Western snow surveyors training in Bend this week

A group of 45 federal snow surveyors are gathering in Bend this week to train on measuring mountain snowpack and cold-weather survival.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service hosts the Westwide Snow Survey training every year to support snow surveyors across 13 Western states.

“Often times our snow survey crews must traverse difficult mountain terrains to manually measure the snowpack in remote areas,” said Tony Tolsdorf, one of the organizers for this year’s training.

“The Westwide Snow Survey training is absolutely essential to sustain our snow survey program. We ensure our people are prepared in the event of an emergency and keep them up-to-speed on the methods for measuring.”

Training topics this week include outdoor survival, mountain medicine, avalanche preparedness, a history of snow survey, shelter construction, methods of measurement, and more. Guest instructors include Brian Horner of Learn to Return Training, based in Anchorage, Alaska and Nancy Pfeiffer of the Alaska Avalanche School, also based in Anchorage.

Since its inception in 1935, USDA’s Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program has grown into a network of 1,185 manually-measured snow courses and 858 automated snow telemetry stations across 13 Western states, including Alaska.

The program provides streamflow forecasts at 673 stream gauges in the West. Data from the automated snow sites are available near real-time through an extensive web delivery system.

“The majority of the the water supply in the West comes from snowpack, so it’s absolutely critical that our Snow Survey Program provides quality snowpack data and forecasting,” said Michael Strobel, director of the NRCS National Water and Climate Center, based in Portland.

“Our forecasts help Western communities plan for upcoming water supplies in the spring and summer for a variety of uses, including municipal water, irrigation, hydropower production, emergency management, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreation.”

For more information about the NRCS Snow Survey Program, including snow data, visit the national snow survey website at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/water/snowsurvey/