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RESTORING CARSON MEADOWS: ASSESSMENT AND PRIORITIZATION A report supported by the National Fish and Wildlife February 2018 Foundation Results of a broadly-collaborative effort to prioritize meadows in the Carson River Watershed for restoration. Restoring Carson Meadows Restoring Carson Meadows: Assessment and Prioritization Julie Fair, Luke Hunt, Meg Hanley and Jacob Dyste 2018. Restoring Carson Meadows: Assessment and Prioritization. A report by American Rivers submitted to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Page 1 Restoring Carson Meadows CONTENTS CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 3 THE CARSON WATERSHED .................................................................................................. 4 METHODS ............................................................................................................................ 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF CONDITION DATA ............................................................ 7 PRIORITIES ........................................................................................................................... 9 PRIORITIZATION FOR LAHONTAN CUTTHROAT TROUT ................................................. 14 INFLUENCE OF BEAVER ..................................................................................................... 14 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 15 CARSON RIVER MEADOWS ASSESSMENT DATA .............................................................. 17 Faith Valley ............................................................................................................................................ 17 Forestdale Meadow.............................................................................................................................. 18 Wet Meadows Reservoir Meadow .................................................................................................... 19 Highway 88 West Meadow ............................................................................................................... 20 Grover Hot Springs Meadow ............................................................................................................. 21 Falls Meadow ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Pleasant Valley ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Lower Fish Valley .................................................................................................................................. 24 Lower Red Lake Creek Meadow........................................................................................................ 25 Dumonts Meadow .................................................................................................................................. 26 Lower East Fork Carson Meadow ...................................................................................................... 27 Horsethief Canyon Meadow ............................................................................................................... 28 Upper Fish Valley .................................................................................................................................. 29 Coyote Valley ........................................................................................................................................ 30 Long Valley ............................................................................................................................................ 31 English Meadow ..................................................................................................................................... 32 Poison Flat East ...................................................................................................................................... 33 Poison Flat West .................................................................................................................................... 34 Middle Willow Creek Meadow .......................................................................................................... 35 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 36 APPENDIX 1: ALL MEADOW SCORES ............................................................................... 37 Page 2 Restoring Carson Meadows INTRODUCTION Meadows of the Carson River basin are an extremely valuable component of the landscape. Meadows provide diverse habitat, including habitat critical to endangered species. They reduce peak flows during storms and soak up spring runoff, recharging groundwater supplies. Meadows filter sediment, provide forage, and are important cultural and recreational sites. However, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) estimates that half of all meadows in the Sierra Nevada are degraded and no longer provide these natural benefits (NFWF 2010). Fortunately, there are methods to restore the condition of unhealthy meadows, and investment in meadow restoration is expanding rapidly. Investorsincluding NFWF and other foundations, state and federal agencies, corporations, ranchers and land managersseek to provide the largest return on their restoration investment. Therefore, an important question is which meadows, if restored, will provide the greatest value? To answer this question, American Rivers partnered with the US Forest Service (USFS) and NFWF to develop a scorecard to rapidly evaluate meadow condition and prioritize meadows for restoration (American Rivers 2012). The method has been applied in the Yuba, Mokelumne, Kern, Tuolumne, Truckee, American and Pine Creek watersheds, and assessment is underway in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Sequoia National Forest. UC Davis has developed a database to store this “Meadow Scorecard” data (http://meadows.ucdavis.edu/assessments/map). This assessment method has been used to identify dozens of high priority meadows and thereby focused our efforts and accelerated restoration. Members of the Carson Between 2014 and 2017, American Rivers was funded by NFWF to meadows work group use the scorecard in the Carson River basin to guide investment and have identified 6 top- accelerate the pace of restoration. We assessed every accessible priority meadows and meadow in the watershed that is larger than 15 acres, 28 meadows raised $226,000 toward in all. We identified six priority meadows and established a Carson restoration of the first two meadows work group to pursue restoration of these six sites as an sites. initial objective. Meadow restoration is currently the unifying force of the Carson meadows work group, but our vision is that the group’s focus will expand beyond these six meadows to improve the health of the watershed and aid in the recovery of the special status species of the Carson Watershed, including Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (LCT), Paiute Cutthroat Trout (PCT), Yosemite Toad, Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged Frog (SNLYF) and Willow Flycatcher (WFC). Group members include land managers (Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and California Department of Fish and Wildlife), other state and federal agencies (US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Resources Conservation Service, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board), non-profit organizations (American Rivers, Alpine Watershed Group, Friends of Hope Valley, Institute for Bird Populations, Trout Unlimited, and The Nature Conservancy), and local agencies (the Carson Water Subconservancy District and Alpine County Board of Supervisors). The presence of the work group in the watershed has already helped to accelerate the pace of restoration. Based on our preliminary prioritization data, American Rivers and our partners have raised $226,000 for restoration planning for two high-priority sites. The purpose of this Walker Basin Meadows Condition Report is twofold. First, it provides condition data and explains why the Carson meadows work group chose the first set of meadows as the top Page 3 Restoring Carson Meadows priority for restoration. Second, it provides information to inform the work group for planning subsequent restoration efforts once the first group of meadows is restored. THE CARSON WATERSHED The Carson River watershed encompasses nearly 4,000 square miles of California and Nevada, traversing five counties. The Carson River flows down the east side of the Sierra Nevada in two forks (east and west) from the high-elevation Carson Iceberg and Mokelumne Wilderness areas of the central Sierra Nevada, through Lahontan Reservoir, and into the Carson Sink wetlands in the Great Basin of Nevada. The East Fork Carson River flows from the north slopes of Sonora Peak northeast to Markleeville then on toward Highway 395. The West Fork Carson River flows from the Sierras near Carson Pass down through Hope Valley and northeast into Nevada, joining with the East Fork near Genoa, Nevada. The Carson River flows north to Carson City and then northeast to Dayton, though Lahontan Reservoir, andeventually to the Carson Sink, East of Fallon. The watershed supports approximately