Assessing vegetation reestablishment on disturbed high mountain lakeshores following historic dam removal in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA
type: CreativeWork
description: Dam removal has entered the public spotlight in recent years, due to growing safety, economic, and environmental concerns related to dams. Removal is increasingly seen as a way to address not only the risks associated with aging and/or obsolete dams, but also as a tool for ecological restoration. In 1982, then-79-year-old Lawn Lake Dam in Rocky Mountain National Park failed, resulting in three deaths, and extensive monetary damages and destruction of natural resources within the Park. This was followed by a policy decision to remove three dams in the Park between 1988 and 1990, returning the former reservoirs to their previous natural lake water levels, and re-exposing nearly 13 hectares of scoured shoreline, completely denuded of vegetation by approximately 80 years of inundation. The disturbed lakeshore areas were left to undergo passive restoration. In the years immediately following dam removal, one short-term (3 year) revegetation study was conducted at Lawn Lake, and informal observational data were gathered by NPS personnel at a handful of plots established at the disturbed lakeshores of Bluebird, Sandbeach, and Pear Lakes. However, no further published analyses of data were made available, and until 2014 the vegetation at these lakeshores had not been surveyed to determine longer-term effects of damming and dam removal to reestablished vegetation. The goal of this study was to identify any persisting effects of historic damming and subsequent dam removal on vegetation characteristics such as species richness and diversity and community composition in the previously submerged lake margin areas surrounding the formerly dammed lakes, as well as the more elevated surrounding areas that had not been inundated. To do this, in July to September of 2014 I conducted surveys of vascular plant cover by species in 150 plots at nine high mountain lakes, including the four formerly dammed lakes and five undammed reference lakes. Site-specific environmental variables slope…
abstract: Dam removal has entered the public spotlight in recent years, due to growing safety, economic, and environmental concerns related to dams. Removal is increasingly seen as a way to address not only the risks associated with aging and/or obsolete dams, but also as a tool for ecological restoration. In 1982, then-79-year-old Lawn Lake Dam in Rocky Mountain National Park failed, resulting in three deaths, and extensive monetary damages and destruction of natural resources within the Park. This was followed by a policy decision to remove three dams in the Park between 1988 and 1990, returning the former reservoirs to their previous natural lake water levels, and re-exposing nearly 13 hectares of scoured shoreline, completely denuded of vegetation by approximately 80 years of inundation. The disturbed lakeshore areas were left to undergo passive restoration. In the years immediately following dam removal, one short-term (3 year) revegetation study was conducted at Lawn Lake, and informal observational data were gathered by NPS personnel at a handful of plots established at the disturbed lakeshores of Bluebird, Sandbeach, and Pear Lakes. However, no further published analyses of data were made available, and until 2014 the vegetation at these lakeshores had not been surveyed to determine longer-term effects of damming and dam removal to reestablished vegetation. The goal of this study was to identify any persisting effects of historic damming and subsequent dam removal on vegetation characteristics such as species richness and diversity and community composition in the previously submerged lake margin areas surrounding the formerly dammed lakes, as well as the more elevated surrounding areas that had not been inundated. To do this, in July to September of 2014 I conducted surveys of vascular plant cover by species in 150 plots at nine high mountain lakes, including the four formerly dammed lakes and five undammed reference lakes. Site-specific environmental variables slope…
author: Goodrich, Amy C., author
author: Paschke, Mark, advisor
author: Meiman, Paul, advisor
author: Steingraeber, David A., committee member
author: Jonas-Bratten, Jayne, committee member
language: eng
language: English
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:13:25Z
provider: Colorado State University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Colorado State University. Libraries

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/173557

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.25675/3.018985