Haskell Peak Meadows Restoration Project — Public Site Tour & Volunteer Opportunity
Join SYRCL’s Headwater Science Program Manager Rose Schroeder at the Haskell Peak Meadows Restoration Project site on Friday, October 2nd for a guided tour of an active low-tech, process-based restoration project in the Sierra Nevada. This is an opportunity to see the work firsthand, hear preliminary plant and hydrology data from four years of implementation, and roll up your sleeves to help install willow stakes in the meadow to encourage further revegetation.
About the Project
Since 2022, SYRCL has partnered with the Tahoe National Forest, Point Blue Conservation Science, the Wildlife Conservation Board, and the California Department of Water Resources to restore Haskell Peak Meadow using low-tech, process-based restoration methods — primarily beaver dam analogs (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS). BDAs are manmade structures that mimic the function of beaver dams, slowing water, reconnecting streams with their floodplains, and kickstarting natural processes like sediment accrual and groundwater recharge. PALS add complexity to stream channels, increasing habitat diversity and ecological resilience.
What to Expect
This tour is designed for anyone curious about meadow restoration, watershed science, or the practical work of making degraded landscapes healthy again. Rose will walk participants through the site, explain what the structures are doing and how to read the landscape’s response, share preliminary data from the collected between 2022 and 2026, and guide participants through the willow stake installation. No prior experience necessary — just a willingness to learn and get your hands in the soil.
Questions? Contact Rose directly at rose@yubariver.org.
- Meeting location – Bassetts Station lower parking lot (https://maps.app.goo.gl/tqu8x8nYpDhneb2v8)
- Location of project – Freeman Meadow, West Church Meadow, Church Meadow
- Job description – Volunteers can expect to spend the day (10 am to 2:30 pm) learning all about this project from SYRCL’s Headwater Science Program Manager. Participants will receive a lesson on meadow ecology, discuss the restoration actions completed and planned, and look at the hydrology and plant data collected over the past 6 years! After getting s comprehensive overview of the project and walking the site, volunteers will participate in meadow revegetation efforts by trimming willow, bundling branches, and staking them into place.
- Physical abilities needed – Volunteers should be comfortable walking on uneven terrain for ½ mile, bending over to trim willow, tying knots and wielding a rubber mallet.
- Date – Friday, October 2nd, 2025
- Start time & end time – Meet at Bassetts Station at 10:00am and return to Bassetts Station by 2:30pm.
- Transportation plan – We will carpool from Bassetts Station to the project site roughly 10 minutes away. Volunteers with a high clearance vehicle will be encouraged to drive other participants to the site from Bassetts.
- What people need to bring along – Work gloves and water refill will be provided. Bring along water bottles, hiking boots, lunch, snacks, sunscreen, sunhat, warm layers, sunglasses, and anything else that will make you feel comfortable working at high elevation on an October day. The weather may be variable in in the event of high elevation thunderstorms in the area we will stop work for the day.
- Optional items to bring include a camera, binoculars, and field guides, as Freeman Meadow is a habitat for many birds, shrubs, meadow vegetation, and wildlife.
SYRCL gratefully acknowledges the funding partners that make this work possible: the Sierra Meadows Partnership Block Grant administered by Point Blue Conservation Science and the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Water Quality Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 administered by the California Department of Water Resources, and Trout Unlimited.
