Meadows Rising: Restoring California's Mountain Heartlands

Mountain meadows serve as a key habitat for many inland native trout species across the West. Unfortunately for California’s inland trout populations, some sixty percent of meadow habitat in the Sierra Nevada—home to eight distinct native trout species—is considered impaired.

For the California Golden Trout, whose native range sits above 7,500 feet in elevation and encompasses less than 600 square miles, even minor levels of meadow degradation have big impacts on resident populations. A Trout Unlimited-led project aims to reverse the loss of meadow habitat, reconnect floodplains, and give this iconic, listed species more room to roam.

In mountain ecosystems, healthy meadows act like sponges, storing runoff as groundwater and gradually releasing that water back into streams later in the season when it’s most critical for trout and other aquatic species. By holding cold water on the landscape, healthy meadows act as safe havens for trout against drought, catastrophic wildfire, and rising air temperatures.

Most degradation of high-elevation meadows derives from legacy uses such as excessive grazing, logging, mining, and off-road vehicle use, which cause meadows to lose much, if not all, of their water storage and habitat function by turning them into a series of gullied streams disconnected from the floodplain.

Fortunately, meadow ecological and hydrological function can be restored. In the southern Sierra and elsewhere, Trout Unlimited’s meadow restoration work is proving that degraded conditions can be reversed and meadow systems, and the wildlife that depend on them, can recover.

Some of the most important — and often overlooked — natural resources the state has are the verdant high elevation wetlands we call mountain meadows. These meadows lie at the headwaters of the rivers that flow out of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Klamath mountains, supplying the majority of water we rely on for agriculture and drinking, and supporting diverse ecosystems from the Sierra to the sea, from Yreka to San Diego.

They serve an important role in improving water quality and increasing water storage, acting as giant sponges that soak up snow melt and slowly release it through the dry summer months. And mountain meadows are superstars at carbon sequestration, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere as fast as tropical rainforests.

Mountain meadows provide important wildlife habitat for a broad suite of species, including many that are threatened with extinction, such as Willow Flycatchers and Yosemite Toads.

For a millennia, mountain meadows have also held a deep cultural significance for the many tribes that have stewarded these ecosystems.

Unfortunately, over 50% of Sierra meadows have been heavily degraded or lost over the past 150 years, due to road-building, overgrazing, fire suppression, mining, water diversions and more. These meadows no longer provide the wealth of important services they once did.

The Sierra Meadows Partnership has sought to protect and restore these crown jewels of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades mountains. Comprised of NGOs, government agencies, universities, conservation districts and restoration practitioners, we have restored more than 8,000 acres and protected 10,000 since 2016. The goal is to restore and conserve 30,000 acres by 2030.