Reconnecting Lower Hoke Meadow’s streams
Located upstream of Stampede Reservoir near Truckee, CA, Hoke Meadow is a meadow community with a diverse land use history. This meadow contains a section of the emigrant trail, roads, dispersed camping, telephone and petroleum lines, and a history of logging and grazing.
Meadow communities like Hoke Meadow are complex ecosystems that are reliant on groundwater to sustain wet meadow vegetation. Unfortunately, over the years the stream channel has eroded up to ten feet deep in some sections, disconnecting the stream from the meadow surface. The goal of this project is to restore connectivity between the stream and meadow to increase wetter species of vegetation in the meadow system.
Restoring a vital connection
Filling the mainstem channel with native material restores the meadow elevation and helps to reconnect historic stream channels.
Transplanting riparian vegetation
Viable meadow and riparian vegetation – such as willow and sod – is utilized to support reconnected channel flows.
Re-establishing habitats
Many animals that historically called Hoke Meadow their home – including the willow flycatcher – rely on the important functions of a wet meadow community.
Mitigating drought, fire and flood
A functioning wet meadow buffers the effects of drought, thwarts fast traveling wildfires and abates downstream flooding.
Where it all happens
Fast Facts
Location: Upstream of Stampede Reservoir – 20 miles north of Truckee
Scale: 25 acres of mountain meadow
Schedule: June 2022- October 2025
Budget: $880,000
Partners: U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
Timeline
