The Restoration of Priority Meadows in the Walker Watershed Project was highly successful and provided benefits to Yosemite toad and the Walker River watershed. 

Beaver-related restoration is a process-based strategy that seeks to address wide-ranging ecological objectives by reestablishing dam building in degraded stream systems. Although the beaver-related restoration has broad appeal, especially in water-limited systems, its effectiveness is not yet well documented. In this article, we present a process-expectation framework that links beaver-related restoration tactics to commonly expected outcomes by identifying the set of process pathways that must occur to achieve those expected outcomes. We explore the contingency implicit within this framework using social and biophysical data from project and research sites. This analysis reveals that outcomes are often predicated on complex process pathways over which humans have limited control.

The Carman Watershed Restoration Project Phase 2 Post-Project and Adaptive Management Monitoring Report summarizes early season (February-March 2020) post-project condition of the Carman Watershed Restoration Phase 2 projects. Phase 2 project sites include Site #1 Folchi Meadows, Site #2 Folchi Meadows Railroad Grade, Site #4, and Site #8. Project sites are located in Plumas and Sierra Counties in the northern portion of the Sierraville Ranger District of Tahoe National Forest (TNF) approximately 2 miles north of Calpine, California.

The Carman Watershed Restoration Project Phase 2 monitoring report summarizes pre-project (baseline) and construction monitoring for the Phase 2 project sites under California Department of Fish and Wildlife Watershed Restoration Grant Program Agreement #P1796015. Phase 2 project sites include Site #1 Folchi Meadows, Site #2 Folchi Meadows Railroad Grade, Site #4 Carman Creek, and Site #8 Carman Creek. Project sites are located in Plumas and Sierra Counties in the northern portion of the Sierraville Ranger District of Tahoe National Forest (TNF) approximately 2-miles north of Calpine, California. Approximately 375-acres of severely degraded meadow and stream channels were restored during Summer 2019.

The Sierra Meadow Prioritization Tool Database includes all 24 conservation target datasets of the Tool in the form of related tables. All tables are related to the Sierra Meadows Table based on the UC Davis Meadow ID, allowing for the user to generate tailored queries that incorporate data from the different tables for aid in decision-making. The user guide and data dictionary includes all associated metadata, data sources, and detailed description and rationale of the different indicators associated with each conservation target as well as suggested scoring approaches. The tool provides a strategic, flexible approach for prioritizing Sierra meadows to achieve multiple benefits. The tool can be used to inform decision-making about which meadows to prioritize for restoration, protection, and/or conservation actions that will maximize benefits to biodiversity and ecosystem targets. Funding for the tool was provided by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

Field assessment results/data for 8 different protocols, conducted in 2019

Field assessment results/data for 8 different protocols, conducted in 2019

Field assessment results/data for 10 protocols, conducted in 2019

The purpose of this handbook is to demonstrate how climate change considerations can be integrated into planning and design for Sierra meadow restoration projects and provide recommendations of best management practices to ensure restored meadows are resilient to climate change. Our approach combines a traditional climate change vulnerability assessment with Point Blue’s climate-smart restoration principles to describe both the potential vulnerabilities that climate change poses to achieving restoration goals as well as specific restoration and management actions that can help address and reduce identified vulnerabilities.

Adding chipped wood to soil ameliorates compaction, allowing faster plant growth that is critical to successful wetland restorations. Following the filling and planting of an erosion gully in Halstead Meadow, Sequoia National Park, the tallest leaf height and maximum clone width of transplanted Scirpus microcarpus seedlings were negatively correlated with soil compaction. Plant height decreased by 9.8 cm and width decreased by 11.9 cm per MPa of soil compaction (range of 0.74–4.50MPa). We experimentally amended mineral soil in a test trench and found that every 0.10 cm3/cm3 addition of wood chips (range of 0.00–0.75 cm3/cm3) reduced compaction by 0.174MPa. Had the Halstead Meadow gully fill contained an equivalent volume of wood chips to the reference area soil organic matter content (0.64 cm3/cm3), we predict compaction would have been reduced by 1.11MPa, increasing individual transplant width spread by 36%, approximately doubling the vegetated area after two growing seasons.

We discuss a recent paper which evaluated the hydrologic changes resulting from a pond-and-plug meadow restoration project in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. In the study, measurements of streamflow into and out of the meadow suggested late-summer baseflow increased as much as five-fold when compared with prerestoration conditions. However, the volume of streamflow attributed to the restored meadow (49,000–96,000 m3 over four months) would require that 2.5–4.8 m of saturated meadow soils drain during sum- mer months. The groundwater data from this meadow record only 0.45 m of change over this timeframe, which is less than might be expected from plant use alone (0.75 m), suggesting this restored meadow may be acting as a water sink throughout summer rather than a source.

Between 2014 and 2017, American Rivers was funded by NFWF to use the meadow scorecard in the Middle Truckee River Basin to focus investment and accelerate the pace of restoration. We assessed every accessible meadow in the watershed that is larger than 15 acres, 30 in all. We prioritized these meadows for restoration with a working group comprised of local stakeholders who are actively and strategically pursing restoration in the watershed. We identified 6 priority meadows in the Middle Truckee River watershed.