Washington Snow Survey Program

In 1906, Dr. James E. Church offered to climb 10,800 foot Mt. Rose every month for a year in order to get an observatory on the Nevada mountain’s summit, overlooking Lake Tahoe.  The initial research project became the study of “The Effect of Mountains and Forests on the Conservation of Snow”. This was the inception of the study of snow in all of its phases and the early beginnings of the current NRCS Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program. Snow Surveys has been a part of the USDA since 1935, and will be chronicled throughout 2006 in a series of historical articles and stories.