Meadow Restoration

Restoration Project Update: The Haskell Peak Meadows

Restoration Project Update: The Haskell Peak Meadows

The Haskell Peak Meadows Restoration Project aims to rehabilitate the meadow hydrology in five meadows, thereby restoring ecosystem function and increasing resilience in each of these meadows to expected changes in climatic conditions. 

Meadows provide benefits that make them biodiversity and carbon sequestration hotspots, provide late season baseflows (the portion of the streamflow that is sustained between precipitation events), refugia habitat, and improve water quality and quantity for downstream users. Restoration of meadow hydrology, by re-connecting the stream channel to its natural floodplain, is the primary basis upon which other ecological values are sustained, including restoring historic riparian wet meadow, aquatic habitat, and wetland function, within the meadow system.

Unveiling the Van Norden Meadow Restoration Project Following a Record-Breaking Winter

Unveiling the Van Norden Meadow Restoration Project Following a Record-Breaking Winter

Following a record-breaking winter, South Yuba River Citizen League (SYRCL) scientists were eager to check in on the success of the restoration completed in 2022 during Phase 1 of the Van Norden Meadow Restoration Project!  

Monitoring for Groundwater and Surface Water in the Haskell Peak Meadows Project

Monitoring for Groundwater and Surface Water in the Haskell Peak Meadows Project

Kyle McNeil, Ecohydrologist for the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), Wrenn Cleary, SYRCL’s AmeriCorps Monitoring Coordinator, and Jessica Nguyen were recently out monitoring for groundwater and surface water at Freeman and West Church Meadows in the Haskell Peak Meadows project in the upper North Yuba headwaters area.

SYRCL was back at Loney Meadow

SYRCL was back at Loney Meadow

In July of 2023, SYRCL was back up at Loney installing fencing. Fencing at Loney and Upper Loney Meadows is done to protect stream channels, plants, or equipment from cattle activity. For the metal groundwater wells, cows can sometimes see these wells as good back-scratch posts, unfortunately damaging the pipe in the process. By putting up fencing, SYRCL can protect our monitoring sites for groundwater monitoring while cattle use the meadow too.