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The CUAHSI WATERS Test Bed project—Flathead River Basin. Research will be conducted in the Crown of the Continent Hydrologic Observatory (CCHO). The CCHO is situated on the triple divide of the headwaters for the Columbia, Mississippi and Hudson Bay watersheds. It encompasses the Flathead River Basin (22, 515 km2) of Montana and includes a diverse landscape of pristine headwater watersheds (Glacier National Park, Great Bear Wilderness, Bob Marshall Wilderness, and Mission Mountain Wilderness). The basin has a topographic gradient of over 2,339 m from high alpine to semi-arid climatic zones and biomes. Stream flows are snowmelt dominated, underpinned by groundwater baseflow. Within the CCHO there are headwater watersheds that have minimal development and drain large wilderness areas or national parks with differing elevations appropriate for testing snow vs. rain response models. Other headwater watersheds can be paired based on presence or absence of glacial ice. There are large watersheds with differing amounts of suburban and agricultural development across a large gradient of topography, climate and ecosystems that can be compared to similar sized watersheds within or adjacent to national parks and wilderness areas. There are watersheds that drain wilderness areas and have one large dam while similar sized basins flow freely. |
