The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, working with the California Tahoe Conservancy, is proposing to restore the Sunset Stables Reach of the Upper Truckee River.

The project would replace the existing channel with one that has the width, depth and curves of a more naturally functioning river. The anticipated result would be a channel that is more stable and connected to the adjacent floodplain, provides better aquatic habitat and supports a healthier meadow ecosystem.

The project area includes about 13,000 linear feet of the river on approximately 297 acres, extending from the middle of the Lake Tahoe Airport runway to Highway 50 near Elks Club Drive.

The Forest Service and CTC are conducting a joint environmental review of the project and have produced a document that satisfies the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The project is also subject to review by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The project management team analyzed five alternatives, including the no-action alternative. The proposed project would involve constructing 12,000 feet of new channel, planting and temporarily irrigating native streamside vegetation along the new channel, creating floodplain features such as willow clumps to enhance wildlife and plant habitat, and removing conifers along the new channel. Under the proposal, CTC and the Forest Service would partially fill most of the old channel using excavated soil from the new channel, as well as some imported soil, and revegetate disturbed areas with native plants. Grade control structures at the upstream and downstream ends of each reach would redirect flow into the new channel and block off the old channel.

The Forest Service and CTC would implement the project in two phases, each lasting three to five years.

The Forest Service is accepting comments on the proposed project through midnight May 23. For more information, go online,  email Theresa Loupe at tloupe@fs.fed.us, or call (530) 543.2788.