How much snow gets stuck in the branches of a tree? For hydrologists, it’s a question that matters because snow sitting on treetops is more likely to be melted by the sun or blown off by the wind, resulting in less snowpack on the ground and a smaller spring snowmelt. Researchers at Oregon State University have come up with an ingenious solution for estimating how much snow a tree intercepts, using accelerometers to measure the amount the tree sways. Taking measurements in a coniferous forest in Colorado, scientists have found that trees with heavily snow-laden branches sway more slowly. Comparing these measurements with meteorological data and photographs, they were able to use the amount of sway to calibrate how much weight the tree had gained via snow capture. “One of my colleagues calls it a Fitbit for trees,” says hydrologist Mark Raleigh from Oregon State University.

Snowpack is the accumulation of snow that has fallen on the ground and remains stored for months. It insulates the ground beneath and prolongs the supply of water through the landscape into the summer months.  Through this insulation, snowpack becomes essentially water-in-the-bank, slowly providing water overtime rather than all at once, feeding reservoirs and benefiting forests and communities.  In fact, over 80 percent of the Wasatch Front’s main water source comes from snowmelt. However, snowpack from forests in the mountainous regions of the West have been declining significantly in recent decades.  To better understand the interactions between snowmelt and trees, a recent study conducted at the Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot has shown how large trees can influence the retention of snowpack.  …Jim Lutz, Forestry professor at USU, spent two years at the Yosemite plot gathering data on snowpack.

Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest proposes the Bitterroot Front Project, which would encompass 144,000 acres.  The Bitterroot Front Project, the agency says, will promote “forest restoration” and reduce tree mortality from disease, insects, and fires. The way to accomplish these goals is through chainsaw medicine.  The agency implies fewer trees are killed by wildfire or insects in areas with substantial logging, but it never counts the trees it kills with chainsaws. Recent studies suggest that more total trees are destroyed by thinning and fire than from fires alone if you include all the trees removed by chainsaw medicine.  …When the agency claims it will reduce wildfire by logging, it ignores the best science that shows that active forest management increases fire spread under extreme fire weather conditions.   …Even prescribed burning is relatively ineffective when confronted by a wildfire driven by extreme fire weather.