters distinct ecological

communities as successive layers from the lowlands to the high peaks. Each of these ecosystems has specific requirements

for temperature and precipitation. As climate variability increases and global warming continues, complex changes in

montane plant and animal communities will occur, increasing vulnerability of species to dramatic shifts in distribution and

local extinctions.

The following scientific and societal themes have emerged as common throughout the West:

•Water Supply: Local and region-wide drought have affected cities and agriculture repeatedly over the past 

quarter century. Higher temperatures have raised snow levels, shortened the accumulation season, reduced 

the peak snowpack, and hastened spring melt. Meanwhile, rapid population growth has accelerated demand 

for assured water. Together, these trends increase chances of significant regional water shortages.

•Forest Dieback: Recent severe drought, superimposed on decades of fire exclusion and livestock grazing, have 

increased susceptibility of trees to insects and disease, and are resulting in widespread and rapid forest diebacks 

throughout western forests.

•Urban-Wildland Issues: Accelerating suburban development on city fringes and exurban development of 

rural lands are increasing scarcity of wildlands and associated resources; wildfire is placing homes in these 

developments at risk. Poor air quality is moving uphill from urban centers. Climate changes are accentuating 

these problems.

•Wildfire: Enormous, destructive crown fires, outside the range of 20th-century sizes and severity, are 

consuming forests stressed from drought, extensive tree mortality, and long-term fire exclusion. These fires 

burn severely, threatening biodiversity, watershed stability, water supply, and human lives and property.

•Biodiversity and Wildlife: Development of sparsely settled areas, massive forest dieback, extensive highseverity crown fires, landscape fragmentation, and changes in high-altitude ecosystems are threatening biodiversity 

and wildlife habitat.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5

Despite our best current efforts, substantially more information is needed to develop a fuller and more integrated

understanding of these critical issues. Research studies are intensive but fragmentary across mountain ranges, few systematic

studies exist to date, and weather and hydrological stations are scarce at critical high elevations. Scientists cannot yet respond

meaningfully to specific questions managers are asking about climate change, such as how water flows will be affected locally,

what species may be at risk, and to what extent increased wildfire looms on the horizon.

The recent meetings and forums undertaken by researchers representing a broad cross-section of science disciplines have set

the stage for unprecedented cooperation among scientists, policy makers, and resource managers to identify and begin to

address the most important questions about how climate variability and change will affect the West. As a key outcome of

these grass-root efforts, a consortium of experts whose work relates to climate change in mountainous regions was

established, the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains (CIRMOUNT). Priority goals set by

CIRMOUNT address all the action goal categories of the U.S. National Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) and include

the following:

•Observation: Implement coordinated high-elevation climate, hydrologic, and ecosystem monitoring 

throughout the western mountains of North America. Install networks of high-altitude meteorological,

hydrological, and ecological stations to conduct long-term climate and ecosystem observations.

•Research: Promote integrated research within and among mountain regions. Specifically, improve 

knowledge of the past and present climate variability in the West, better characterize the responses of 

ecosystems to climate, and improve future scenarios of regional climate change.

•Decision Support: Communicate research findings among diverse disciplines and provide sound science 

for effective resource planning and management. For long-term planning, develop accurate projections 

related to climate change and effects on natural systems and resources of the West. Assist policy makers 

and land-use professionals in managing risks and opportunities related to climate variability and change,

especially water, forest management, and amenity values and resources.

•Communication: Develop long-term, policy-relevant mountain climate and ecosystem databases for 

resource management and policy decision support. Share findings through Web sites, publications, scientific 

meetings, focus groups, and workshops. Organize monitoring data and research results in easily accessible 

Internet-based databanks. Integrate western climate change information into current environmental 

assessment efforts.

•International Relations: Develop CIRMOUNT as a pilot regional model at the international scale and 

engage CIRMOUNT projects and scientists in global mountain-climate science and assessments.

Endorsement of CIRMOUNT by the International Mountain Research Initiative provides a bridge for 

developing CIRMOUNT within the global mountain-climate science and policy community.

Six work groups at present tackle specific CIRMOUNT goals. Work groups include Mountain Climate Network; Hydrologic

Observatories; North American GLORIA (alpine plant monitoring); Mountain Ecosystem Responses to Climate; International

Relations; and Paleoclimatic Archives for Resource Management. CIRMOUNT sponsors the ongoing MTNCLIM science

conferences, the intent of which is to communicate new and relevant integrative research, enhance relevance of scientific

findings for resource management and policy, and provide a forum for CIRMOUNT work group activity. In 2006, MTNCLIM

will be held at Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, Oregon, September 19–22. CIRMOUNT also sponsors a special session annually

on topical themes at the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California.

CIRMOUNT is an open, transparent consortium, welcoming all interested scientists, managers, and policy makers to join one

or more work groups, attend MTNCLIM conferences and other meetings, sign up for the CIRMOUNT mailing list, and join in

other Consortium endeavors.

CIRMOUNT is built on a foundation of interdisciplinarity. The CIRMOUNT executive committee includes scientists from

NOAA, USDA Forest Service, USGS, Montana State University, University of Arizona, University of California, the NOAA/DRI

Western Regional Climate Center, and the international Mountain Research Initiative (MRI). CIRMOUNT is endorsed as a

pilot regional program within MRI, and in turn cosponsors and endorses the international Mountain Invasions Research

Network (MIREN) and the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI).

For further information, contact:

Dr. Henry Diaz, NOAA, ph: 303-497-6640, e-mail: Henry.F.Diaz@noaa.gov or 

Dr. Constance Millar, USDA Forest Service, ph: 510-559-6435, e-mail: cmillar@fs.fed.us
Change and variability are two of the principal attributes of the Earth’s climate system.This has been true

at all time and space scales. The accelerating rate and direction of change since the 1980s, however,

extend beyond the natural range of variability and are largely attributed to human emissions of

greenhouse gases. CIRMOUNT seeks to identify critical issues facing western North America under this

new era of human-dominated climate change, and to develop priorities for action to address them. A

few of the most important issues identified are listed below.1

What are the vital components of our western environment that may be transformed by human 

actions and that might, in turn, feed back upon the climate system and lead to irreversible 

harmful changes in the environment?

What components must remain operational for those systems and resources to remain viable 

and sustainable?

What are the major dynamic patterns, connections among different parts of the world, and 

feedback loops that determine the region’s climate at both long and short time scales?

What are the characteristic regimes and timescales of natural variability in the climate of the 

region and in the renewable resources that help to sustain our society? What controls and 

modulates those regimes and scales? Will long-term changes also exhibit those regimes and 

scales?

How do anthropogenic disturbance regimes interact with climate change on regional-to-local 

scales in the West?

How vulnerable are western mountain ecosystems to projected future climate variability? 

How does the vulnerability of western mountains compare to other regions and settings?

What role have abrupt and extreme natural events played in the evolution and sustainability of 

western mountain systems? How are future abrupt, extreme, and/or sustained climatic events 

likely to be managed through the coping and adaptation mechanisms of natural and social 

systems and their interactions?

To address such issues, a set of operational questions will need to be considered and appropriate actions

taken.These questions are meant to open the way for the development of policy and programmatic

instruments to define the West’s vulnerability to changes in global climate and to transformations

resulting from continuing sociodemographic changes.

Climate and Society: Challenges

Facing America’s West

6

1 This list was modeled on global-scale issues identified in: Clark,W.C., Crutzen, P.J., and Schellnhuber, H.J., 2004; Science for global sustainability—Towards a new

paradigm, in Schellnhuber, H.J., Crutzen, P. J., Clark,W.C., Claussen, M., and Held, H. (eds.), Earth Systems Analysis for Sustainability; Cambridge: MA: MIT Press, 1-28.
Key questions include:

What fundamental components of natural and human systems in the West must be included and

quantified to model, understand, and predict systemic responses to disturbances and climate changes?

What levels of complexity and resolution have to be achieved for adequate modeling of the key 

aspects of western mountain responses to disturbances and climate change?

Is it possible to describe the coupled land-atmosphere-biosphere system in the West as a 

combination of weakly coupled components and subregions, and to reconstruct the mechanisms 

of response from these subsystems?

What might be the most effective global strategy for generating, processing, and integrating 

relevant system-level data sets?

What are the best technologies for analyzing and possibly predicting irregular, abrupt, or extreme 

events and evaluating the possible range of responses?

In addition there are strategic questions regarding climate and society that form a contextual background

within which decisions will be made and policies implemented:

What are the general criteria and principles for distinguishing sustainable from nonsustainable 

futures and what kind of natural living space do we want to sustain in the West?

What are the ecologic and economic carrying capacities of the region under scenarios of the future? 

What are the most appropriate mechanisms for improving the integration of natural-science insights

and scientific advances into practical land management stategies and social actions at this regional 

scale?

What equity principles should govern the Wests environmental stewardship?

How do we apply insights obtained from 

modeling potential future lsandscape scenarios to

practical land-management strategies?

In the following pages we describe a set of critical

problems related to climate variability and change

affecting the mountain regions of western North

America. We underscore that these problems are

likely to get much worse in the future from the

interplay of nature and humans, yet impacts can be

significantly reduced through knowledge, anticipation,

and preparation.

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY: CHALLENGES FACING AMERICA’S WEST 7

Westem mountain regions dominate recent warming as this

map of standardized temperature anomalies of 2000—2005

versus 1895—2000 long-term averages shows. ¡F normalized (standard deviations)
What we know

In simple terms, the globe is warming because of a shifting balance

between energy received from the Sun and the energy the Earth

emits to space. The Earth must warm to relieve this imbalance,

caused principally by trace gas increases, particularly carbon dioxide,

that result from human activity. The West has been warming steadily

for 30 years, and temperature changes are much greater in the West

than in the rest of the United States.

The climate of the West is characterized by large variability at all time

scales.Variability within a season and from one year to the next

affects a broad range of socioeconomic sectors ranging from the ski

industry to water supplies. At the same time, droughts present

western society with some of its greatest challenges. The most

extensive drought on record occurred in 2000–2004, when 42.3

percent of the western United States experienced a severe and

sustained drought.

8

Climate Change

Scientists are concerned that . . .

climate change in western mountains will lead to significant unforeseen consequences to society and natural

systems.The West is a largely arid region, where the primary source of our life-sustaining water is the

winter snowpack. Changes in temperature and precipitation will affect water supplies, aquifer recharge, the

health of the forests that mantle the lower slopes, the life cycles of insect pests that feed upon them,

wildlife and aquatic life, and the cherished outdoor recreational opportunities afforded by the region's

higher elevations, nearly all of which are publicly owned.

Winter maintenance at Slide Mountain Climate Station, NV.

Photo: A Huggins, DRI.

Cumulative trend in simulated timing of peak snowpack

(number of days changed from 1951 to 2000).

From: Hamlet A.F., Mote P.W., Clark M.P., Lettnmaier, D.P., 2005; Effects of

temperature and precipitation variability on snowpack trends in the western

U.S.; Journal of Climate, 18 (21) 4545–4561.

Early snowmelt and retreating glaciers contribute to water supply shortages. Dana

Glacier, Sierra Nevada. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.
Key Questions and Research

Directions

As the climate warms, what will happen to winter

snowpack? Will higher rates of evapotranspiration lead to

more frequent and persistent drought, and if so, what are

the consequences for wildland fire and ecosystem health?

The region where most of the snowpack accumulates in

the West is sparsely sampled. We need to significantly

reinforce the network of climate observations at the

higher elevations.

Are changes in climate reflected in changes in phenology—

the timing of seasonal life stages in plants and animals—and

their elevation ranges? Conversely, are changes in life

behavior corroborated by nearby climate measurements?

What are the implications of climate change on species

distributions and abundance? For example, recent cases of

widespread infestation of western forests by the pine bark

beetle, which have laid waste to hundreds of thousands of

woodland acres, illustrate the tremendous risk to the West

from future outbreaks.

Better integration is needed of information developed about

past climatic variations with global and regional scale climate

models. Paleoclimate studies suggest that in the past 1,500

years, the West has suffered great droughts that would be

devastating to our modern western society if they occurred

today. We should be able to model the temporal and spatial

features of such major droughts.

The effects of climate change will likely be highly

synergistic, affecting a host of physical and natural systems

in unknown ways. We need to support strongly the

development of partnerships among agencies and

institutions involved in environmental (including climate)

monitoring and research, the public resource management

agencies, and nongovernmental organizations involved in

resource sustainability.

CLIMATE CHANGE 9

Warming trends of the 20th century seen in annual

temperature for 11 western United States. Blue line is 11-year

mean. K. Redmond,WRCC.

Percentage of western United States in severe drought during

1895–2005 (Palmer Drought Severity Index). H. Diaz, NOAA.

Vertically stacked mountain ecosystems may be at risk as

climate changes. H. Diaz, NOAA.

Annual Mean Temperature (F)
What we know

The mountain snowpack can be thought of as the equivalent of

massive continental water towers for society. As much as 75 percent

of western water supplies come from mountain snowmelt.

Western water resources are highly vulnerable to changes in climate

because demand now equals or exceeds the renewable supply from

precipitation in many parts of the region. Under warming trends, a

larger fraction of precipitation will come as rain, and the region’s

snowpacks will melt earlier, yielding higher winter and spring runoff

rates, and less summer runoff. Spring snowmelt is already occurring

weeks earlier in the year than in past decades, and more precipitation

falls as rain in much of the region. Continuation of these trends will

result in increased winter flood risks in some basins, smaller warmseason reserves and rates of runoff, and warmer water temperatures

in many of the region’s rivers and lakes, disrupting many of the

region’s river-management systems and procedures, potentially

reducing the reliability of supplies.

The West is home to much of America’s wilderness and wildlands,

and its mountains are the source of the great rivers that supply most

of its water. Plant- and wildlife-rich riparian zones support

concentrations of rich and productive habitat that are increasingly

threatened by impacts of climate change and human activities. Urban

centers increasingly rely on groundwater in addition to rivers to

support burgeoning demands. During droughts, new wells are typically

constructed, and groundwater and reservoirs are further depleted to

meet new demands on already stressed water supplies. In wet years,

the new wells are still available and often continue to be used.Thus,

each drought ratchets up the demands on groundwater irreversibly.

Meanwhile, much western groundwater recharge derives from deep

percolating snowmelt in and near the mountains.The renewal of

groundwater supplies thus may be threatened by warming trends and

declining snowpacks.

10

Water Supply

Scientists are concerned that . . .

warming trends are dramatically shrinking overall mountain snowpacks in the West and shifting the timing of

runoff to earlier in spring.The consequences of these trends, if they continue, could be snowmelt and runoff

seasons that arrive up to a month earlier by historical standards, increased risks of winter floods in some basins,

region-wide diminished streamflows during the summer, depleted groundwater supplies, and increased drought

stresses on plants and animals.

Groundwater ages for selected western aquifers.

M. Anderson, USGS.

Hydrologic Cycle. USGS.
Key Questions and Research

Directions

How are the diverse hydrologic cycles and amounts of

water in various forms of storage changing in the West?

How will changes in mountain snowpacks affect western

rural community and urban water supplies in the future?

• Systematic monitoring of surface and groundwater

supplies near their mountain sources is needed.This

requires maintaining an appropriate number of routine

monitoring stations to adequately gauge trends in

precipitation, evapotranspiration, and groundwater storage.

Two sensitive, but underobserved, integrators of long-term

change in the water cycle of mountains are soil moisture

and discharge from high-altitude springs and streams.

Groundwater has been considered the invisible water

reservoir, and its characterization must be enhanced.

• To better characterize snowpacks in the complex terrains

and plant canopies of western mountains, improved

snowpack observations and modeling are needed. Among

the major challenges needing resolution are how best to

use remotely sensed data in snowpack estimation and

prediction models, and how to merge remotely sensed

data and on-the-ground snow networks to remedy the

weaknesses of each.

• Programs to assess, clarify, and, ultimately, reliably quantify

the potential impacts of warming trends on snowmeltdriven streamflows and on groundwater recharge in the

West need to be developed. Key issues are how to

identify and predict vulnerable components and processes

in the mountain water cycle, and how vegetation-water

responses will play out.

WATER SUPPLY 11

NATIONAL PHENOLOGY NETWORK USA

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Geography/npn/

The flora and fauna of the West, and especially of western mountains, are key components of how its watersheds and water

resources function. In particular, the year-to-year changes in the timing of various plant life stages and the arrivals of migratory species

are powerful and integrative measures of the state and trends of ecosystem health. In recognition of the importance of these changes,

the mountainous West was home to the most extensive long-term networks of phenological (life stage) observations in the nation,

from the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s, in the form of the Western Lilac Network, which collected observations of the annual growth

stages of over 2,000 lilac and honeysuckle bushes across the West, and was operated by Joe Caprio, the longtime Montana State

climatologist, until his retirement in 1994. Currently a concerted effort by scientists and resource managers from across the country

is underway to resurrect, greatly enhance, and expand phenological observations of all sorts into a multitiered National Phenology

Network.This network promises to greatly expand our understanding of the workings and changes of western watersheds, water

supplies, and ecosystems by illuminating hydrological and ecological processes that are effectively invisible to us at present because we

have not made regular observations of nature's own calendars.

1928 2000

Retreat of S. Cascade Glacier,WA 1928 (USFS)–2000 (USGS).

Colorado River Headwaters streamflow, reconstructed from

tree-ring data, 1437–2002. C.Woodhouse, NOAA.
What we know

Trees are often assumed to be highly resistant to change, being longlived and possessing other life-history factors that favor resilience.

Pinyon pine and ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Plateau,

lodgepole pine forests of Washington and British Columbia, mixed

conifer forests of southern California, and Engelmann spruce forests of

the eastern Great Basin, however, are among many forest types that

have undergone recent massive forest diebacks in western North

America. Forest dieback, defined as spatially extensive and rapid death

in forests as a response to environmental triggers, has been caused by

complex and cumulative interactions of stress factors.Widespread

mortality events during the 20th century in forests of the West have

led to conditions outside ranges of variability documented in past

centuries in western North America.

The recent drought centered on 2000–2004 caused extensive forest

dieback in the West. On the Colorado Plateau, 1.5 million hectares

of pinyon pine and 1.0 million hectares of ponderosa pine died. Bark

beetles were frequently the ultimate cause of death in dense and

climate-stressed forests of this region. With the loss of forest habitat

come associated impacts to forest-dependent fauna and understory

plant species.

In British Columbia, mountain pine beetle epidemics have spread

rapidly through dense and climate-stressed lodgepole pine forests.

Four million hectares died between 1999 and 2002, causing massive

declines in forest inventory for this timber-dependent region as well as

dramatic losses of forest habitat. A particularly alarming threat is the

potential that warming climates will enable mountain pine beetles to

successfully traverse the Continental Divide, and invade new hosts in

Canada and the eastern United States (see box).

12

Forest Dieback 

Scientists are concerned that . . .

cumulative stresses in western mountain forests, triggered by climate change and fire exclusion, are

affecting the resilience of forests.When periodic multiyear droughts, common in western North America,

occur against a backdrop of rising temperatures and unnaturally dense stands resulting from fire exclusion,

forests are vulnerable to insect and disease epidemics and severe fires, which can cause significant changes

in forest composition and structure and extensive forest diebacks.

Extensive forest mortality in pinyon pine, Jemez Mountians, NM.

Photo: C. Allen, USGS.

Increasing forest density and decades of fire exclusion create

vulnerable conditions. Photo: C. Allen, USGS.

Lodgepole pine forests in British Columbia killed by mountain

pine beetle, 2002. Photo: Northern Forests Products Assn.
Key Questions and Research

Directions 

What thresholds of forest stand density and climate stress

lead to outbreaks of insect and disease and massive forest

dieback in different forest types across the West?

How do the dieback events of the 20th and 21st centuries

compare to historical diebacks? 

• Studies of the ecological role of disturbance, in 

particular, insect outbreaks, in forest ecosystem 

structure and function are needed.

• Paleoecological studies of forest diebacks associated 

with long- and short-term climate changes are 

needed.

To what extent do extensive dead forests present an

increased risk of catastrophic fire, or are they “flashy” only

for a short time?

How are watershed values (snowpack retention, runoff,

groundwater discharge, and ultimately water delivery to

urban centers) affected by massive forest dieback?

• Models of fire and watershed risks associated with fuel 

conditions presented by massive forest dieback are needed.

What mitigation and adaptation strategies could be

developed for forest restoration?

What economic losses accrue from massive forest diebacks

to resource values in western mountain regions for rural

recreation-dependent communities?

• There is a need to monitor natural recovery and 

succession in dieback regions and to conduct controlled

reforestation and restoration studies to evaluate site

capacity following diebacks.

FOREST DIEBACK 13

MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLE

Mountain pine beetle is a native species on pines of western North America, in

particular, lodgepole pine. Cold conditions in eastern British Columbia historically

prevented the beetle from spreading east of the Continental Divide.Warming

temperatures, combined with drought-weakened pines during the late 1990s, have

allowed beetle outbreaks to spread east of the Continental Divide, only 50

kilometers from jack pine. If this gap is crossed, beetles may leapfrog along a chain of

susceptible host pine species across the continent to eastern North America. Should

mountain pine beetle populations reach the east coast, it is highly likely that they

would eventually spread into the distant, critical industrial pine belts of southeastern

United States, where infestation would have serious economic impacts.

J. Logan, USFS.
14

Wildfire

Scientists are concerned that . . .

in western mountains, large, destructive crown fires have increased in frequency. Ponderosa pine and some

mixed conifer forests have become increasingly susceptible to extensive conflagrations.These fires, which

are difficult and costly to extinguish, constitute a major hazard to life, property, and natural resources in

western mountains.The combination of enormous, hard-to-control wildfires and exponential development

in mountain wildlands puts human communities and natural habitats at risk.

What we know

Humans have wrought changes in vegetation and forest structure.This

is especially the case in the drier, pine-dominated forests that

sustained frequent, low-intensity surface fires before Euro-American

settlement. Causes of these changes include land uses such as grazing,

logging, and fire suppression, which lead to fuel build-up and

encourage overly dense stands of stressed trees. For example, the

broad extent and high severity of recent crown fires in southwestern

ponderosa pine forests do not represent historical and ecological

patterns typical of these forests prior to settlement. Fire exclusion

over the past century, and consequent forest changes, were primarily

responsible for the unusual severity and intensity of these fires, but

recent extreme droughts undoubtedly also played a large role.

Several western states had their worst fires in history during the

2000–2004 drought.

In contrast, chaparral-dominated ecosystems, pinyon pine woodlands,

and high-elevation forests with moderate moisture, such as lodgepole

pine and spruce/fir forests, typically burned in high-severity crown fires

under extreme drought conditions. During the last century, these

ecological communities have changed less than many others in terms

of their fire patterns, although recent multiyear droughts put them at

high risk.

In some regions and vegetation types, either human-caused forest

change or climate variability and change is primarily responsible for an

increase in destructive fire in recent years. In other cases, both factors

play important roles.

Climate has varied considerably over the past millennia, with decadeto-centuries-long drought not unusual. In western mountains, large-fire

years during the last two to three centuries coincide with drought

years, and in some areas they also correlate with preceding years of

wet conditions.This underscores the importance of ground

vegetation in setting the stage for extensive fire, especially in drier

ecosystems where understory fuel amounts and extent are limiting to

fire ignition and spread.

Regionally or continentally synchronous fires occur during some

climatic events. Regional fire occurrence patterns often track an

asynchronous “dipole” of wet/dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest

and northern Rockies versus the southwest.These broad-scale fireclimate patterns are often linked to ocean-atmosphere processes,

The Rodeo-Chedeski Fire, AZ, burned over 450,000 acres

and was the largest fire on record in the state.

Photo:Tucson Citizen.

The 2003 Encebado Fire burned in drought-stressed

ponderosa pine forests within one-half mile of Taos Pueblo,

NM. Photo: Ignacio Peralta, USFS, Carson National Forest.
WILDFIRE 15

such as El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal

Oscillation, indicating that the state of these climate

processes provides opportunities for interseasonal fire

hazard forecasting.

Over the past century, and at the scale of the whole

western United States and Canada, variations and trends in

temperature have been significantly correlated with numbers

of large fires and areas burned.This suggests that regional to

continental warming patterns are beginning to influence fire

activity at the broadest scales.

Key Questions and Research

Directions

How does climate variability between years and decades,

including the incidence of drought and extremely wet

episodes, affect the frequency, extent, severity, and seasonal

timing of wildfire in western mountains?

What have been past fire responses to drought and

temperature trends of long duration, that is, decades,

centuries, and millennia?

• A need exists to develop more complete, regional-toglobal-scale fire history data sets using historical records 

and reconstructions from tree rings, charcoal layers, and 

other proxies.

What are the implications of past and potential future fire

occurrences in western North America for carbon

emissions and sequestration?

• We need to incorporate past long-term drought 

responses into future-fire response modeling.

• Documenting wildfire patterns across time and space 

in the mountainous regions of the West will be key to

managing fires.

How can knowledge and understanding of climate-fire

patterns be used in fire prediction and forecasting?

DATA ARCHIVES

Networks of fire histories are being compiled to study past fires, as

recorded in fire scars, charcoal, and pollen.The current network in

the western United States consists of data from more than 250 sites

(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/impd/). In combination with another

independent network of 850 drought-sensitive tree-ring

chronologies throughout the United States and Mexico and into

Canada (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pdsi.html), scientists can

study the relationship between fire and climate during the past 300

to 500 years.

Fire scars recorded in pine crosssections showing dated fire events.

Photos:T. Swetnam, Univ. Arizona.

Area of land burned in Canada increased dramatically in the late

20th century, and correlates with observed and modeled

summer temperature. From: Gilett, N.P.,Weaver, A. J., Zwiers, F.W., and

Flannigan, M.D., 2004; Detecting the effects of climate change on Canadian forest

fires; Geophysical Research Letters, 31: L18211.
16

Urban-Wildland Issues

Scientists are concerned that . . .

climate change may exacerbate the ecological stresses already created by rapid land use change in mountain

regions, ranging from wildlands, forestry, and agriculture to rural residential-suburban-urban-development. Persistent

land-use traditions such as fire exclusion, livestock grazing, and timber harvest complicate interpretations of climate

change effects.Together, two potent drivers of global change—land use and climate—amplify each other’s impact

and more rapidly deplete the Western mountains of the qualities for which they are valued, including wilderness,

wildlife, and natural resources.

What we know

Low-density rural residential land use is the fastest growing type of

land use in the western United States, where it now covers over 25

percent of land.This trend is particularly accentuated in areas rich in

amenities.Today, Americans are moving into western mountains to

enjoy scenery, wilderness, public lands, and outdoor recreation.The

revolution in the computing industry has further enabled migrations

to mountain areas, as it provides a means for transporting urban jobs

to rural areas via telecommuting.While the extent of urban and

suburban development has increased three-fold over the past half

century, low-density rural residential development in areas rich in

amenities has grown five-fold. Areas surrounding national parks are

frequently subdivided to home sites and webbed with roads.

Low densities of settlement have impacted ecosystems in the vicinity

of large protected areas such as parks where biodiversity is

concentrated. Conversion of a landscape surrounding parks reduces

the size of its effective ecosystem. Reduction in functional size can

degrade the reserve’s ability to recover from natural and

anthropogenic disturbances, and increases species extinction rates.

Changes in land use may inhibit flows of nutrients, energy, and

organisms through a park’s surrounding ecosystem. Settlement may

drastically change the incidence of characteristic disturbances such as

fire and may greatly alter water availability to both ecosystems and

people. Conversion of surrounding lands may eliminate or isolate

unique habitats outside of parks, such as dispersal and migration

habitats or important source populations. Edge effects from adjacent

land use may introduce invasive species, and alter community

structure within parks by altering forest composition and impacting

predator communities.

When climate change is overlaid on this already modified landscape,

the capacity for response by natural systems and rural communities

may be severely constrained by land use. Resources that otherwise

would have existed may no longer be available. Migration and

movement corridors may be broken. Fires and floods may be

accentuated and their attendant losses many times greater than

previously experienced. New influences tied to land use (invasive

plants, animals; nutrient loads) may further stress ecosystems.

Climate-induced shifts in species’ ranges and

increasing urbanization in mountains lead to

undesired wildlife impacts. Photo: Chuck Bartlebaugh,

FHWA.

Percentage changes in area of exurban usage,

1950–2000. Modified from Brown, D.G., Johnson, K.M.,

Loveland,T.R., and Theobald, D.M., 2005; Rural land-use trends in

the conterminous United States,1950-2000; Ecol. Apps., 15:

1851-1863.
URBAN-WILDLAND ISSUES 17

Key Questions and Research

Directions 

How do social and economic forces drive land use and

development in the mountains of the West?

How do land use and climate change jointly affect social and

ecological processes?

How do the joint effects of land use and climate change

affect the delivery of ecosystem goods and services, and the

capacity of the landscape to support communities and

economies?

What institutional options exist for improving the use of

global-change science in land use decisions in western

mountains?

To address these questions, there is a need to:

• Understand the range of forces (from globalization 

of trade to specific development projects) and the 

mechanisms by which they drive land-use change.

• Improve understanding of how land use in the mountains

is changing and determine the rate of change.

• Model future land use along with different 

climate scenarios.

• Investigate the impacts of different land uses along 

the wildland-urban gradient on key ecological 

attributes.

• Develop a common modeling framework that 

supports assessment of combinations of land use 

and climate change scenarios at landscape, state, and 

regional levels on ecosystem structure and function.

• Track the impact of climate changes and land-use 

change on potential losses to natural hazards (fire,

flood, avalanche), agriculture, forestry, and tourism.

• Characterize the networks of authority that govern 

land-use decisions in different western watersheds 

and especially the points at which facts enter 

decision making.

• Develop best management practices to maximize 

the utility and acceptability of scientific information 

for those networks.

Ranchettes in Montana suffered losses in recent wildfires. Photo: A. Hansen, Montana State Univ.
What we know

Broad-scale tree die-offs, insect and pathogen outbreaks, standreplacing fires, and regional denudation of highlands have resulted in

synchronous dynamic landscape changes in the past. In turn, these

have sometimes led to increased hillside runoff and erosion, as well as

higher levels of deposition along rivers.

Ecological resetting events have precipitated similar changes in the

past.They include the 16th-century megadrought and the 1950s

drought, which illustrate the ecological role of natural multidecadal

climatic variability.

Multiyear drought causes mortality of many species, opening niches,

the positions that organisms hold within an ecological community. In

some cases, the original niche-holders regenerate. In others, invading

new species fill the open slots, either through range expansion or

colonization.

With critical fuel thresholds exceeded, a climate shift from wet to dry,

an earlier spring melt, and a longer, hotter growing season, some

mountain landscapes in the West have become flashythat is, they

are prone to broad, disturbance-driven, multispecies die-offs followed

by surges in tree recruitment. Further, in the Mediterranean climate

regions of western North America, earlier runoffs lengthen the

already stressful summer dry periods.

Resilience to perturbations, establishment of invasive species, and local

extinction depend in large part on the degree of climatic stress that

occurs directly before and after large ecological disturbances.

Recent efforts to repeat vertebrate surveys initially carried out by

Joseph Grinnell and Tracy Storer in Yosemite National Park between

1911 and 1919 suggest that mammalian species ranges are moving up

slope. Additionally, scientists found many species of birds at higher

elevations than in the earlier studies.These changes are consistent

with models of animal response to warming in the mountains.

18

Biodiversity and Wildlife

Scientists are concerned that . . .

climate change, especially warming temperatures, could cause large-scale local extinction, especially in western

mountains where temperatures are rising more quickly than at lower altitudes. Ecosystem alteration, habitat

fragmentation, and massive dieback may prevent many species from adapting to global warming.

TRACKING SPECIES MIGRATIONS

Scientists study contraction and expansion of plant species in response to historic climate by examining records of the past.These

include tree rings, which reveal colonization dates; pollen microfossils, which can be dated using chemical methods and indicate presence

of specific species; and fossilized woodrat middens, which may contain fossilized plant parts as old as 40,000 years.

Information archived in tree rings of long-lived limber pines

reveals century-long historic droughts. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.

Mountain yellow-legged frog populations have drastically

declined in the 20th century due to multiple stresses

including climate. Photo: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley.
Key Questions and Research

Directions

What are the major effects of climate change on native

mountain plants and animals?

How do invasive species, which often establish following

climate-related disturbance, alter ecosystems and

ecosystem services in the short and long term?

How do climate variability and related disturbances affect

colonization, migration, local population extinction, and

range expansion of sensitive plant and animal species?

There is a need to:

• Develop predictive models of climatic effects on

ecosystems.

• Better characterize establishment of invasive species;

for example, examine how distance from source

populations, landscape structure, and fire influence

movement of species into new areas.

• Continue to exploit natural history databases and

historic photos for repeat survey opportunities.

BIODIVERSITY AND WILDLIFE 19

THE GRINNELL RESURVEY PROJECT

Collecting mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles from

over 700 locations, Joseph Grinnell,Tracy Storer, and

colleagues documented California vertebrate diversity

between 1904 and 1940.Their legacy includes over

20,000 specimens, 13,000 pages of field notes, and 2,000

photos, which are stored at the Museum of Vertebrate

Zoology, UC Berkeley, CA. Museum scientists and

colleagues are currently resurveying many locations to

document changes in communities, geographic range,

and species abundance.

Photos: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley. Stoneman Meadow (Upper end of Yosemite Valley).
20

Launching CIRMOUNT

THE U. S. CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE PROGRAM (CCSP) 

www.climatescience.gov

In July 2003, the main climate-related research projects of 13 U.S. federal agencies were

united under a single national program, the Climate Change Science Program.The

CCSP’s overall goal is to accelerate and enhance scientific understanding of global

climate change through coordinated short- and long-term research. CIRMOUNT aligns

with this overall vision, emphasizing mountain regions of western North America, and it

actively promotes each of the five principal goals of the CCSP:

Goal 1: Improve knowledge of the Earth’s past and present climate and environment,

including its natural variability, and improve understanding of the causes of observed

variability.

Goal 2: Improve quantification of the forces bringing about changes in the Earth’s

climate and related systems.

Goal 3: Reduce uncertainty in projections of how the Earth’s climate and related systems may change in the future.

Goal 4: Understand the sensitivity and adaptability of different natural and managed ecosystems and human systems to climate

and related global changes.

Goal 5: Explore the uses and identify the limits of evolving knowledge to manage risks and opportunities related to climate

variability and change.

Background

Climate plays a pivotal role in shaping the natural environment, and, in turn, our environment plays a key

part in the healthy functioning of society—providing water, arable soil, timber, recreation, and other

invaluable goods and services, many necessary for our survival.The national U.S. Climate Change Science

Program states as its guiding vision that the nation and the global community should be “empowered with

the science-based knowledge to manage the risks and opportunities of change in the climate and related

environmental systems.” The Canadian 2005 Climate Change Plan supports similar recommendations.

CIRMOUNT seeks to develop the necessary scientific understanding to evaluate the effects of climate

variability on western North American mountains, and the management tools to help this region prepare

for and adapt to the effects of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change.

A Regional Endeavor

The dominance and ubiquity of high mountains in western North

America create formidable challenges to observing, documenting,

and interpreting the region’s climate. Scientists face similar physical

and technical obstacles when monitoring basic ecosystem functions

in western mountains. For example, in California there are only

three long-term climate monitoring stations over 2,700 meters

among the 404 stations in the state’s cooperative program.The

numbers are generally worse in other mountain regions in the

West.

The future of the western landscape and its response to climate

change are uncertain.The United States and Canada have invested

considerable resources in developing the human capital 
and infrastructure necessary to understand the range of

possible future climate scenarios.This includes developing

global and regional observing systems and computing

capabilities to model the climate and project possible futures

for assessment and planning. As a result, a basic

understanding of many aspects of the global climate system

has emerged, with prediction capabilities for global

phenomena, such as El Niño/Southern Oscillation. However,

we still lack a basic understanding of how long-term lowfrequency variations in oceanic and atmospheric conditions

influence the region’s climate, and we are just beginning to

invest in learning how large-scale changes play out at the

scale of mountain ranges and watersheds.Through studies at

this level, we will best be able to develop sustainable plans

for managing natural resources while responding

appropriately to local needs.

Western Mountain Ecosystems

Mountain ecosystems of western North America are

complex, and include grass, shrub, and forestlands at

middle elevations, cold desert and alpine biomes in the

upper tree-line zone, and tundra ecosystems above

timberline.The alpine ecosystem that extends from North

America into Central America is the only one that exists

in all different climatic zones from the equator to the

polar region.This environment is among the most sensitive

to climatic changes occurring on a global scale, and

comprises glaciers, snow, permafrost, frozen ground, liquid

water, and the uppermost limits of vegetation and other

complex life forms.

The stratified, elevationally controlled vegetation belts found

on mountain slopes represent an analogue to the different

latitudinally controlled climatic zones, but these condensed

vertical gradients are known to support unique hotspots of

biodiversity and provide vital corridors for endemic

mountain species. High relief, steep gradients, and isolated

“island effects” of high summit zones make mountain

ecosystems highly sensitive to slight changes in climate.

The mountain regions of western North America are thus

especially vulnerable to changes in climate and to the

ensuing changes in snowpack, streamflow, and ecosystem

functioning.The recent sustained, severe drought in

western North America has highlighted the region’s

sensitivity to climate and other environmental changes.The

past few decades have experienced declines in spring

snowpack and earlier runoff in many watersheds within

the western mountain zones.The role of mountains in

providing life-sustaining water to downstream ecosystems

and communities means that climatic and other

environmental changes in the mountains of the West will

have a large impact on the regional society, and thus, on

the nation as a whole.

Opportunity for Collaboration 

The initiative for CIRMOUNT arose in the early 2000s,

when a group of physical and ecological scientists working

on mountain climate and ecosystem sciences of western

North American mountains recognized the regional

ecologic, physical, and social vulnerability to climate

variability and change.This group realized the value of

working jointly to improve observation systems and better

integrate scientific studies. An ad hoc committee formed to

pursue opportunities.

The ad hoc group organized technical sessions, science

conferences, and task force meetings during 2002–2003,

and encountered broad interest and momentum for

establishment of a framework for a research consortium.

The Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in

Western Mountains (CIRMOUNT) was unveiled when it

organized the Mountain Climate Sciences Symposium held

at Lake Tahoe, California, in 2004. Symposium participants

concluded by proposing a research initiative aimed at

LAUNCHING CIRMOUNT 21

Four GLORIA alpine plant monitoring sites have been established in

western North America, this one in the White Mountains, CA.

Photo: C. Millar, USFS.
improving our understanding of climate and ecosystem changes in the

West and our ability to predict such changes. Specifically, attendees

agreed to encourage close collaboration among researchers from many

disciplines for optimal progress toward Consortium goals.

CIRMOUNT Goals

The overall goal of CIRMOUNT is to contribute to national efforts to

better understand and predict climate and environmental changes at

regional scales, with a principal focus on the mountain regions of western

North America. CIRMOUNT attempts to improve integration and

coordination among physical, ecological, and economic process studies;

encourage analytical and numerical modeling; foster partnerships across

disciplines and agencies; enhance education; and develop an adequate

infrastructure.

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program

describes a set of core approaches to meet its

goals. CIRMOUNT is proposed as a regional entity

to help achieve each of those goals. It will also

support research activities promoted by the

Canadian 2005 Climate Change Plan 

(http://www.climatechange.gc.ca). Below, we

describe the key aspects of work undertaken by

CIRMOUNT participants.

Scientific Research

Contributors to CIRMOUNT include scientists from key areas of climate,

earth, and ecological sciences. Among these are climatologists from

NOAA, hydrologists from USGS, ecologists from USGS and USFS, and

university faculty specializing in atmospheric sciences, forest ecology,

paleoclimatology, biology, and biogeochemistry, as well as social scientists

focusing on the economies and sustainability of mountain communities.

CIRMOUNT seeks an integration of climate, physical, ecological, and

social sciences.

Initial efforts are focused on better understanding the basic drivers of climatic

changes, both natural and anthropogenic. Research efforts include climate

diagnostics, modeling, paleoclimatic reconstructions (describing and

understanding the patterns of past climates), and selected process studies

(understanding the basic pathways for energy flows throughout the coupled

ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system).

Observations and Data Management

Several contributors to the Consortium are associated with regional or

national climate data archives.They have decades of experience in data

quality issues, data set development, and user support. A key goal of

22 LAUNCHING CIRMOUNT

Workshop for natural-resource managers as part of

the MTNCLIM 2005 Conference. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.

Riparian restoration in the Mono Basin, Sierra Nevada,

CA. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.

Installation of high-elevation long-term climate

monitoring stations is a high priority for CIRMOUNT;

Mt.Warren, Sierra Nevada, CA. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.
CIRMOUNT is to make available comprehensive climate

data sets for climate analysis and diagnostics, climate change

assessments, and development of decision-support tools for

resource managers. CIRMOUNT also endeavors to increase

the region-wide sharing of observational methods and data.

Communication of Scientific Findings

at Regional to International Scales

The members of the Consortium have extensive national

and international contacts through which communication

protocols have been established. In particular, CIRMOUNT

has been endorsed as a pilot regional program of the

international Mountain Research Initiative, a UNESCO, IGBP,

and European Union-based consortium to promote science

and its effective use in decision making globally. CIRMOUNT

is a cosponsor of the international Mountain Invasions

Research Network, which conducts a core of systematic

elevational gradient studies of plant invasions into mountains

around the world. CIRMOUNT also works closely with the

USGS-based regional research project, the Western

Mountain Initiative.

Early Accomplishments

In the past several years, the ad hoc group of scientists

working to promote CIRMOUNT has sponsored several

activities to encourage discussion about mountain climate

topics, and to assess the need and interest for a

consortium, as well as to instigate on-the-ground projects.

These early successes motivated the group to carry

momentum for a consortium forward.The following list

represents a sample of early accomplishments:

Launched: An electronic communication network.This

includes the CIRMOUNT Website

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/ and an e-mail

distribution list that includes over 500 members.

Sponsored: Sierra Nevada Climate Change & Implications

for Resource Management. Special session of the Sierra

Nevada Science Symposium, October 2002, Lake Tahoe, CA.

This session communicated current climate-related research

information to an interdisciplinary science and resourcemanagement audience at the scale of the Sierra Nevada

mountain range.

Proceedings:

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/

psw_gtr193/index.shtml

Sponsored: Integrated Climate Research in Western

North American Mountains.Two-day special session at the

20th Annual PACLIM (Pacific Climate) Workshop, April

2003, Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA.Topical presentations on

current research, multi-mountain-range scale.

Proceedings:

http://tenaya.ucsd.edu/~dettinge/proc_2003.html

Sponsored: Mountain Climate Science Symposium

(MCSS), May 2004, Lake Tahoe, CA.This key symposium was

convened to develop a framework and agenda to guide the

CIRMOUNT initiative in coming years, and provided the

detail and impetus for launching the consortium and its

action agenda.

Presentations:

http://www.x-cd.com/mcss04/program.html 

Installed: Four GLORIA Target Region Stations in North

America as of 2005 at: Glacier National Park, MT; Sierra

Nevada, CA; and the White Mountains, CA. GLORIA

(Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine

Environments) is an international program for monitoring

global change through long-term analysis of alpine

vegetation, and uses standardized protocols on mountain

summits.Target regions are installed at over 50 areas

worldwide, but prior to CIRMOUNT’s efforts, none had

been installed in North America. Seven additional target

regions in the West are scheduled for installation in 2006.

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/gloria/

Installed: Eleven new high-elevation long-term

meteorological stations have been established via

CIRMOUNT support in Alaska, California, and Montana as

of 2005.

LAUNCHING CIRMOUNT 23

Coring through ice to lake

sediments at Grass Lake Research

Natural Area, CA, as part of

integrated historic climate

research. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.
Sponsored Special Sessions: (1) Challenges to Mountain Water

Resources and Ecosystems and (2) Extreme Events in Mountain

Climate, Resources and Ecosystems, at the American Geophysical

Sciences Meetings, December 2004 and December 2005, San

Francisco, CA.

Presentations and posters in pdf:

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/meetings/archives.shtml

Initiated: The MTNCLIM Conference Series.The first of CIRMOUNT’s

regular conference series on integrated mountain climate research was

held March 2005 at Chico Hot Springs, Pray, MT. The conference included

technical sessions, work-group meetings, and a resource manager’s

workshop.

Presentations:

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/meetings/archives.shtml

Planned: MTNCLIM 2006.The second conference on western mountain

climate sciences will be held September 16–19, 2006, at Timberline Lodge,

Mt. Hood, OR.

Conference Website:

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/mtnclim/

24 LAUNCHING CIRMOUNT

Mt. Morgan rock glaciers above Convict Lake, Sierra Nevada, CA. Photo: C. Millar, USFS.
CIRMOUNT Work

Groups: Integrated

Research and Monitoring

In spring 2005, CIRMOUNT established six Work Group

Projects as a way to achieve specific CIRMOUNT goals and

products. Initial themes and goals evolved from focal group

discussions convened during earlier CIRMOUNT-sponsored

meetings.Work group leaders and participants are selfidentified, and themes, goals, projects, and products are

determined through group discussion. As the breadth and

definition of themes are heterogeneous among groups, each

work group begins at a somewhat different stage and the

groups have varying schedules for progress.

Ideas for new work groups continue to evolve.The six

CIRMOUNT work groups presently active are:

Mountain Climate Network (MONET) coordinates a

three-tier strategic approach to installing a network of

mountain-climate monitoring stations and analysis in western

mountains.

Leaders: Kelly Redmond,WRCC, Reno, NV, and Mark

Losleben, Univ. Colorado, Nederland, CO

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/monet/

Mountain-Based Hydrologic Observatories (HO) 

is developing a consistent strategy for mountain

observatories to monitor and conduct research on western

water resources including snow, groundwater, and

hydroclimatic interactions.

Leaders: Roger Bales, UC, Merced, and Mike Dettinger,

USGS, La Jolla, CA 

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/hydro/

North American GLORIA (Global Observation

Research Initiative in Alpine Environments)

promotes coordinated and integrated monitoring of alpine

plant response to climate change using the international

GLORIA protocol and additional research approaches.

Leaders: Connie Millar, USFS, Albany, CA, and Dan Fagre,

USGS,West Glacier, MT

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/gloria/

Mountain Ecosystem Responses to Climate

encourages scientific knowledge on effects of climate change

to ecosystems, and specifically to incorporate this

information in land and water resource planning and

conservation.

Leaders: Jeremy Littell, UW, Seattle,WA, and Jeff Hicke,

Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/ecosys_resp/

International Relations promotes and links the work

and benefits of CIRMOUNT to related mountain-climate

programs at the international scale, especially the Mountain

Research Initiative.

Leaders: Greg Greenwood, Mountain Research Institute,

Berne, Switzerland, and Craig Allen, USGS, Los Alamos, NM

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/int_rel/

Paleoclimatic Archives for Resource Management

promotes access and application of paleoclimatic and

paleoecologic data for users that range from scientists in

other disciplines to regional resource managers, both land

and water.

Leaders: Connie Woodhouse, NOAA, Boulder, CO, Franco

Biondi, UN, Reno, NV, and Greg Pederson, USGS, Bozeman, MT 

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/paleo/

CIRMOUNT Moving

Forward

With the establishment of six work groups, CIRMOUNT

has taken steps toward integrating its early accomplishments

into coordinated actions that focus on specific goals and

action items. Increasing scientific and communication

activities on multiple consortium fronts and growing

commitment to the consortium from scientists and naturalresource managers in the United States, Canada, and other

nations internationally point to the need and value for

developing an institutional framework. CIRMOUNT is

currently in the process of seeking sponsors and funding for

a program office and administrative support.

LAUNCHING CIRMOUNT 25
CIRMOUNT is integrated within the goals of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Canadian

2005 Climate Change Plan. Other key international, national, and regional collaborators of CIRMOUNT

include the following:

Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI)

http://www.cuahsi.org/

The NSF-funded Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science has proposed to

move modern hydrologic sciences forward by investing in several large-scale, long-term hydrologic

observatories (HOs).These HOs would become test beds for instrument and method developments and

would help improve the scientific bases of predictions of water-resource systems on daily to century time

scales. Such observatories could serve as focal points for development of new methods and new

interpretations of hydrologic variability and change in western mountains. Motivated by CUAHSIs initial

proposals, teams of hydrologists are already working to plan and establish HOs in western mountains with

or without CUAHSIs eventual support.

Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA)

http://www.gloria.ac.at/res/gloria_home/

The Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments is an international alpine science program

based in Vienna, Austria, which promotes monitoring the responses of high-elevation plants to long-term climate

change. GLORIA capitalizes on standardized protocols developed by an international collaboration of research

scientists, and exploits the relative comparability of alpine summit environments worldwide.The basic GLORIA

approach depends on establishing Multi-Summit Target Regions. In 2005, CIRMOUNT launched a North

American GLORIA chapter and is coordinating establishment of new sites.

Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) 

http://mri.scnatweb.ch/

The international Mountain Research Initiative is a multidisciplinary scientific organization that addresses global

change issues in mountain regions around the world. MRI is based in Berne, Switzerland, and works within the

framing vision and endorsement of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the International

Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, the Global Terrestrial Monitoring System,

and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations Man and the Biosphere

Programme. MRs main goal is to promote an integrated approach for observing, modeling, and investigating I

global change phenomena and processes in mountain regions, including their impacts on ecosystems and

socioeconomic systems. MRs central focus is to coordinate efforts at the global scale. A critical element in I

reaching this goal is the promotion of successful efforts at regional integration. In November 2003, MRI

endorsed CIRMOUNT as a pilot project for integrated research and applications at a regional scale.

CIRMOUNT strives to reach the standards set by MRI and its affiliated global monitoring and research arms,

and to focus on concrete efforts that improve integration of climate science into management. CIRMOUNT

played a supporting role at the MRIs recent international Open Science Conference on Global Change in

Mountain Regions, October 2005, Perth, Scotland.

Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) 

http://www.lternet.edu/

Founded by the National Science Foundation in 1980, the Long-Term Ecological Research Network is a

collaborative effort that investigates ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales.The

network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related

national and international research programs.Twenty-six LTER sites represent diverse ecosystems and

26

Coordination of CIRMOUNT
research emphases. CIRMOUNT leaders and participants include key LTER program managers and

scientists, and CIRMOUNT leverages integration by promoting monitoring and research in mountain LTER

sites of western United States.

Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) 

http://www.miren.ethz.ch/

MIREN is a new international research and monitoring project aimed at inventorying and interpreting plant

invasions into mountain regions. CIRMOUNT is a founding sponsor and supporter of MIREN, which is

headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. MIREN, emphasizes priority ecological research in key mountain

areas around the world, focused on mechanisms of biological invasions, patterns and impacts of global

climate and land-use change, and threats to mountain systems as natural heritage areas. A standardized

research design uses an elevational-gradient approach for systematic comparison worldwide; one of the

key sites is located in the mountains of western North America.

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13440&org=DBI

NEON is an emerging monitoring and research program funded and coordinated by the National Science

Foundation with a goal of organizing a nationwide network of observatories to address eight important

topics in ecology: invasive species, biogeochemistry, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, climate change,

land-use change, emergent diseases, hydroecology, and emerging issues. Regional NEON projects focus on

geographic areas and topical themes of priority interest to CIRMOUNT, but no unit is yet proposed that

will integrate mountain issues across the West. CIRMOUNT seeks to promote linkages to NEON through

its activities on topics of common interest.

NOAA Climate Program Office (NOAA/CPO)

http://www.climate.noaa.gov/

The Climate Program Office, created in October 2005, incorporates the Office of Global Programs, the Arctic

Research Office, and the Climate Observations and Services Program and coordinates climate activities across

all NOAA.The new CPO focuses on developing a broader user community for climate products and services,

provides NOAA a focal point for climate activities within NOAA, leads NOAA climate education and outreach activities, and coordinates international climate activities. NOAA’s climate goal is to "understand and

describe climate variability and change to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond." This is an end-to-end

endeavor focused on providing decision makers a predictive understanding of the global climate system and 

to "translate" this information so the public can incorporate the information and products into their decisions.

These outcomes are achieved through implementation of a global observing system, focused research to

understand key climate processes, improved modeling capabilities, and the development and delivery of

climate information services. NOAA’s Climate Progam Office has supported the CIRMOUNT initiative

through support of its outreach and scientific workshops in North Lake Tahoe, CA, in 2004 and Pray,

Montana, in 2005. In addition, support from CPOs Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA)

program, which supports research that addresses complex climate-sensitive issues of concern to decision

makers and policy planners at a regional level, has provided funding support through its centers at the

University of Arizona (Climate Assessment for the Southwest—CLIMAS), the University of Colorado at 

Boulder (Western Water Assesssment—WWA), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (California Applications

Program—CAP), and the University of Washington (Climate Impacts Group—CIG).

COORDINATION OF CIRMOUNT 27
28 COORDINATION OF CIRMOUNT 

USFS National Global Change Research Program (USFS NGCRP)

http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/global/fsgcrp/index.html

The U.S. Forest Service National Global Change Research Program, one of the participating agencies to the

Climate Change Science Program, provides the scientific basis to address three broad questions:

1. What processes in forest ecosystems are sensitive to physical and chemical changes in the 

atmosphere?

2. How will future physical and chemical climate changes influence the structure, function, and 

productivity of forest and related ecosystems, and to what extent will forest ecosystems 

change in response to atmospheric changes?

3. What are the implications for forest management and how must forest management 

activities be altered to sustain forest productivity, health, and diversity?

Scientists from the USFS NGCRP have been instrumental as founding and participating members of

CIRMOUNT, and the USFS program specifically seeks to support and augment CIRMOUNT projects

through leverage of agency projects and staff.

USGS Global Change Research Program (USGS GCRP) 

http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/

The USGS Global Change Research Program activities strive to achieve a whole-system understanding of the

interrelationships among earth surface processes, ecological systems, and human activities. Activities of the

program focus on documenting, analyzing, and modeling the character of past and present environments and

the geological, biological, hydrological, and geochemical processes involved in environmental change, so that

future environmental changes and impacts can be anticipated. Scientists from the USGS GCRP have been

instrumental as founding and participating members of CIRMOUNT, and the goals and programs of the

USGS overlap those of CIRMOUNT.

Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) 

http://www.cfr.washington.edu/research.fme/wmi/

The Western Mountain Initiative is a newly formed, integrated research program of the USGS and U.S.

National Park Service in western North America.WMI’s overall objective is to understand and predict the

responses—emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience—of western mountain ecosystems

to climatic variability and change. As such, the goals of WMI and CIRMOUNT are closely linked.WMI has a

specific grant-driven set of research goals and projects focused on geographically grouped national park

ecosystems, including Olympic, North Cascades, and Glacier National Parks, Sequoia-Kings Canyon and

Yosemite National Parks, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Bandelier National Park. CIRMOUNT works

closely to complement WMI’s research efforts by coordinating efforts at scales and scopes of geography and

disciplines different from WMI’s, and by encouraging efforts at establishing regional monitoring networks,

hosting western research meetings, and communicating widely with resource managers and policy makers in

pubic agencies and across private jurisdictions in western mountains.


From

Here Is a Land Where Life Is Written in Water

Here is a land where life is written in water

The West is where the water was and is

Father and son of old mother and daughter

Following rivers up immensities

Of range and desert thirsting the sundown ever

Crossing a hill to climb a hill still drier

Naming tonight a city by some river

A different name from last night’s camping fire.

Look to the green within the mountain cup

Look to the prairie parched for water lack

Look to the Sun that pulls the oceans up

Look to the clouds that give the oceans back

Look to your heart and may your wisdom grow

To power of lightning and to peace of snow.

—Thomas Hornsby Ferrill

Closing Remarks

Western mountains are a priceless resource and a fragile one. CIRMOUNT aims to focus scientific and

institutional attention on the future of our common heritage. Over the past few years, responses to

CIRMOUNT efforts have met with almost unanimous enthusiasm.These responses are a source of great

optimism to the Consortium leadership.We envision great scientific strides being made in understanding the

physical and social landscapes in the West in the next few decades.We hope that Mapping New Terrain will

serve as a nucleus for the varied efforts being carried out at different institutional and organizational levels to

address the issues raised here.

Science writer Anne Rosenthal contributed to the development and

early drafts of this report, and graphic artist Martha Shibata designed and

produced it.
PSW-MISC-77

July 2006

Cover Photo: David Simeral

United States

Department of 

Agriculture

Forest Service

Pacific Southwest

Research Station