1910
1999
Side by side comparison
Map
Data Sheet
COMB WASH NEAR SNAKE CANYON
General Description: This photopoint is on BLM administered land on the
west side of Comb Wash about .6 of a mile north of the Comb Wash road and
Highway 163 junction. The view is northeast along the west face of Comb Ridge.
Legal Description: NE1/4SW1/4 Section 26 T.40S., R.20E.
COMPARISON: The 1910 Woodruff photograph is a very early image of Comb
Wash. It depicts a wide, shallow and braided channel with little, if any,
riparian vegetation. The active channel width here is about 900 feet. The 1999
image reveals a much narrower channel with a main stem and overflow channels.
The active channel now has a width measuring from 20-30 feet. Three floodplain
terraces have developed. Vegetation on the second and third terrace consists
mainly of tamarisk, greasewood, rabbitbrush, a few Fremont cottonwood trees,
grass and forb species. Streambanks and the first terrace are occupied by a
surprising number of other riparian plant species, including coyote will,
Fremont cottonwood seedlings and poles, spikerush, bulrush, saltgrass,
scratchgrass and Bermuda grass (an exotic specie). Comb Wash is an intermittent
stream at this point and riparian development will be correspondingly slow.
However, vast improvements have occurred in the diversity, frequency and density
of the vegetation community and channel configuration at this point in the 89
years between photographs. Photograph -C illustrates a 1999 down-stream view of
the channel just east of the photopoint, note the various age classes and specie
mix along the stream bank.
Original:
Date: ca. July, 1910 (-A)
Photographer: E.G. Woodruff
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado
Photograph Number: Woodruff No. 178
Retake:
Date: September 6, 1999 (-B)
Photographer: Earl Hindley
Source: San Juan County
