Ivy+ Truckee River Day
Join us for our annual volunteer event and for the fair afterwards.
For a third year in a row, our annual volunteer event will be in conjunctioin with the Truckee River Day, Thousands of volunteers gather every year to restore the Truckee River watershed. Bring your family. This is a fun family activity. There is a variety of hands-on work geared to all ages and a fair in the afternoon with free food, activities and music. This year we will be planting a diverse mix of native pine trees and willows.
When: October 19, 11am - 2:30pm
Afterwards, celebrate at Truckee River Day Fair at Granite Flat Campground until 4pm with free food, live entertainment, environmental education activities, face painting, art projects and more!
Where: We will be planting trees in the Tahoe-Donner area from 11am-2:30pm. Granite Flat Campground is located 1 mile south of Truckee on Highway 89.
Register: Email hcnnevada@gmail.com with the name of each participant and their T-shirt size. We will follow up with detailed instructions for the event. Let us know if you want to carpool. Please register by October 12.
Event organizer and Harvard member, Leslie Hsu, further expalins Truckee River Day:
Since 1996, the Truckee River Watershed Council has organized the annual Truckee River Day. Thousands gather every year to restore river, meadow, and forest. This map shows 10 of the large-scale restoration sites where 30 years of Truckee River Days have made significant positive impacts. For example, activities like spreading native seed, planting willows, mulching, building beaver dams, improving trails and stabilizing stream banks help to recharge groundwater, increase moisture to vegetation that supports critical habitat, and keeps water flowing in our streams later into the dry season.We can now observe a multi-thread channel system in what was once a straight, single channel. There are backwater ponds, new willows moving in, and sagebrush moving out — excellent indicators of increased hydrologic function and wetland habitat area for sensitive wildlife species.
When we first started 3 years ago, we discovered that this was a wonderful multigenerational family activity. My youngest two were ages 6 and 9 while my oldest two were 14 and 17. All four of them had to work together to build a willow wattle. While the older two installed the willow wattles to protect Donner Lake Lagoon's stream bank, the younger two planted baby Jeffrey pine trees. We often check on their handiwork and the trees which are located just down the street from our house at Donner Memorial State Park. Last year, they all worked together to build a trail about twenty minutes from our house. At the fair held at Granite Flat Campground, my husband and I enjoy a free meal while the kids are busy running from one booth to another, collecting stamps once they’ve learned the environmental lesson being demonstrated. Last year, my kids made seed bombs at one of the booths which they planted in our yard.
