CalTrout is leading the charge as part of the Sierra Meadows Partnership to restore 30,000 acres by 2030 and help ensure California‘s water security.
In the Sierra Nevada range there are over 200,000 acres of meadows. Those meadows play a critical role in California’s water supply with up to 60% of the state’s developed water coming from the region. But approximately 90,000 acres of Sierra meadows are degraded.
Why does that matter? In healthy meadows, snowmelt and rain is absorbed into the ground like a sponge, where it’s stored and filtered for release later in the dry summer months. Degraded meadows have lost this sponge-like quality and their water storage ability.