Early Snowmelt and Dillon Reservoir
Collaboration with snow hydrologist Noah Molotch, community water organizations in the Blue River Watershed, and Summit High School.
Water levels throughout Dillon Reservoir are clearly illustrated by the amount of exposed ground around the scattered islands of trees. These red lines follow the cycle of draining the reservoir in the fall to prepare for spring melt. Anyone driving along the I-70 corridor in the winter sees the contrast of dark lodgepole pine islands against bright snow. In the summer, cracking and dried soil surround the trees. With natural snowpack reservoirs melting earlier in the season, there is more pressure on constructed reservoirs like Dillon to hold and release water in later summer and fall months. The familiar scenic views of water or snow resting within Dillon Reservoir become even more a calculated resource.
Over the course of two weeks, students at Summit High School carved and printed Snow Water Equivalent Maps published by the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Students chose one map to carve and used a reduction relief printmaking process to depict the amount of snow in and around the Blue River Basin; this community created a collection of prints illustrating the general pattern of melting throughout a spring season here in Summit County. The process of carving and pressing this relief print reduction echoes the annual accumulation of snowpack; layers of ink accumulate on top of one another to represent high Snow Water Equivalents, just as snowfall builds in the places themselves. Between printing each layer, the maker carves away at the same block, taking away material and value representing snow; this action of reduction mirrors melting and runoff.
Snow Water Equivalent of the Blue River Basin and surrounding watersheds from April 1, 2022. Previously considered to be the date indicating peak snowpack, earlier melting trends pull at the April 1st marker. Each watershed is cut apart and then sewn back together, mirroring the methods of measuring and transporting water to and from separated watersheds.
Torn from washes of frozen India ink, each square is shaped by two foundational elements in Summit County: snowfall and temperature. When left outside in any weather below freezing, a wet wash of ink on top of a thick paper will freeze and dry, forming and preserving an ice structure specific to the time it was made. Understanding how these same factors–snowfall and temperature–affect changing snowmelt timing is critical to managing the water released from Dillon Reservoir, both downstream through the Blue River and towards Denver through the Roberts Tunnel. Stitched together, these icy patterns offer a glimpse of what cold looks like within a community defined by snow.