2026 has delivered another busy year at Van Norden Meadow. A lackluster winter and snowpack paved the way for early access to the meadow for our hydrology monitoring staff to begin bi-weekly streamflow, water quality, and groundwater level measurements. We were also able to get an early look at how Phase 2 at the Lytton Fan held up to the warm, rainy, and unpredictable 2025-2026 winter season. The features that were installed in the fall of 2026 have functioned as intended, with the goal of getting water out of the incised channel and back on the historic alluvial fan to promote sheet flow.  

In late May, SYRCL hosted a site tour of Van Norden Meadow for the Sierra Meadows Partnership Annual Gathering. Fellow meadow practitioners were all welcomed with spring snow flurries and important facts, considerations, and lessons learned from the restoration project so far.  One benefit of the early snowmelt was a longer growing season for plants that are crucial to revegetation and the success of the restoration project. SYRCL’s meadow restoration team spent most of July with our heads down in the meadow collecting plant data to support post-restoration monitoring efforts to help determine restoration effects on vegetation across the meadow and within conifer treatment areas. SYRCL also hosted 10 high school girls from the LA and Bay areas through the Girls in Science Earthwatch program. They helped us for a week with our monitoring and data collection efforts at Van Norden.  Staff will be analyzing and synthesizing the data collected in the upcoming winter months.  

In early September, implementation season returned to Van Norden Meadow as the Swift Water Design crew continued the construction of beaver dam analogs (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS) in Upper Castle Creek to combat channel incision and improve channel-floodplain interactions. The remaining 10.5 acres of conifer removal and thinning on the southern perimeter of the meadow was also completed. The Phase 2 Lytton Fan Restoration project area received some additional attention in September through adaptive management actions, which included bolstering features with additional rock, constructing a vegetation roughness mat to reduce stream power, and supporting revegetation efforts with additional willow stakes. SYRCL was fortunate to have staff members from Sugar Bowl Resort and Boy Scouts from the Lincoln Troop volunteer their time to support our adaptive management revegetation efforts this fall.  

Sign structures have also been installed at the new Sheep Pens Parking Area. Be on the lookout for the interpretive signs to be added to the structures in 2027. Trail construction on the southern side of the meadow expects to begin in late October and will continue as long as conditions allow. This is the start of the trail which will create a formalized, loop around Van Norden and will have interpretive signs highlighting the history, land use, ecological value, and natural beauty of the meadow. Funding for the trail has been provided by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. We are also grateful to our other funders who have supported work at the Van Norden Meadow Restoration Project this year, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation Board, Sierra Meadows Partnership, Truckee Donner Land Trust and the Martis Fund, a collaborative project of Martis Camp Club, DMB/ Highlands Group (the developers of Martis Camp), Mountain Area Preservation (MAP), and Sierra Watch..  

Next year, SYRCL will continue hydrology monitoring, vegetation monitoring in areas that received conifer treatments, BDA and PALS construction, and monitoring for additional adaptive management.