Restoring Cold Creek’s meander in High Meadow
By Kathryn Reed
Freel Peak at 10,000-plus feet looms in one direction. Monument Pass in another. Behind the neighboring mountain is the Sky chairlift at Heavenly. Through the trees, though not visible until the descent, is Lake Tahoe.
Not a bad work environment.
This is High Meadow.
Excavator Billy Newman puts sod into the new channel of Cold Creek at High Meadow. Photos/Kathryn Reed
But High Meadow could be more aptly named Construction Meadow. This is because of the multi-year restoration project that started in August. By the time U.S. Forest Service crews complete the project in 2012, Cold Creek will meander like it did before cattle grazed in the meadow, willows will sprout from the bank, the dead beetle-infested lodgepoles will be hauled away, and wildlife will have returned to the area.
“The goal here is in five years we don’t want people to know we’ve been here,” said Stephanie Heller, hydrologist with the Forest Service and project lead.
Eighty of the 280 acres in the meadow are being restored.
This land was bought from a family trust in 2003, with a private cabin still on the property near the entrance to the area off High Meadow Trail, which is off Pioneer Trail on the South Shore.
The area was last grazed eight years ago. Cows like willows – that’s why there aren’t any. Crews are starting to plant them along the new channel.
Work will wrap up for the season on Oct. 15. Next year it’s all about letting the vegetation along the new stream channel take hold. Filling in the old channel will take place in 2012.
The $2 million meadow restoration is being paid for with money from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.
What the public will notice most once the meadow project is done is that this flat, expansive land mass will be wet in the spring, more lush and possibly producing wildflowers like not seen by current generations.
“Now the stream doesn’t get out of the bank,” Heller said. “It will average 30 days each year out of the bank. It helps get the fine sediment on the flood plane. The meadow should be a lot greener. Now it browns up early.”
The 18 people working on the project are all Forest Service employees. Driving in (which is only allowed in a Forest Service vehicle) it looks more like a major construction site than a serene meadow. Boulders and smaller rock, along with piles of dirt are under the power lines. Felled trees are in a pile.
Everything being used in the meadow restoration is native. Those piles of rocks about a quarter mile away are being dumped on Tuesday into the freshly dug new channel to create a stream riffle. The dirt will be used to fill what will be the old channel of Cold Creek.
Excavator Billy Newman delicately places swatches of sod. His precision is incredible, making it look like the large yellow piece of equipment is being operated with velvet gloves.
Building the stack sod bank will help establish vegetation on the bank.
“I think the restoration is broader than sediment. This will be a major habitat restoration,” Heller explained.
She anticipates this project benefiting the area’s entire ecosystem – aiding the goshawks that nest nearby, creating amphibian habitat, having Cold Creek potentially be home to various fish species, macro invertebrates, butterflies, and warblers and other birds calling the high elevation meadow home.
At 7,700 feet, this is the highest meadow restoration project the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has undertaken. Cookhouse Meadow, off Luther Pass, was at 7,300. Big Meadow, one day, will resemble its sister meadow.
The meadow restoration is one of four projects in the area. Aspen stand restoration, fuel reduction and trail maintenance are the other projects.
While Heller and her crew work on the meadow, Jacob Quinn, USFS trails coordinator, is working downstream on 2.2 miles of trail along Cold Creek.
“We tried to maintain the character of it,” Quinn said of the trail. The work to reconstruct the existing trail and reroute some areas will be done by the Oct. 15 grading deadline.
Next summer the plan is to rebuild the trail to Monument Pass. The road to Star Lake will be turned into a trail.
The aspen restoration is necessary because with years of fire suppression conifers have crowded out the smaller trees. As this higher elevation some of the shimmering leaves are already yellow.
Trees being taken out are ones encroaching on the aspens, the beetle-ravaged stands and the ones posing a fire threat.
For more information about the project, click here.
Having been up in High Meadows at least 20 times between early summer and now, at first glance one might be shocked at the amount and magnitude of work happening there, but after learning what exactly is going on, I applaud the Forest Service for the effort they are putting into this project to restore the health of the meadow. This project will take a couple of years to come to fruition, and to anyone who doesn’t understand the projected out come it might create a negative reaction. Remember that in projects like these patience is a virtue!
P.S. Kae, Freel peak rises to 10,881 (highest peak in the basin) feet and Job’s Sister 10,823. Also, thanks for this article, and keep up the good work!
I echo Toogee’s comments and would like to add my heartfelt thanks to the USFS trail engineers and to Terri Marceron and her staff for listening to the public about the Cold Creek Trail relocation/reconstruction project. The essential character of the trail next to Cold Creek remains for all to enjoy. Early proposals to route significant portions of the trail high up on the south facing slope away from the Creek (more similar to the Christmas Valley Trail reroute that was completed several years ago) would have ruined the trail’s appeal as a cool, shady experience next to the creek. Thank you again for the fine work your trail building crews are doing!!
Thats allot of money…! These creek projects are scary and require large investments and maintenance. I hope it is more meticulously constructed than Blackwood… That project released so much sediment from all the material lying around in the floodplain. The reveg is willow stakes poping out of the ground. For my new home construction I need to have all exposed soil covered or revegetated. How come all these agencies arent being held to the same standard.? I am not sure about these projects… Ecosystem restoration sounds sexy, however the temporary impacts may outweigh any anticipated benefit gained. And what on earth is the USFS doing with all my trout in the UTR, while trying to save a dying species? Do they plan to kill every fish in the river thats non native?? The Trout were born in that river. The cutthroat are genetically engineered in a pond and reintroduced. Whats natual about that? Are you native to the Tahoe Basin? There is nothing native about this modified environment taken over by modern man…
Why mess with what took time to find,the creeks,trees,fish,wildlife think we are freaks.
If they could, they do it,they want control the rain,snow,wind.
Glad God got it fixed where these oxidize morons can’t screw that up too!
For the two commenters with concerns about our project, I appreciate your concerns and need to clarify some points.
High Meadow is in no way a natural ecosystem, nor is Blackwood Canyon. Both have been severely altered by activities such as grazing, logging and mining.
Blackwood Creek had been one of the major sources of sediment to Lake Tahoe, and our work is already proving effective at reducing this, as well as restoring fish habitat and vegetation.
The project is not yet complete, in fact work is underway right now. And the complete benefits may take ten years to realize.
Both these projects are part of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program. We work closely with the regulatory agencies in these projects, look at our results and adjust future work accordingly.
For an example of a successful completed project, take a look at Cookhouse Meadow off Luther Pass.
The willows have taken over Trout Creek Meadow & turned that fire break into a fire hazard. The cover they provide is great for coyotes & the homeless.
Willows are invasive – planting them? Expensive & self defeating!
Diana: “Willows are invasive – planting them? Expensive & self defeating!”
No. There are no species in the genus Salix that are invasive in the Tahoe basin.
They are also, not that flammable.
Thank you USFS. EW and H, do you know what natural means? They are restoring it to how it used to be before humans came and screwed it up. As far as stocking rivers, it’s that or nothing at this point. Again humans overfished and now we have to pay the price. Get your head out of your —