Upper Truckee River near airport closed to the public this summer: Rafting to be affected

The U.S. Forest Service and California Tahoe Conservancy will be finishing their fourth and final year of creating a new channel for the Upper Truckee River near the South Lake Tahoe airport. To accomplish their final tasks, the meadow and river will be closed to the public for much of the summer in order to divert the water into the new channel, relocate fish and mussels, and finish up vegetation projects.

Work resumes on June 13 when a temporary bridge will be built from the staging area located at the old Sunset Corral across the river. That construction will take about a week, and from then until July 11, boaters may head down the river under the bridge (during the week of construction there will be no access). Then a temporary road will be built from the bridge to the project area, construction fences go up, and the meadow will be closed to the public.

The project will impact some of the Upper Truckee River rafting season as they expect the river to be closed from July 11 until mid-October.

Starting on July 11 the whole river will be closed to boaters as the Forest Order is in place. The sign advising of the area closure will be placed at the Elk's Club access point to the river.

Pipes will then divert the water into the new channel, leaving no water to raft on in the original channel.

"The restoration work will make for better rafting in the future and make season last longer," said Lisa Heron, the Public Affairs Specialist for the Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. "It will improve future rafting seasons."

When complete, the new channel will be more stable, will be connected to the adjacent floodplain, will provide a better aquatic habitat, support a healthier meadow ecosystem, and reduce the amount of fine sediment that reaches Lake Tahoe.

Beside the movement of the water flow, crews from USFS and CTC will be relocating the native mussels who call the Upper Truckee River home. Under a test program in 2014, some mussels were relocated into Trout Creek. Those that remained will be moved into the new channel along with the fish.

There will also be some additional tree removal around the new channel. Many of those that were removed when the project began were used in the river bottom of the new channel, creating a more natural riverbed.

“It looks beautiful our there," Heron said of the project area. "Willows are looking like they’ll be back strong, grasses look great.”