In 2024, SYRCL received funding from a Wildlife Conservation Board Block Grant being administered by Point Blue Conservation Science and the Sierra Meadows Partnership (SMP) to begin planning meadow restoration on 270 acres at Castle Valley and Round Valley.

These meadows are within the Washoe Tribe’s homelands and have been utilized by the Washoe People for centuries and are still used today. The project area is on the Tahoe National Forest, in Nevada County, and is accessible via I-80, exit 176 to Castle Peak/Boreal Ridge Road northeast of Soda Springs. The project area is also a popular year-round recreation spot full of trails and high peaks, including Castle, Basin, and Andesite Peaks.  

The Current State 

SYRCL scientists conducted initial site assessments where significant channel incision and conifer encroachment in both Round Valley and Castle Valley were identified. Source issues stemming from historic grazing and logging impacts, ditching, and road and trail impacts have resulted in substantial degradation of meadow habitat in Castle and Round Valleys. These impacts have also led to a loss of wetland vegetation and increased areas of bare ground, making the meadows more susceptible to erosion.  

The objectives of the Project are to restore hydrologic processes in Castle and Round Valley to achieve the following outcomes and benefits: 

• Sustained floodplain connection. 
• Delayed spring recession period and increased groundwater levels to support aquatic wildlife species and wetland plant species, providing refugia habitat during prolonged drought.  
• Increased meadow pool habitat and drought resilience for Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged frogs.  
• Increased willow habitat for migratory bird diversity.  
• Improved water quality.  
• Reduced high intensity fire risk.  
• Increased resilience to changing precipitation patterns. 
• Increased carbon sequestration capacity. 

Why these meadows?  

Castle and Round Valley Meadows are at the headwaters of Upper and Lower Castle Creeks and flow into the South Yuba River, thus SYRCL has a vested interest in supporting their recovery. Additionally, Upper Castle Creek flows into SYRCL’s largest meadow restoration project to date – Van Norden Meadow. These meadows are some of the highest elevation meadows within the Yuba watershed, making their impacts on high elevation aquatic species, migratory birds, and terrestrial wildlife, increasingly important to support wildlife adaptation in a changing climate.  

Round Valley is home to a population of the federally endangered and CA state threatened Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frogs (SNYLF), which utilize the meadow during all stages of life. The restoration efforts at Round Valley aim to improve habitat features for SNYLF, such as deeper pools that persist longer throughout the year with a variety of water temperatures to support the relatively small population in their various life stages. The project will restore hydrologic function within the meadow by slowing and spreading water to increase groundwater storage and reduce streamflow speed, ultimately creating climate resilient habitat that will benefit SNYLF and other species. While SNYLF have not been observed in Castle Valley, similar habitat features and proximity to Round Valley make it suitable habitat, especially after hydrologic function is restored.   

Project Updates 

Through the SMP planning grant, SYRCL staff, partners, and contractors have conducted site visits, developed restoration designs, installed and monitored groundwater wells and stream gages, collected vegetation, biologic, and hydrologic data, and completed the necessary permitting and environmental compliance to implement the meadow restoration project. 

Restoration designs include a 202-acre project area at Castle Valley and a 68-acre project area at Round Valley. Low-tech process-based restoration techniques will be used to address stream channel restoration at Castle Valley and Round Valley Meadows, conifer treatments to address conifer encroachment and high fuel loading at Castle Valley, and road and OHV trail drainage improvements to address disconnected and degraded hydrology from roads and trails around Castle Valley. Pre-restoration monitoring has been conducted at both meadows to better understand baseline, pre-restoration conditions and will be used to compare data and conditions during and after restoration efforts to help analyze the impacts of restoration on the meadows. 

Meadow restoration at Round Valley began in mid-August 2026. This project uses low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) methods such as building beaver dam analogs (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS) to remedy incised and degraded channels within the meadow. All work has been done by hand using hand tools, including chainsaws. The trees cut were encroaching conifers from within and on the perimeter of the meadow and are used as building material for the BDAs and PALS.

Implementationlasted about two weeks during August of 2026 with additional rounds of restoration expected in summers of 2027 and 2028.

Early implementation efforts at Round Valley have been funded through mitigation funds made available through partnerships with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Meadow restoration at Castle Valley is expected to take place during the summers of 2027, 2028, and 2029 pending funding. SYRCL is currently working on securing implementation funding for Castle Valley and additional years of work at Round Valley.