Neopluvial is a term referring to a phase of wetter and colder climate that occurred during the late Holocene in the Western United States. During the Neopluvial, water levels in a number of now-dry lakes and closed lakes such as the Great Salt Lake rose and vegetation changed in response to increased precipitation. The event was not exactly synchronous everywhere, with neopluvial lake-level rises occurring between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. It is correlative to the Neoglacial period. Evidence The neopluvial took place in the western United States during the late Holocene, causing the levels of lakes in the Great Basin to increase and previously dry lakes and springs to refill. It has been observed in Great Salt Lake, Fallen Leaf Lake, Lake Cochise, the Mojave Desert, Mono Lake, Owens Lake, Pyramid Lake, San Luis Lake, Silver Lake, Summer Lake, Tulare Lake, Walker Lake and Winnemucca Lake. During the Neopluvial, the Great Salt Lake became fresher, and Pyramid Lake reached a water level of above sea level. Walker Lake, Owens Lake and Mono Lake experienced their highest Holocene water levels, with the volumes of the latter two lakes more than doubling. Likewise, water levels in Lake Tahoe rose to the point of overflowing into the Truckee River. Silver Lake in the Mojave Desert formed a perennial lake and vegetation was more widespread in the Little Granite Mountains. Summer Lake rose above its present-day level to an elevation of , although it was not as high as during the mid-Holocene. Water levels rose in Tulare Lake as well. In the White Mountains, meadows formed during the Neopluvial. Ice patches in the Beartooth Mountains and glaciers grew in the Sierra Nevada, sagebrush steppe, green Mormon tea and other vegetation expanded in the Great Salt Lake region, marshes expanded in the central and northern Great Basin, mammal communities in the Lake Bonneville basin changed with the return of the long-tailed pocket mouse, the Great Basin pocket mouse and the Western harvest mouse to sites where they were not present before and increased abundances of even-toed ungulates, and tree lines dropped, with the lower limit of wooden vegetation penetrating into deserts. Counterintuitively, higher tree line elevations in the Lake Bonneville area occurred during the Neopluvial, which may indicate warmer summers. In the Owens Valley region, during the Neopluvial the human population became more sedentary and trans-Sierra Nevada trade became established ("Newberry"/"Middle Archaic Period"). Population