Monday December 9, 2024
YubaNet —
The northern Sierra Nevada mountain range is immense; it’s more than 39,000 square miles of forests, creeks, rivers and lakes which supply a vast majority of California’s water. These watersheds are threatened by large, severe wildfires as we have seen in the past decade, which in turn puts the water that flows from them at risk.
Within this vast network of watersheds, the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) is restoring and enhancing approximately 200 acres of montane meadow habitat and another 175 acres of white and red fir forest roughly 21 miles northwest of Truckee. Why the fuss over this postage stamp in the Sierra?
The restoration project is part of NID’s efforts to protect its source watersheds and adapt its water system to a changing climate, which threatens our future supply of drinking and agricultural water.
The work also supports the important ecological and hydrological function of high-elevation meadows. The English Meadow Restoration Project is funded by the Wildlife Conservation Board’s Forest Conservation Program, and joins a growing movement to restore meadows in the Sierra Nevada region of California.