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Helen C Fairley

Helen Fairley is a social scientist with the Southwest Biological Science Center.

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Rainbow trout downstream of Glen Canyon Dam in the Colorado River

Is timing really everything? Evaluating Resource Response to Spring Disturbance Flows

Glen Canyon Dam has altered ecological processes of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Before the dam was built, the Colorado River experienced seasonable variable flow rates, including springtime flooding events. These spring floods scoured the river bottom and enhanced natural processes that sustained the Colorado River ecosystem. Since the dam’s construction in 1963, springtime floods have...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Species Management Research Program, Southwest Biological Science Center
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Is timing really everything? Evaluating Resource Response to Spring Disturbance Flows

Glen Canyon Dam has altered ecological processes of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Before the dam was built, the Colorado River experienced seasonable variable flow rates, including springtime flooding events. These spring floods scoured the river bottom and enhanced natural processes that sustained the Colorado River ecosystem. Since the dam’s construction in 1963, springtime floods have...
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Aeolian and drainage classification data for various archaeological sites in Grand Canyon National Park along the Colorado River from 1973 to 2022

These data were compiled to assess the risk of erosion to archaeological site preservation. The objective of the study is to evaluate changes in archaeological site condition over time as a function of two geomorphology based conceptual models that evaluate the extent to which sites are potentially affected by 1) erosion from gullies, and 2) wind-driven (aeolian) supply of river-sourced sand, resp
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Southwest Biological Science Center

Photographs Showing Change in Riparian Vegetation in the Grand Canyon, 1889, 1991, 2010 and other years

The viewpoints were first photographed by Stanton in 1889, and then re-photographed in about 1991, 2010 and sometimes other years. This set of photos focuses on change in riparian vegetation and partially overlaps a larger set of Stanton viewpoints re-photographed by Webb and others and available at http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/fscc/stanton-repeat-photography/index.php. The file of descriptive inf
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Fort Collins Science Center

Meteorological Data for Selected Sites along the Colorado River Corridor, Arizona, 2014-2015

This data release presents records collected from six automated weather stations in operation between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015 within the Colorado River Corridor of Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Data collection locations, equipment configurations and methods follow those of the original report (OFR 2014-1247). These files are 4-minute interval da
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Southwest Biological Science Center

Geomorphology and Campsite Data, Colorado River, Marble and Grand Canyon, Arizona

This ESRI geodatabase consists of 5 feature datsets with 23 individual polygon feature classes and two raster datasets. A master campsite polygon feature class represents the boundaries of campsites identified in the 1973, 1984, and 1991 campsite inventories of the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon, Arizona. The other polygon feature classes represent camp locations along the Colorado River
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Southwest Biological Science Center

Archaeological sites in Grand Canyon National Park along the Colorado River are eroding owing to six decades of Glen Canyon Dam operations

The archaeological record documenting human history in deserts is commonly concentrated along rivers in terraces or other landforms built by river sediment deposits. Today that record is at risk in many river valleys owing to human resource and infrastructure development activities, including the construction and operation of dams. We assessed the effects of the operations of Glen Canyon Dam – whi
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Joel B. Sankey, Amy E. East, Helen C. Fairley, Joshua Caster, Jennifer Dierker, Ellen Brennan, Lonnie Pilkington, Nathaniel Dylan Bransky, Alan Kasprak
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center

Proceedings of the Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Reporting Meeting to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program

(Hartwell) This report is prepared primarily to account for work conducted and products delivered in FY 2022 by GCMRC and to inform the Technical Work Group of science conducted by GCMRC and its cooperators in support of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP). It includes a summary of accomplishments, modifications to work plans, results, and recommendations related to projects i
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David Topping, Paul Grams, Emily C. Palmquist, Joel B. Sankey, Helen C. Fairley, Bridget Deemer, Charles Yackulic, Theodore Kennedy, Anya Metcalfe, Maria C. Dzul, David Ward, Mariah Aurelia Giardina, Lucas Bair, Thomas Gushue, Caitlin M. Andrews, Ronald E. Griffiths, David Dean, Keith Kohl, Michael J Moran, Nicholas Voichick, Thomas A. Sabol, Laura A. Tennant, Kimberly Dibble, Michael C. Runge
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

The influence of drying on the aeolian transport of river-sourced sand

Transgression and regression of water levels (stages) have impacted the evolution of aeolian landforms and sedimentary deposits throughout geologic history. We studied this phenomenon over a five-day period of reduced flow on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, USA, in March 2021. These transient low flows exposed river-channel sand deposits to the air, causing progressive desicc
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Joel B. Sankey, Joshua Caster, Alan Kasprak, Helen C. Fairley
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

U.S. Geological research at Grand Canyon National Park: A century of collaboration

(Fairley) When historians describe the decades preceding designation of Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP), they typically focus attention on early scientific studies conducted by John Wesley Powell, Clarence Dutton, and Charles Walcott. All three of these pioneering scientists were employed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a small Federal agency first established in 1879. Yet rarely do his
Authors
Helen C. Fairley
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

Evaluating riparian vegetation change in canyon-bound reaches of the Colorado River using spatially extensive matched photo sets

Much of what we know about the functional ecology of aquatic and riparian ecosystems comes from work on regulated rivers (Johnson et al. 2012). What little we know about unregulated conditions on many of our larger rivers is often inferred from recollections of individuals, personal diaries, notes, maps, and collections from early scientific surveys (Webb et al. 2007) and from repeat photography (
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Michael L. Scott, Robert H. Webb, R. Roy Johnson, Raymond M. Turner, Jonathan M. Friedman, Helen C. Fairley
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 1: Effects of wind variability and river-valley morphodynamics

Source-bordering dunefields (SBDs), which are primarily built and maintained with river-derived sediment, are found in many large river valleys and are currently impacted by changes in sediment supply due to climate change, land use changes, and river regulation. Despite their importance, a physically based, applied approach for quantifying the response of SBDs to changes in sediment supply does n
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Joel B. Sankey, Alan Kasprak, Joshua Caster, Amy E. East, Helen C. Fairley
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

Modern landscape processes affecting archaeological sites along the Colorado River corridor downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona

The landscape of the Colorado River through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area formed over many thousands of years and was modified substantially after the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. Changes to river flow, sediment supply, channel base level, lateral extent of sedimentary terraces, and vegetation in the post-dam era have modified the river-corridor landscape and have altered the effe
Authors
Amy E. East, Joel B. Sankey, Helen C. Fairley, Joshua J. Caster, Alan Kasprak
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Relations between rainfall–runoff-induced erosion and aeolian deposition at archaeological sites in a semi-arid dam-controlled river corridor

Process dynamics in fluvial-based dryland environments are highly complex with fluvial, aeolian, and alluvial processes all contributing to landscape change. When anthropogenic activities such as dam-building affect fluvial processes, the complexity in local response can be further increased by flood- and sediment-limiting flows. Understanding these complexities is key to predicting landscape beha
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Brian D. Collins, David Bedford, Skye C. Corbett, Helen C. Fairley, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Southwest Biological Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Meteorological data for selected sites along the Colorado River Corridor, Arizona, 2011-13

This report presents data from 14 automated weather stations collected as part of an ongoing monitoring program within the Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon Recreation Area along the Colorado River Corridor in Arizona. Weather data presented in this document include precipitation, wind speed, maximum wind gusts, wind direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and air temperature c
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Joshua J. Caster, Timothy P. Dealy, Timothy Andrews, Helen C. Fairley, Amy E. East, Joel B. Sankey
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center
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Lidar monitoring of the geomorphic condition of archaeological sites in Grand Canyon National Park, 2010-2020

This report presents topographic change results from surveys conducted at 30 archaeological sites in 23 locations in Grand Canyon National Park from...

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Photograph of an archaeological site threatened by gully erosion of sediment on a river terrace in Grand Canyon National Park
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An archaeological site in Grand Canyon National Park with nearby gully erosion

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