The Northwest Watershed Research Center (NWRC) and the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW) were established in 1960 to conduct long-term research in the areas of water supply, seasonal snow, soil freezing, water quality and rangeland hydrology.
Since being established, the scope of NWRC and RCEW research broadened to include many modeling and remote sensing objectives, and landscape-scale processes related to fire and invasive weeds. This site fosters numerous collaborations with local land owners, BLM, LTAR, NASA, NSF, NRCS, several local universities, and others.
Northwest Watershed Research Center (NWRC) partnered with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) to aid in water supply and flood mitigation during the historic drought in California. The project provides snowpack reports during the water year
The Reynolds Creek watershed has an extensive array of instrumentation. It continues to expand, and spans a large elevation, precipitation, and temperature gradient. This network is critical for understanding the interplay between rangeland productivity, vegetation communities, hydrologic regime, wildfire, climate variables, soil attributes, and water chemistry.
