Evaporation and seepage from a livestock reservoir equipped with a snow fence for water recharge

Drifting snow can provide water to recharge livestock reservoirs on windswept lands that normally receive little surface inflow. Field experience with such installations indicates that snow fences collect significant quantities of snow, but that the stored water is often gone by the grazing season. A study was conducted in the spring of 1988 to determine the quantity of water lost by evaporation and by seepage from a small livestock reservoir recharged from snow deposited by a snow fence. Measurements started during snowmelt and extended through June when the pond was nearly dry. Evaporation was sensitive to daily wind movement and ranged to 1.3 cm per day. Pond seepage, however, exceeded evaporation several fold. The factor limiting success of the snow management effort was leakage from the reservoir.