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| Alpine Watershed Group protects, conserves, and restores the watersheds of Alpine County by promoting sustainable community and science-based collaborative solutions.
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| We are so proud to share with you all that we have accomplished as a watershed community in 2024! Your help and support are making a difference in improving forest and watershed health. We absolutely depend on cash gifts to fill the gaps in grant funding.
Please consider making a year-end donation to help AWG with our 2025 goals. With your support, we will lead more invasive weed pulls and trash pickups, continue monitoring programs to assess seedling survivability in burned areas and collect water quality data, and expand partnerships to enhance fishery and wildlife habitat.
Thank you to all who have already made a year-end gift to Alpine Watershed Group!
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This year, 567 volunteer hours were completed by 268 individuals, whose help allowed us to conserve Alpine County’s watersheds.
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Faith Valley dispersed camping area gets a cleanup.
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Volunteers pose next to the newly reinforced beaver dam analog (BDA) in Faith Valley.
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Neska is hard at work planting trees.
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RestorationWe had 44 volunteers for AWG’s annual Creek Day workday, stewarding five project sites. Their hard work included hauling out 66 bags of trash and treating approximately 48 miles of land. In October 35 volunteers helped at a tree planting event. They planted 320 trees at the top of Pleasant Valley Road, on US Forest Service land that was severely burned in the Tamarack Fire.
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Volunteers raring to get tree seedlings in the ground.
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In July volunteers rounded up huge bags of invasive cheatgrass from Grover Hot Springs State Park.
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A volunteer takes samples at Red Lake in June for harmful algal bloom testing.
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Volunteers sample downstream of Red Lake in August.
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Monitoring
AWG supported 13 River Monitors this year—two of them new recruits! These dedicated volunteers sampled water quality at eight sites in March, June, August, and September.
Our staff monitored for vegetation regrowth in Hope Valley, BDA success in Faith Valley, survivability of planted seedlings, and erosion potential of the West Fork Carson River.
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Snow and freezing water don’t stop our River Monitors!
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New River Monitors get trained in May.
| |  | Bella and Kaitlyn use a quadrat to survey vegetation cover in Hope Valley in June.
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A special guest star spreads the word of AWG at the May Market at Markleeville.
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Bella shows off AWG’s new tabling display at Death Ride 2024.
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Kaitlyn and Neska steal the show at Woollystar.
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Bella and Kaitlyn bring the watershed model to Washoe Earth Day.
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Education and Outreach
We love attending events around our watersheds and speaking with community members. We participated in 12 community events, including South Lake Tahoe Earth Day, Washoe Earth Day, and Carson Valley’s Eagles and Agriculture event. AWG continued hosting two California Climate Action Corps (CCAC) Fellows. Through next August, Kaitlyn and Bella will help make our watersheds more climate resilient by assisting with AWG programs and creating climate outreach materials.
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Kaitlyn and Bella at Eagles and Agriculture 2024.
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AWG looks out on South Lake Tahoe Earth Day.
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Neil attends Reforestation Camp.
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Bella and Kaitlyn are all smiles at their Forest Stewardship Course field day.
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Rachel speaks on restoration work in Faith Valley at Get on the Bus 2024.
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As a community organization, we want to share our gratitude for community member support, whether that is giving your time, making a financial contribution, or sharing our work with your friends and families. Thank you for helping us do all we can to research, restore, educate, and inspire watershed stewardship. For more information on our work, please visit our website. If you are interested in volunteering, call our office, (530) 694-2327, or email Headwaters Coordinator Rachel Maurer for information on volunteer opportunities.
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In the West Fork Carson River Watershed
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National Forest Foundation
For the past two years, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) has led work on Forest Service land in Hope Valley to reduce fire fuels and promote healthy aspen stands. NFF and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California worked with Knowledge Tree Films to highlight the forestry work and inclusion of the Washoe Tribe in all steps of the process. You can watch the film here, and you can read more about the project in AWG’s August 2022 Newsletter.
West Fork Carson River Prioritization Project
AWG is happy to announce that our project to characterize sediment input in the West Fork Carson River watershed and prioritize projects for future implementation kicked off this fall. Waterways Consulting generated computer-based modeling and began in-person surveying alongside our CCAC Fellows. Modeling will continue through the winter, and we will host a meeting for the public in the early summer of 2025.
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Climate Corner
Celebrating Alpine County’s Biodiversity through Participatory Science
By Isabella Kurtz, Climate Resiliency Fellow
In May of 2024, Alpine Watershed Group created an iNaturalist account to upload photographs that are taken during monitoring and other fieldwork. The goal was to aid with species identification and to report on biodiversity in Alpine County. iNaturalist is one of the largest biodiversity survey projects in the world and is utilized by an array of organizations to study biodiversity.
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All Things WatershedsDid you catch the latest Alpine Threads edition? AWG staff reported on our fall volunteer events. You can read the full newsletter here.
Prescribed Fire on the East Slope – Winter in the Sierras provides conditions suitable for burning wood piles, which were created during field season when thinning and clearing woody debris occured. For more information and to receive updates on prescribed fire in Alpine County, email Alpine County Wildfire Project Coordinator Clint Celio.
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Upcoming AWG Events Wednesday, January 15, 5:00 p.m. – AWG Board Meeting
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We are grateful for the financial support of all who love Alpine County. We are able to lead volunteer workdays and field trips, support community science data collection, and host California Climate Action Corps Fellows because of your generosity. Thank you for elevating your gifts this giving season!
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AWG has earned a 2024 Gold Seal of Transparency with Candid! Check out our Nonprofit Profile here.
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Ways to Connect or HelpWe always love to hear from our watershed community! Below are email links to reach AWG's staff, or reach us at AWG's office at (530) 694-2327. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Contact Us!
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| A quick note for Gmail users:
To get our monthly bulletin email sent to your "Inbox" instead of "Promotions,"
click and drag the email over to your "Primary" tab.
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