Upper Truckee River Restoration Project, Middle Reaches 3 and 4

Upper Truckee River Restoration Project, Middle Reaches 3 and 4

The California Department of Fish and Game is executing a Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreement number 1600-2008-0129-R2 pursuant to Section 1602 of the Fish and Game Code to the project applicant, City of South Lake Tahoe. The purpose of the project is for restoration of the river, stream environment zone and wildlife habitat within Middle Reaches 3 and 4 of the Upper Truckee River. The Upper Truckee River is the largest tributary into Lake Tahoe. The natural river channel has been significantly altered by urban, airport, and recreational development throughout the Upper Truckee River watershed. The objectives of the project are to improve natural function of the channel, increase overbank flow frequency, and deposit sediment into the floodplain more frequently. Controlling the flow and gradient, protecting the stream banks and designing to allow the river to overtop its banks during peak periods will have many benefits including: reduced velocities, more frequent flooding of the meadow during high flows, improved riparian and meadow vegetation, higher groundwater, more productive fisheries, improved macroinvertebrate populations and terrestrial wildlife habitat, and a reduction in fine sediment transport during overbanking events. The project strategy is to construct approximately 4,000 feet of new sinuous channel in the airport fill to restore ecosystem processes, create a more natural channel and floodplain form, and help to reduce bank erosion. A new floodplain will be constructed in the airport reach by excavating the existing fill east of the airport fence line. The total area of disturbance proposed within the project area is approximately 27.6 acres.

South Lake Tahoe

El Dorado