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Truckee River Watershed V I TA L TO H U M A N S , W I L D L I F E S TO RY BY M E G H A N C H R I S T I E
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In Martis Wildlife Area, a stream path was created to replace the channel. This increased the creek’s access to the meadow floodplain, allowing water to flow up and over the banks during high flows. This recharges ground water, creates cooler temperatures for fish habitat, enhances wildlife habitat and slows the flow of sediment downstream. | Courtesy Michele Prestowitz
address, email editor@tahoethisweek.com.
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ur future depends on the watershed. Its future depends on us. The 435square-mile Middle Truckee River Watershed is vital to all life in our area. The watershed provides habitat for hundreds of species: fish, including the famous Lahontan cutthroat trout; amphibians such as the endangered Sierra Nevada yellowlegged frog and birds, notably the sandhill crane and willow flycatcher. The watershed also supports a sizeable human population: more than half a million people receive their drinking water either from the Martis Valley Aquifer in Truckee and its surrounding areas or directly from the river to Reno and Sparks, Nev. The watershed also fills snowmaking pipes and greens the golf courses, supporting world-class recreation opportunities for the 15 million visitors to the Tahoe area each year. However, the watershed has suffered drastically from 150 years of habitat degradation, logging, railroad construction and grazing. Dramatic erosion leaves meadows disconnected from its water source, which results in a complete change of vegetation from water-loving sedges to drier sagebrush. Carbon is sequestered in the soils of healthy meadows and if they begin to erode, carbon is released into the atmosphere, adding to the ever-increasing presence of this greenhouse gas, contributing to climate change. A healthy ecosystem provides so many benefits, while a degraded ecosystem can nullify all the healthy functions. The dense vegetation of a functioning meadow filters out pollutants, excess nutrients and sediment, which preserves and enhances downstream water quality. Helping to buffer against and mitigate the impacts of drought, healthy meadows act as sponges, soaking up water during
wetter periods and then slowly releasing this water during subsequent drier times. Restored stream channels are connected to their floodplains, dispersing high flows gradually across the landscape, in contrast to disconnected and eroded channels, which store the water within the channel, potentially leading to dangerous floods downstream.
The watershed provides habitat for hundreds of species … and supports more than half a million people from the Martis Valley Aquifer in Truckee and its surrounding areas or directly from the river to Reno and Sparks, Nev. For all the above-listed reasons and so many more, Truckee River Watershed Council works to protect, enhance and restore the Middle Truckee River Watershed. In the last three years, 700 acres of degraded meadows, 5 miles of streambanks and more than 125 acres of forest have been restored. This summer the organization will be restoring Sardine Meadow, East Martis Creek and Coldstream Canyon. Its goal is to complete 50 meadow, stream and forest restoration projects over the next decade to keep our natural environment resilient into the future. Those interested in more information can attend the watershed council’s River Talks, every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. To sign up, email sdrake@trcukeeriverwc.org. | truckeeriverwc.org
