CIRMOUNT Committee
2006
<div data-canvas-width="810.1383333333334">Climate variability and sustained change presage far-reaching transformations across America’s West, an expanse dominated</div>
<div data-canvas-width="783.4416666666667">by immense mountain ranges and interspersed with important urban centers. These mountains provide the region’s life</div>
<div data-canvas-width="820.98">blood—water that courses through its streams and runs out its faucets, power that fuels its industries and lights its cities, and</div>
<div data-canvas-width="823.6216666666666">natural resources that feed its economy and provide many of its jobs. The West is a land where life is written in water—from</div>
<div data-canvas-width="819.7383333333332">vast ranchlands and farmlands, to large densely populated urban areas—and the communities of the West are intricately tied</div>
<div data-canvas-width="30.28">to it.</div>
<div data-canvas-width="821.075">Why should we be concerned about how climate change is affecting the mountains? Despite their imposing grandeur and</div>
<div data-canvas-width="786.8616666666667">apparent fortitude, the mountains contain highly sensitive environments that support delicately balanced physical and</div>
<div data-canvas-width="800.7466666666666">natural systems. A warming of only a few degrees has major implications for mountain regions—for the integrity of the</div>
<div data-canvas-width="784.9350000000001">seasonal snowpack, the extensive forests that western mountains support, and for the people who make their home</div>
<div data-canvas-width="780.4283333333333">there. Such changes are already affecting water supply, energy availability, fire severity, and recreational opportunities.</div>
<div data-canvas-width="744.8916666666667">Continuing climate change may significantly alter the western landscape, where one encounters distinct ecological</div>
<div data-canvas-width="801.2799999999999">communities as successive layers from the lowlands to the high peaks. Each of these ecosystems has specific requirements</div>
<div data-canvas-width="760.7449999999999">for temperature and precipitation. As climate variability increases and global warming continues, complex changes in</div>
<div data-canvas-width="789.4933333333335">montane plant and animal communities will occur, increasing vulnerability of species to dramatic shifts in distribution and</div>
<div data-canvas-width="107.90166666666663">local extinctions.</div>
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U.S. Department of Agriculture
Mapping new terrain climate change and America’s West: Anticipating challenges to western mountain ecosystems and resources
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