Haskell Peak Meadows Restoration Project: Year Four Wrap-up

This year, SYRCL has continued partnering with the Tahoe National Forest, Point Blue, the Wildlife Conservation Board, and the Department of Water Resources, to complete a fourth year of project implementation on the Haskell Peak Meadows Restoration Project. This year’s implementation focused on the construction of new low-tech process-based restoration tools, such as beaver dam analogs (aka BDAs — man-made structures that mimic beaver dams) and post assisted log structures (PALS), to assist the system in floodplain reconnection. Crews also maintained and adjusted structures built in previous years.  Research tells us, and our data confirms this, these low-impact tools are effective at promoting floodplain connectivity and complexity, increasing habitat heterogeneity, and increasing ecological resilience.  

If you have been following this project over the last few years, you might have noticed that we have mentioned BDAs and PALS as an implementation action every year! That’s because process-based restoration takes time. These restoration techniques work with the energy from water and plants already on the site by kickstarting naturally occurring processes like aggradation (sediment accrual via slow flowing waters) and ground-water recharge (surface water infiltrating through soil and refiling underground aquifers). Because the site changes every year in response to winter conditions, crews need to revisit the project for several years following the first build. To ensure structures are functioning to their full capacity, crews add onto previous builds and build new structures in areas where the meadow has responded.   

This restoration method is a form of replicating the ecosystem engineering of beavers. We are trying to mimic a creature that lives and works in the meadow all year, ensuring that its dams stay in tip-top shape even in the highest flow conditions. With that in mind, it’s no wonder us humans must revisit the site and maintenance the structures; the beavers do that all the time!  

So yes – we have spent four years doing the same project actions, building on the successes of prior builds, increasing groundwater recharge, and activating new channels and swales in the meadows. A key component of process-based restoration is time and space. Nature is doing the work, and you can’t rush nature. We are nudging it back in the right direction by offering tools like BDAs for the creek to play with. Watching the meadow respond to these structures has been amazing and acts as a reminder that beautiful and complex things take time. Like fine wine, the Haskell Peak Meadows Restoration Project is only getting better with age.  

As the fourth year of implementation is ending, we want to show you what we have been working on! Join SYRCLs Headwater Science Program Manager, Rose Schroeder, out on the project site on Friday, October 2^nd to see all of the work first-hand, discuss preliminary plant and hydrology data, and to install willow stakes in the meadow to encourage further revegetation.

 If you have questions about this site visit, reach out to Rose at Rose@yubariver.org  

SYRCL would like to thank the Sierra Meadows Partnership (SMP) 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 for funding this critical work.