Cultivating Watershed Resilience at the Urban-Agricultural Interface: Advancing Watershed Health, Fire Resilience, Regenerative Urban Agriculture and Community Stewardship, Phase 2

This funding will be used to implement the South Pasture Stewardship Plan through irrigation improvements, riparian restoration, adaptive rotational grazing, native revegetation and community stewardship to improve the health of the impaired Alum Creek watershed. Specifically, the project will:

Goal 1. Improve Water Quality in the Alum Creek Watershed and the Truckee River: Implement irrigation improvements, adaptive rotational grazing, biological weed control, and ecological monitoring to reduce erosion, improve infiltration, and protect water quality within the Alum Creek watershed.

Goal 2. Restore Pasture Health, Biodiversity and Riparian Habitat: Continue establishing perennial grasses and native squirreltail while restoring riparian vegetation and improving habitat diversity throughout the pasture. Restoration efforts will also protect irrigation corridors as functioning riparian habitat, encouraging native wetland vegetation and natural willow, cottonwood and cattail regeneration improving overall watershed function.

Goal 3. Expand Community Stewardship, Education and Workforce Development: Engage community members in watershed restoration through volunteer projects, an annual “BioBlitz”, educational field days and the Ranching Apprenticeship, which was established in partnership with UNR’s Desert Farming Initiative.

Goal 4. Create Pollinator Habitat: Establish an educational apiary and expand flowering habitat to improve biodiversity, support pollinator populations and increase community awareness of pollinators’ role in watershed health.

Goal 5. Support Regional Wildfire Resilience: Continue establishing native squirreltail while partnering with Goat Grazers to provide a seasonal staging area for prescribed grazing herds supporting regional wildfire fuel-reduction efforts.

Goal 6. Share Restoration Knowledge and Demonstrate Watershed Stewardship: Develop the South Pasture as a demonstration site where agencies, landowners, students and community members can observe practical applications of regenerative watershed stewardship.

TMWA Benefit:

II. Watershed Improvements: This project directly addresses watershed health by implementing a comprehensive restoration effort on the South Pasture, where flood irrigation flows enter Alum Creek, a designated 303(d) impaired waterway.

IV. Reforestation and Revegetation Projects: A key component of the project is the development of native grass seed production, a living seed bank that will provide desperately needed regionally adapted seed stock to agencies engaged in post-fire revegetation/restoration. This community resource will strengthen regional wildfire mitigation efforts while allowing the South Pasture to benefit from carefully managed rotational grazing that supports soil health, nutrient cycling and adaptive pasture management.

V. Rehabilitation of Local Tributary Creeks and Drainage Courses: This project restores the ecological function of the historic irrigation ditch network that conveys Truckee River water across the South Pasture before returning to the Alum Creek/Truckee River watershed. Rather than treating these ditches solely as irrigation infrastructure, they will be managed as functioning riparian corridors.

VI. Stewardship and Environmental Awareness: The South Pasture is a living demonstration site where visitors can experience regenerative watershed management firsthand and contribute to the active restoration and long-term care of the Alum Creek watershed. Community members will participate in restoration days, invasive weed removal, habitat restoration, an annual BioBlitz (a citizen science event that documents plants and wildlife, providing valuable baseline and long-term monitoring data while fostering community buy-in) and educational field days that contribute directly to the health of the watershed.