We’re on it!
By Matt Freitas, Program Manager
For more than 20 years, the Truckee River Watershed Council (TRWC) has led hundreds of restoration projects to reverse land-use impacts and restore function to our wetlands and streams. Year by year, meadow by meadow, stream by stream. We bring the community together to restore, protect and enhance the Truckee River watershed.
Did you know there is a historic wetland in the heart of Truckee? The area near the Truckee River Regional Park was once a large, vibrant wetland – now replaced by roads, a parking lot, and other development. Remnants of these wetlands persist along Brockway Road! Fragmented and disconnected, they need our help.
One of Truckee’s few remaining urban wetlands. The project will improve and restore nearly 15 acres of wetland habitat.
The Truckee Meadows Restoration Project was designed to enhance and restore the wetlands despite their fragmented state. TRWC and eight public and private landowner partners plan to work together to bring back historic wetlands, improving function on the remnant pockets, and reducing erosion and sedimentation to the Truckee River.
The project is located on Brockway Road, between the Truckee River Regional Park and the Ponderosa Golf Course. We will be restoring the hydrologic processes and topography of the wetland—filling-in artificial ditches to restore flow to the meadow and reconfiguring the irrigation pond to support both the wetlands and the golf course. But the project doesn’t stop there. We will be enhancing the seasonal drainage from the meadows to the Truckee River floodplain to reduce erosion and improve water quality.
Once completed, the project will:
- Improve the hydrology of 13 acres of meadow habitat
- Restore 1.5 acres of wetlands
- Slow down high flow events
- Reduce erosion and sedimentation to the Truckee River
This means more and better urban habitat for our birds, frogs, and other mammals. As well as less sediment entering the Truckee River—improving conditions for the bugs and fish like the Lahontan cutthroat trout.
Construction work on the project will start in September 2017 and continue through mid-October. A second phase of construction will occur in September to October 2018 on a small portion of the wetland. Keep an eye on this project progress bar on our website to track the project’s development.
The Watershed Council leads this important coordinated effort in partnership with the Cascade Housing Association, Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Agency, Town of Truckee, Truckee Donner Land Trust, Truckee Donner Public Utilities District, Truckee-Donner Recreation and Parks District, Truckee Sanitary District, and the Truckee Tahoe Airport District.
In addition to funding from our partners, the project is funded by the donors of the TRWC, the California Department of Conservation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Community Foundation of Western Nevada, Truckee River Fund, Lahontan Community Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation.
For more information about the project and the Watershed Council, please call Matt Freitas at (530) 550-8760 x6#, or email mfreitas@truckeeriverwc.org.
Or consider joining us for River Talk, find out more at truckeeriverwc.wpengine.com.