Truckee River Watershed Council outlines Ure Valley restoration: boardwalk, bridge and $3.5 million in grant funding

The Truckee River Watershed Council presented restoration plans for Ure Valley at the Tahoe Donner annual meeting, describing work that will include a boardwalk, a new bridge at Coyote Crossing and removal of damaged culverts to protect meadow hydrology and wildlife habitat.

Michelle Prestowicz, executive director of the Truckee River Watershed Council, told members the council’s mission is to protect, preserve and enhance the Truckee River watershed through projects, policy and community engagement. She said the watershed is listed by state and federal authorities as impaired by excess sediment and that restoration projects improve water quality, wildlife habitat, flood resilience and long-term ecosystem function.

Prestowicz outlined the Ure Valley work as a roughly 500–600-foot boardwalk and a more stable bridge to replace crushed culverts that have rerouted pedestrian traffic and created braided trails across meadow surfaces. The boardwalk and bridge are intended to pull recreational use off sensitive meadow surfaces, restore natural hydrologic flow, and stabilize the creek channel. Prestowicz said the work will address “centuries of impact and changes to that watershed” and be durable for generations.

She said the Watershed Council and partners are bringing about $3.5 million in publicly financed bond-funded grants to enhance Tahoe Donner properties and that the council has formalized the partnership with the association through a memorandum of understanding. Partners mentioned included the U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, the National Forest Foundation and Truckee Meadows Water Authority.

Prestowicz said the Watershed Council has completed more than 50 restoration projects since 1996 and is planning restoration on 12,000 acres to buffer wildfire, filter pollution and slow floods. She described a larger, multi-party effort that aims to treat 60,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land over the next decade as part of forest health and wildfire-risk reduction work that complements watershed restoration.

The presentation included both ecological rationale — restoring hydrologic flow and food-web support — and recreational benefits: a boardwalk will provide accessible routes while removing braided trails that interrupt meadow hydrology.

Prestowicz invited members to a “river talk” and project tours and said Watershed Council staff would be available at association tables after the talk to answer questions. Tahoe Donner staff and board members praised the collaboration and noted the restoration will produce high-impact improvements at a lower direct cost to association members because of external grant funding.

The Watershed Council provided a timeline for outreach, volunteer opportunities and project tours; members were encouraged to sign up for field visits to past restoration sites in Martis Valley, Perazzo Meadows and Coldstream Canyon.

No formal board vote was recorded on the project during the annual meeting; speakers described the MOU and external grant funding as already in place or in the active development phase.