Salmon & Packer Creek Aspen Restoration Project to launch in Tahoe National Forest

The South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, is launching the Salmon & Packer Creek Aspen Restoration Project, a major forest restoration effort aimed at revitalizing quaking aspen habitat within the Tahoe National Forest. 

Spanning a total of 292 acres in the Lost Sierra, north of Highway 49 and west of Gold Lakes Highway, this project includes four Forest Service campgrounds—Packsaddle, Berger, Diablo, and Salmon Creek—and four special-use organizational camps—Camp Wasiu II, Camp Chrysalis, Woodland Camp, and Camp O-Ki-Hi. The primary goal is to restore degraded quaking aspen stands along Packer and Salmon Creeks. Aspen stands are in decline throughout the Sierra Nevada, and the restoration and enhancement of critical aspen habitat will increase landscape resiliency in this region. Additional goals of the project include forest resilience and reduced risk of high severity fire. Restoration actions include selective thinning to remove competing conifers designed to support healthy aspen regeneration. Treatments are tailored to the terrain and ecological conditions in each unit. 

“Aspen stands are vital to forest biodiversity, providing important habitat for wildlife and contributing to overall ecosystem resilience,” said Anne Marie Holt, SYRCL’s Forest Conservation Project Manager. “This project reflects a strategic, science-based approach to restoring these sensitive areas.”

One highlight of the project involves installing approximately 15 Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) in Salmon Creek Meadow. These low-tech structures, built from woody material, mimic natural beaver dams to slow water flow, expand wet meadow habitat, and promote aspen growth along the meadow fringe.

“Increasing the extent and health of meadow ecosystems like Salmon Creek Meadow will not only benefit aspen stands, but also improve local hydrology and support broader biodiversity,” Holt explained.

The Salmon & Packer Creek Aspen Restoration Project is within the boundary of a larger Forest Health project known as the North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project, led by the Tahoe National Forest and the North Yuba Forest Partnership. The North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project is a 275,000-acre project in Sierra and Yuba County that encompasses TNF system lands. Through ecologically based thinning and prescribed fire, the North Yuba Landscape Resilience Project seeks to protect the North Yuba forests in the North Yuba Watershed from the threat of catastrophic wildfire and restore the watershed to a healthier, more resilient state. Through this partnership, this project is supported by the Yuba Aspen and Meadow I Forest Resilience Bond (YAM I FRB) from Blue Forest. You can find out more about the YAM | FRB on the Blue Forest website at https://www.blueforest.org/our-impact/our-projects/yuba-aspen-meadow/

Project implementation is scheduled to begin in October 2025. Work will continue in fall of 2026 between early September (after the nesting bird season) and late October (before snowfall). Given the complexity of the project and time constraints, SYRCL anticipates a phased, multi-year approach to full implementation. Implementation of this project is funded by the State of California’s Wildlife Conservation Board and the U.S. Forest Service.

For further details, please contact Anne Marie Holt at annemarie@yubariver.org or (530) 265-5961 x216.