Mapping New Terrain: Climate Change and America's West. Report of the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains (CIRMOUNT)

Abstract

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.

Citation

CIRMOUNT Committee (Diaz, Henry F.; Millar, Constance I., co-chairs; Cayan, Daniel R.; Dettinger, Michael D.; Fagre, Daniel B.; Graumlich, Lisa J.; Greenwood, Greg; Hughes, Malcolm K.; Peterson, David L.; Powell, Frank L.; Redmond, Kelly T.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Swetnam, Thomas W.; Woodhouse, Connie) 2006. Mapping New Terrain: Climate Change and America''s West. Report of the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains (CIRMOUNT). PSW-MISC-77. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 29 p