Upper Truckee channel and revegetation project doing well with extra runoff

"The channel looks good and recovery is holding up," said Theresa Cody, Restoration Hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service. "Water is on the flood plains as its supposed to."

Cody was talking about the $7 million project on part of the Upper Truckee River known as Reach 5. The three-year long restoration project was to improve the river channel stability and aquatic habitat along 1.2 miles of the river adjacent to the Lake Tahoe Airport.

Another goal of the project was to restore surface and subsurface channel connectivity to 120 acres of floodplain, increasing deposition of fine sediments and nutrient uptake on the floodplains as well as raising the ground water levels in the meadow.

Mission has been accomplished, even through the large flows of water this winter and spring.

Cody went out to Reach 5 in February during a lower flow of water than there is today to walk the project area. She said all was working as it was meant to after they created a brand new river channel that is more meandering, one that has a slower water flow, more conducive to healthier plant life and a meadow full of nutrients and home to a healthy animal habitat.

"There are some spots on new banks that need to be revegetated," said Cody. With a wetter Fall than expected the new plants put onto the newly formed banks didn't get a change to take root so they'll be going back in later this summer with some rocks and plants to place on the banks.

She said the biggest issue they are dealing with is the need of backfill upstream. They ran out of time and materials and stabilization measures still need to be done on the old channel.

"For the most part 7,340 feet of channel all performed real well," said Cody. "The revegetation response has been great."

There wouldn't have been any erosion had the wet season been a normal one. There is normally one occurrence every ten years where the rain and snow creates a flooded area. "This year we had two of those, one in February and one in March," said Cody. "Its very unusual to have two in one year."

Even with more snowmelt on its way to the river Cody doesn't expect it to reach the 25- or 50- year flows a major flood brings.

Downstream, where the Truckee River flows into Lake Tahoe, clarity is down which is normal in a heavy precipitation year. At the mouth of the river there is a plume of dirt and debris as expected. USFS has been monitoring turbidity all winter.

"There is nothing catastrophic," said Cody.

"In our eyes this is a real success," she added. "This is an awesome experience for people who do what I do."

Sometimes hydrologists have to wait a decade to see how a restoration project like Reach 5 holds up, on this project they had to just wait a few months.

This summer USFS will do some wildlife monitoring in the area. Beavers have been flooded out of their typical areas but finding new areas to build dams. Cody said the Taylor Creek nesting area was closed to public and protected longer to protect the wildlife.

"A year like this changes wildlife," said Cody. "Fish thrive on flooded and deep water areas. Wildlife responds well to rehabilitation and new species have been seen returning to the Upper Truckee and Reach 5. "They come very quickly."

Even though the flooding along the Upper Truckee may look bad to most of us, it is exactly what USFS had wanted, and is what the multi-million dollar project was meant to do. A saturated and inundated flood plain is important.