Fraser Experimental Forest East St. Louis Creek and Lower Fool Creek daily streamflow data: 1943-1985

This data publication contains daily mean streamflow measurements taken from paired watersheds in the Fraser Experimental Forest in Colorado. East St. Louis Creek, the control watershed, has streamflow measurements available from 1943-1985. The harvested (treated) watershed, Fool Creek, has measurements from 1940-1985.
The Fraser Experimental Forest was established in 1937 to study timber, water, wildlife management, and their integration in the high elevation subalpine coniferous forests. The Fool Creek streamgage was built in 1941, however flow was recorded once a day from January 1940 through March of 1942. The streamgage for the 803 hectare (3.1 square miles) East St. Louis Creek watershed was built in 1943. The paired watersheds were calibrated from 1943-1952 at which time the road system was built on Fool Creek. Approximately 14 hectares of the 289 hectares (1.1156 square miles) of the Fool Creek watershed were impacted by roads and log decks. After 2 years of postroading stabilization, the watershed was harvested during the summers of 1954, 1955, and 1956. Forty-percent of the watershed was harvested (50% of the timbered area) using alternating cut and leave strips which varied from 1 to 6 tree heights wide. The objective of the experiment was to determine the effect that harvesting has on snowpack accumulation, sediment production, and the total yield and timing of streamflow.
Additional information about the Fraser Experimental Forest and other data collected can also be found at https://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs/experimental-forests-and-ranges/fraser-experimental-forest. Original metadata date was 10/04/2006. Metadata modified on 02/08/2011 to include the addition of a DOI (digital object identifier). Minor changes made to metadata on 03/20/2013 when this data publication became available through the R&D Data Archive. Minor metadata updates on 12/01/2016, 04/12/2019, and 10/24/2019.