Peter C. Hartsough

We are working in the headwaters of the American River, monitoring the hydrologic response of adaptive forest management. This effort, part of the larger French Meadows Project, is being undertaken with partners; The Nature Conservancy, Tahoe National Forest, the American River Conservancy, Placer County Water Authority, and the California Wildlife Conservation Board. TNC has put together a lessons learned paper about the project thus far. Ecologically-based forest management seeks to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic, high-intensity wildfire while also protecting and restoring watershed health and native biodiversity and promoting forest conditions that are more resilient to drought, climate change, and other disturbances. Part of this work involves trying to get the original American River Hydrologic Observatory (ARHO) back on line after a rough winter in 2016-17. Lots of work still to do but we had some success in a late summer/ early fall mad rush to get 4 sites back up and running with telemetry before winter sets in. No shortage of challenging problems to solve, but hey, we are working in the mountains.  This work on rehabilitating and hardening of the ARHO sites is continuing in partnership with the Eldorado Irrigation District.