by Alyssa Daniels, Blackfoot Challenge Education Program Coordinator
As the recent warm weather causes the snow to melt in the Blackfoot Valley, we are reminded that snowpack is essential to our livelihoods. In the West, 80% to 90% of our water comes from snowpack, so as we watch it melt away, we wonder how much water we will have in the future.
The connection between snowpack and the amount of water in our streams has been observed by humans for generations. In 1905, a man named Dr. James Church from the University of Nevada decided to better understand this connection by making observations of the snowpack on Mt. Rose in the Sierra-Nevada Mountain Range. He wanted to try to predict flooding, as well as the amount of water that would flow out of the mountains in the spring for irrigation. At the time, he also hoped to address the “water wars” that had started in the Truckee River Watershed as people fought over how to share water to preserve the ecosystem while trying to support their livelihoods at the same time. With his colleagues, Church built a weather observatory on the summit of Mt. Rose. After a few years of traveling by snowshoes or skis to the observatory to collect snow data, he realized that measuring the depth of the snow was not a clear indicator of the amount of water that would flow out of the mountains in the spring. He not only needed to measure the depth of the snow but also its water content. In 1908, Dr. James Church invented the Mt. Rose Snow Sampler, an elongated and hollow, metal tube. He used this tube along with math calculations to accurately measure the water content of the snow. He became an expert in collecting snow data and used his findings to help solve conflicts over water in snow-fed systems around the world.
Today scientists still use the Mt. Rose Sampler to collect snow data, but they also have the help of the modern technology of SNOTEL sites and other snow survey sites throughout the mountains of the West collecting data that enables us to determine how to manage our water resources.
Recently, a Blackfoot Challenge education team visited Seeley Lake Elementary School, Potomac School, and Sunset School to teach students about the importance of our snowpack and its relationship to our water supply. Students learned a brief history of snow survey sites in the West. They also learned how to dig snow pits, measure the depth of the snow, take snow samples and use all of this information to solve equations to determine the Snow Water Equivalent, or water content, of the snowpack. Students discussed some of the values of collecting snow data including water management for flood prevention and irrigation. They learned that water is a resource that we have to manage and as our snowpack changes, we need to adapt to those changes.
As residents of the Blackfoot Valley, we all have different relationships with snow. Some of us love to play in it. Some of us depend on it to irrigate our crops. Some of us even get tired of it and wish it away at times, but we all need it for survival. After visiting local classrooms last week, I was reminded that sharing is one of the first things students learn to do, so sharing water is a simple concept for kids to understand. We just need to make sure they understand that water is the most important resource they will have to share in their lifetime, and we need to give them the data and the tools they will need to manage water in the future.
Work Cited
Helms, Douglas, et al., editors. The History of Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting. Washington DC, NRCS and USDA, 2008. Natural Resources Conservation Service U.S. Department of Agriculture, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/data-and-reports/the-history-of-snow-survey-and-water-supply-forecasting. Accessed 17 February 2025.