Truckee River Watershed Council completed $8 million worth of restoration in 2024
TRUCKEE, Calif. – Transforming sagebrush-choked meadows and degraded land into flourishing meadows and canyons is a process that can take years to see through. From the first Truckee River Day event in 1996 to now, the Truckee River Watershed Council (TRWC) has partnered with organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and California State Parks to restore and revitalize the watershed and river. This past year, the TRWC completed $8 million worth of restoration work, which Sue Drake, TRWC’s development director, said, “We’ve nearly doubled our budget from two or three years ago… it’s our biggest work yet.”
In 2024, TRWC highlighted their work on Coldstream Canyon, Lower Lacey Meadow, Donner Creek, Prosser Creek, and Stampede Water Quality and Restoration. Coldstream Canyon, just one mile west of Truckee, has been on TRWC’s projects since 2009, going through multiple phases. “On average, each project is in planning for one to two years, then we take a year of implementation, then do three to five years of monitoring. Generally, it takes five to 10 years from start to finish for a project,” said Drake.
The Coldstream Canyon project took a break in 2023 due to excessive snow preventing work in the streambed. But through partnership with the California State Parks and funders like TRWC donors, the California Water Boards, the California Wildlife Conservation Board, the Martis Fund, and Truckee River Fund, TRWC was able to restore 22 acres of wetland and one mile of stream. In 2025, they plan to tackle the lower section of the canyon.
Beth Christman, senior director of restoration, was in charge of several projects, including the Lower Lacey Meadow which restored a whopping 400 acres and one mile of stream. The project was partnered with the Truckee Donner Land Trust, a longtime partner of TRWC, and funded by donors and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “2024 was a pretty exciting year for the watershed council,” said Christman.
Christman was in charge of overseeing the second phases of Lacey Meadow and Hoke Meadow’s restoration last year—she said that meadow restoration is her passion. However, she also emphasized the importance of less exciting sounding work, like dirt road maintenance in Placer Creek Watershed, which she also worked on.
Having been with the TRWC since the early 2000s, Christman has plenty of experience with identifying experts and hiring on engineers and construction crews to ensure restoration goes according to plan. “I do try to be out on the ground as much as possible,” she said—Christman often assists with project monitoring, which helps her understand what things to tweak as restoration projects continue.
For these meadows and stream restorations, Christman says the turnaround to see change after restoration is quick. “Results can happen quickly and be very visible. You can see a change in about a year, which is really rewarding.”
Something Christman is also excited about is public access to these areas. “The work we’re planning and doing is not just going to benefit the meadow, but the people using it. Restoration and public use don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
But some areas are more challenging than others to tackle. For example, Hoke Meadow has transmission lines, a petroleum pipeline, and fiber optics cables running through it, making the planning and advancement on the project more difficult. Still, the TRWC has high hopes for 2025.
“We’re continuing to learn from what work we’ve done,” said Christman, who looks forward to move more projects out of the planning phase and into implementation this year.
Drake highlighted that the TRWC will also be working on forest health related projects near the Boca and Stampede Reservoirs, focusing on wildfire ecology, mitigation, and protection. “We want to get ahead of the threats we have with wildfire and droughts,” said Drake. “There’s a real importance of the connection here for drinking water in Reno, for wildlife, for the environment, and we acknowledge that.”
Drake feels optimistic about the future path of TRWC. “Our goal is to get 50 projects done in the next 10 years, and we’re all working hard towards that.”
Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.
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