The Truckee River Restoration Project, a huge effort to bring nature back along 11 miles of the river, has finally ended after remaking its final stretch. Today, 20 miles down the highway from Reno along the river by Tracy, sprigs are sprouting…bees are buzzing…butterflies are blooming. The beauty is back. As The Nature Conservancy’s Lori Leonard told us, "It is looking really good! We're just excited to see all the new cottonwoods.”
It’s all a very big change from years ago when the river path was gouged in a mostly straight path for agriculture, water needs and a misguided idea of flood control. Leonard says, “It was narrow channels and basic weeds around it."
Fifty years ago they thought straightening the river would prevent floods, but they were wrong. The river ended up losing 90% of its forest and 70% of its bird population. The Nature Conservancy spent over a decade nurturing the river and the land around it back to life. Today, baby cottonwood trees are sprouting at the river's edge. Looking around, Leonard showed us, “There's the sunflowers here, there's some Louisiana sage. Some things have absolutely started coming up."
It's the last victory in a mile-by-mile effort, section by section from Lockwood to the east. Bulldozers, excavators and graders were used to set the clock back. 300,000 tons of dirt and rock were moved out here, lowering the ground by six feet so the river is now free to run. Cottonwood trees were planted and invasive plants replaced by native ones. The river spread out, watering the ground for even more growth. Leonard says it's also nature's original flood control: "That flood plain restoration allows the water to slow down and infiltrate down more slowly."
Everything here has come full circle…with cottonwoods, butterflies and bees. The Truckee is once again meandering and working the way it was. Just east of the Tracy power plant, you can now see the river…quieter and surrounded in green, with new shade in the summer and eventually willows and trees everywhere. They will bring back the wildlife…to what it used to be.
Funding for the Truckee River Restoration Project came from the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, along with donations to The Nature Conservancy and their partners.
