His research has focused primarily on the Arkansas River near Leadville, Colorado, where a long history of mining in the watershed began as far back as 1859. Clements, a scientist in CSU’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, said that the patterns of recovery that have occurred over time in Colorado and other states is a true conservation success story.
He joins a team of researchers to highlight these findings in a new paper that will be published in the June issue of Freshwater Science and is now available online.
The streams highlighted in the study – including ones in California, Colorado, Idaho and Montana – recovered from severe pollution damage from different metals within 10 to 15 years.
“So much of what we’ve presented to the public in the environmental realm has been gloom and doom,” said Clements. “It is good every now and then to have these success stories. We found that these systems can indeed turn around with a little bit of attention and time.”
The four mining-impacted watersheds in the study are among the few acid mine drainage sites where scientists have conducted extended studies to monitor the effectiveness of remediation efforts.