Forests and Meadows

Forests are more connected to our water systems than they may seem. They are vital for ensuring healthy rivers and wildlife habitats.

Forests affect the water cycle by slowing snowmelt, evaporation, and runoff. Layers of the forest canopy, branches, and roots can even store and release water vapor, which contributes to rainfall. And of course, forests are the earth’s best tool for capturing and sequestering carbon, so long as they are healthy.

Found among the extensive mixed conifer forests of the upper watershed, meadows serve as natural sponges, collecting and filtering rainfall and snowmelt and releasing it slowly into streams and rivers Meadows are also an incredibly important habitat for many species found in the greater Yosemite region. When forests and meadows are healthy, the entire landscape is more resilient to the changing climate.

TRT is at the forefront of ensuring that the greater Yosemite region has a strong and resilient ecosystem through restoring habitat conditions for wildlife, resilient forests which can again sequester carbon, rather than emit it through high intensity fires, and designing restoration treatments on meadows in the Rim Fire footprint.

Our current restoration efforts focus on two fronts: mega-fire recovery and mega-fire prevention. Our work isn’t exclusively designed to combat mega-fires, but rather, more sustainably restore ecosystems. Post mega-fire ecosystems are out of balance, with thousands of acres of burn scar preventing wildlife migration, natural regeneration, and ecosystem function. Our work restores this burn scar through strategic reforestation and forest health treatments in partnership with the Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions (YSS) collaborative, Tuolumne County, and the U S Forest Service As of this publication going to print, we have planted over 1 million trees in our reforestation and restoration efforts

Key Accomplishments

TRT leads the Clavey collaborative in developing the Clavey River Action Plan, a list of priority projects to pursue in the watershed.

2014

TRT completes plans for restoration of four meadows in the Clavey Watershed (Wolfin, Wolfin North, Lower Fahey, and 2N55)

2016-2020

TRT completes restoration of 24 meadows and 10 springs across 160 acres in the Rim Fire footprint on behalf of the YSS collaborative.

TRT completes our first forest restoration project on 1,000 acres

2010 2019 2023

TRT plants its 1 millionth tree in the Rim Fire burn scar.