July 17, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode, Living with Fire’s Megan Kay digs into the intersection of wildfires and community water systems with Kara Steeland and Stephanie Morris of Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA). Kara is TMWA’s Senior Hydrologist and Watershed Coordinator, and at the time of the interview, Stephanie was Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs.
For more full episode details including transcript visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/17503579
Stephanie and Kara share that 80% of the water for the Truckee Meadows is stored upstream in California lakes and reservoirs surrounded by federal land managed by the US Forest Service. They explain that wildfires that happen in the watershed increase ash and organic material in the short term, which increases the difficulty and cost of water treatment. In the longer term, debris flows from burn scar areas increase sediment and debris in waterways, impacting water quality treatment and reducing storage capacity.
TMWA talks about how they work with partners to help protect watersheds and mitigate water quality impacts. As Stefanie says, “[We] don’t own the land around the reservoirs. … We can’t just go out there and do work. But what TMWA can do is help bring funds and planning expertise to [the Middle Truckee River Watershed Forest Partnership] to help increase scale and pace of those projects.”
They highlight the partnership’s Ladybug Project, above Stampede reservoir near Ladybug Peak, that aims to mitigate fire impacts by reducing fuels and altering future fire behavior and decreasing debris flows coming off of burned areas.
- Learn more about TMWA’s efforts at https://tmwa.com/article/middle-truckee-river-watershed-forest-partnership-awarded-8m-to-lower-wildfire-risk/ and https://tmwa.com/article/addressing-wildfire-risk-in-the-middle-truckee-river-watershed/.
- Learn more about the Middle Truckee River Watershed Forest Partnership at https://www.truckeeforests.org/.
- Connect with Truckee Meadows Water Authority at:
- Website: https://tmwa.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truckeemeadowswaterauthority/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truckeemeadowswaterauthority/
- X/Twitter: https://x.com/tmwa/
- Learn more about Living With Fire https://www.livingwithfire.org and find the Living With Fire evacuation checklist and other publications at https://www.livingwithfire.org/resources/publications/.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stefanie Morris (00:00):
The wildfire behavior is different. It's
(00:03):
changing. There is no wildfireseason anymore. It's kind of any
time working with the ForestService and others about how
they manage the forest and howwe can partner together to adapt
so that we don't have those hugeimpact on water supply, on
reservoirs, and really, a lot ofthe projects that we're looking
at, they're multi benefit.
Megan Kay (00:27):
This is the Living With Fire podcast brought to you
by the Living With Fire Programat the University of Nevada,
Reno extension. Welcome back tothe Living With Fire podcast.
It's been a while since we'veput out any episodes. This one
has been on the shelf for awhile. I recorded this interview
a couple years ago in 2023 sothis is an interview with Kara
(00:49):
Steeland and Stephanie Morrisfrom the Truckee Meadows Water
Authority, all about howwildfire can potentially impact
water systems and what thatlooks like for you know, those
of us who live and rely on thesewater systems. Before we get to
the episode, though, I wanted tointroduce y'all to Jenni Burr,
who's new to our team. Jenni,you wanna introduce yourself
(01:12):
real quick?
Jenni Burr (01:13):
Hi. I'm Jenni Burr, and I am joining the team as the
outreach and contentcoordinator.
Megan Kay (01:19):
Awesome. We're really happy to have Jenni. She's got
lot of great ideas andenthusiasm, and I'm just excited
to see all the stories on thepodcast that are gonna be
produced by you. So Jenni'sgonna be kind of transitioning
into the voice of the LivingWith Fire podcast. So welcome.
Jenni Burr (01:36):
Thank you.
Megan Kay (01:36):
You want to give us kind of like a little bit of
about who you are.
Jenni Burr (01:40):
So I was born and raised in Nevada, and then went
away in my college years andmoved back to Nevada in 2020,
after working for the federalgovernment and the National Park
Service. And I'm excited to beback in Nevada. I'm also really
excited to join this team, andwe're going to be exploring some
(02:02):
of the stories about what ourexpanding team is doing. So we
have some folks working on CWPPsor community wildfire protection
plans. So we're going to let youknow all about what those are.
We're also going to try to letyou know a little bit more about
our partners, and once schoolstarts, we're gonna pop Spencer
(02:24):
on to talk a little bit aboutwhat's going on with what he's
doing in the K-12 curriculumworld, and try and interview
some of the students with.
Megan Kay (02:33):
Great. Yeah. So lots of things to look forward to.
Really excited about getting toshare more stories. So without
further ado, we've been waitingtwo years for this episode. I'm
excited to finally put it out.
Enjoy.
Kara Steeland (02:56):
So my name is Kara Steeland, and I'm a
Stefanie Morris (03:01):
My name is Stephanie Morris. I am the
Director of Legal and RegulatoryAffairs at the Truckee Meadows
Water Authority. Our system is,in a way, starts out very
hydrologist with the TruckeeMeadows Water Authority.
naturally. So we have a numberof reservoirs, starting with
Lake Tahoe, and then we own thestorage capacity and storage
rights on Donner Lake andIndependence Lake. And then in
(03:24):
addition to that, we have theability to restore water in
Pastor Boca and stampedereservoirs. And so this
community's water supply islargely stored upstream in
California, and most of the landin the middle Truckee River
watershed, which is what we'reconcerned about is, in large
part, around the reservoirsowned by the Forest Service. So
(03:47):
just for context, the middleTruckee River is approximately
315,000 acres, and 260,000roughly, of that is owned by the
US Forest Service. So we're inthe situation where we have
these reservoirs and naturallakes with, you know, ability to
store water, and the TruckeeRiver, which is a natural river,
(04:07):
and it's a part of ourconveyance system, until we
divert water here to treat itand serve it to this community.
And we're largely not the landowner of along the Truckee River
or around the reservoirs, and sowe're really starting to look at
how to mitigate so that we don'thave impacts. So we're very
(04:28):
focused on what that sort ofinsurance policy of mitigation
so that we don't have thosewater quality impacts or have a
lot of sedimentation coming intothe reservoirs that decrease the
ability to store water beforewildfires happen, and so that
really is requiring us, and wecan talk all about this, to work
(04:49):
with the Forest Service and lookfor other partnerships to be
able to effectuate the work thatwe think needs to happen to
protect watershed. In terms oflooking at climate change and
looking at how wildfires arebehaving differently with
climate change, and then lookingat examples, both locally and
(05:09):
also outside of our area, wherewildfires have had devastating
impacts on water supply. And Iwant to pause and just say, we
would never serve water thatdoesn't meet the, you know,
required water qualitystandards. So it's not about,
oh, we're going to have to servewater that doesn't meet
standards. No, that's nevergoing to happen. It's about
(05:33):
mitigating because you can haveimpacts and it would create
potentially increased treatmentcosts and or having to rely on
other sources of water for acertain amount of time. So we
want to mitigate those inadvance, so never gonna serve
water that doesn't, is nothealthy and doesn't meet all of
Megan Kay (05:53):
That's good to know as a customer. So can we step
the standards.
back just a second, because Ithink you did a great job of
explaining one you're nevergoing to deliver unsafe water,
but the impacts, so then theimpacts to us, to citizens or
people who live in this area, itwould be like financial because
the cost of treating the watercould go up as a result of a
(06:14):
wildfire. So I was just curiousabout that. So what happens to
the water systems, like in theTruckee after a wildfire that
could potentially like cause youto have to treat it more.
Stefanie Morris (06:25):
Yeah, so we've had a there was a small fire on
Martis Creek, which is a prettysmall watershed that drains into
the Truckee River. And there wasso much extra sediment and
organic material ash coming inthat for several days, we just
turned off our diversion andrelied on groundwater instead of
(06:46):
surface water. So that's oneway, and that was very small. So
if we had a larger fire and itwas affecting more of the
Truckee River, we probablycouldn't just rely on
groundwater for extended periodsof time. We would have to treat
the Truckee River water that'sbeen impacted to meet standards,
and so the treatment costs wouldgo up and it would be different.
(07:08):
So for example, we just built anew water treatment plant on
Whites Creek. It's our MountRose water treatment plant. And
right now that area is above theHumboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest. If there were a fire inthat watershed, that plant is
not equipped to be able to treatbasically, the pH would be off
(07:29):
and we wouldn't be able tocurrently treat it. We would
have to upgrade that facility inorder to do that. So we want to
just avoid that. So those wouldbe the impacts. The other huge
impact is that people don'treally think about is you have
these reservoirs, and you havesediment coming into the
reservoirs, and when you havesediment coming in and large
(07:50):
quantities, which we've seen,for example, in Colorado, and
some of their wildfires, some oftheir water supply reservoirs
have gotten tons of sediment,and the rivers got tons of
sediment, which increase therisk of flooding, and then also,
just from a reservoirperspective, it reduces the
capacity of water that we canstore. And our upstream storage
(08:11):
is this region's drought supply.
So we don't want to reduce that.
We want to maintain thatcapacity.
Megan Kay (08:18):
I mean. And then that makes total sense, because,
like, basically, the ash istaking up room in the reservoir
so there's less water or thesediment, not the ash.
Kara Steeland (08:26):
Yeah, a major problem, like after the Martis
Stefanie Morris (08:26):
And in reservoirs, just because there's
fire in 2001 was that the firehappens, and that's a problem,
the treatment plants, but thenin the reservoirs, because those
but it's actually when you getthose big rain storms after the
fire happens, and you have aburn scar with pretty much no
vegetation left on it, and thesoil can be come really
hydrophobic. The water just runsoff instead of actually
are used for multi purpose, likerecreation, when you have that
absorbing and infiltrating intothe soil. And so you get huge
(08:49):
debris, kind of plumes washingoff into the tributaries,
eventually ending up in theriver. And then that's where you
see super high turbidity, lotsof debris and sediment in the
high organic carbon and waterisn't moving as much and it's
waterways. And then we havetrouble treating it when it's
that high and Total OrganicCarbon, which also comes with
that debris, when it increasesat that high of a rate, it's
difficult to treat, and itrequires a lot more chemical
warmer, then that creates kindof a Goldilocks environment for
(09:10):
costs.
Megan Kay (09:12):
So basically, you're you're creating more algae.
Kara Steeland (09:15):
It's that we're used to a certain level of
turbidity in the river, and thenwhen it increases with the
algae to bloom, which then isnot necessarily great for water
carbon, then we're going to haveto use more chemicals.
Megan Kay (09:23):
What is turbidity?
Kara Steeland (09:24):
Turbidity is basically sediment in the
waterway. So like, when you lookat Lake Tahoe and it's very
clear, it means it has lowturbidity. But when in the
quality. As an example, afterwildfires last couple years went
spring, when you start to seesnow melt in the river gets kind
of brown and churning, that'shigher turbidity.
through and some of theirreservoirs, they were getting
(09:53):
what we call halves or harmfulalgal blooms, which very toxic,
so not good.
Megan Kay (10:07):
And it's very difficult to treat. Like what
you're saying.
Kara Steeland (10:10):
Yeah, I mean, when you have it in the upstream
reservoirs and you're releasingit into the river, then it's
moving, but when it gets to us,yeah, there could be some
increased treatment cost, butit's more concentrated in the
reservoirs from sitting thereand not running around.
Megan Kay (10:22):
I wanted to take a quick break to talk about the
Living With Fire Program. Maybeyou found this podcast and
you're wondering, what is theLiving With Fire program? Well,
we've been around since 1997we're managed by the University
of Nevada, Reno extension, andwe're really a collaborative
effort amongst federal, stateand local firefighting agencies,
(10:43):
as well as resource managementagencies to help people adapt,
prepare and live more safelywith wildfire. So if you haven't
already, check out our website,livingwithfire.com where you'll
find all of our resources andtools that will help you live
more safely with wildfire. Okay,back to the show. So next thing
(11:06):
I want to ask then is, how doyou prepare or mitigate these
effects of the runoff of postfire, like when you have precip
events after fire and you getall this runoff into the river,
what kind of things does TruckeeMeadows Water Authority, or just
partners in general, do to kindof to mitigate that.
Stefanie Morris (11:23):
There's not a way to mitigate once you have a
fire and you have that burnscar. I mean, there's maybe some
ways, but in large part, it'shigher treatment costs. So what
we want to do, and what we'rereally focused on, is, how do we
avoid having those wildfires goaround our reservoirs and around
the Truckee River so that wedon't have to mitigate. We
(11:45):
mitigate in advance, and wedon't ever get those runoff in
that area. So really, the keyway to do it is throughout the
watershed, to work with partnerslike the Forest Service and
implement fuels reductionsprojects. So removing fuel from
the forest, and doing it in away that allows the fire to
burn, but away from homes andfrom infrastructure, and from,
(12:09):
you know, water supplyinfrastructure that's natural,
and the way to do that is tohave healthy upstream
watersheds. And so we really arefocusing on partnerships. Our
board, the Truckee Meadows WaterAuthority Board approved half a
million dollars over the nexttwo years to close a funding gap
on a project that the US ForestService is doing with the Nature
(12:30):
Conservancy as well as theNational Forest Foundation. And
that's the ladybug project,which I'll just tell you that's
because it's above Ladybug peakand it's on the slope of
stampede because everyone alwaysasks, why is it the ladybug
project, and that area thatthey're working on is
complementing other work that'sbeen done around stampede
reservoir. And essentially, it'son the slope, and it's in an
(12:51):
area that burned in the 1960sand a bunch of trees were
planted, and so it's very thickand forested, and it's not a
healthy forest right now, andthere is a lot of fuel, and so
this project would treatapproximately 2500 acres. And
Kara can tell you all about thedifferent treatments that they
are going to apply, but ourboard approved funding that, and
(13:13):
it's really a pilot for us toshow why it's necessary and to
show kind of Here's what itlooked like. And here's what a
healthy forest looks like. Andthis is hopefully going to allow
the fire to slow down and notreach the slopes of the
reservoir and not burn. And evenif it did burn, it's not going
to have as much fuel, it won'tbe as hot and as intense. And so
(13:36):
it helps mitigate firecontinuing.
Megan Kay (13:38):
Yeah, so it won't take out all the vegetation and
root systems and then createbasically the prime conditions
for runoff, right?
Stefanie Morris (13:46):
Yes, and we need to do a lot more of that.
So this is, like a baby step toshow Hey, this is a really good
partnership, and here's how wecan all work together. The other
thing that we're doing is, thisyear, our board approved funding
a forest ambassador, and sobecause approximately 85% of
forest fires are started byhumans, and we're seeing a lot
of increased recreation in ourwatershed and in the forest,
(14:09):
which is great. This is a personwho, again, was a partnership
with the National ForestFoundation and the
Humboldt-Toiyabe US ForestService. And they are being
trained by the Forest Service,and they're out on the trails,
and they're educating the publicabout responsible recreation.
Because not only is it importantnot to start a fire, but it's
Megan Kay (14:27):
treatments that we're gonna have.
important for our watershed andour water supply to pick up our
trash, to pick up dog poop, andto basically stay on the trails
Kara Steeland (14:35):
Yeah. So there, I mean, for the ladybug project,
and not cut new trails, becausewhen you do that, you cause
potential for increasedsedimentation because you're
removing vegetation inparticular above creeks and
rivers. So it's a reallyexciting program, and we have a
really great Her name is Megan,and you might see her out there
in particular above WhitesCreek, handing out dog treats
it's kind of the pretty standardtreatments you see throughout
(14:55):
and candies and educating thepublic about responsible
recreation and healthy forests.
(15:16):
the forests here now with kindof the vegetation management and
forest thinning. So they'redoing hand thinning on some of
the more sensitive areas, likenear Aspen groves and that, that
kind of thing. But then they'rejust doing the standard kind of
timber removal and masticationof almost over 2000 acres, and
then some roadside hazardtreatments for trees near
(15:37):
roadways, and also doing fireline construction for prescribed
fire. That will be the last stepon the landscape when they're
actually able to do it.
Obviously, conditions here areoften difficult for prescribed
fire, but that's their laststep.
Megan Kay (15:49):
Yeah, the windows are getting smaller and smaller,
which is an ongoingconversation. So who does those
treatments then on the land?
Kara Steeland (15:57):
So that's another partnership also. We're working
with the National ForestFoundation on that one. They're
the implementation partner forthe Forest Service, so they're
spearheading that project. Itstarted last year, and it should
be completed by 2025 so theyhave contractors out there
working, and yeah, they'llcontinue to do that work.
Megan Kay (16:14):
Have you guys been doing this type of work for a
long time, or is this relativelynew, these types of projects?
Kara Steeland (16:19):
So we have been funding the Truckee River fund
since 2004 so we provide,typically around $800,000 a year
to watershed restoration work.
It has not always been focusedon forest management. It's been
focused on a wide range ofrestoration work throughout the
Truckee River watershed,including kind of more
traditional stream and riverrestoration, like in the river,
a lot of education outreachwork, lots of projects you've
(16:42):
seen kind of happen around theTruckee Meadows, then in the
headwaters, have been fundedpartially through the Truckee
River fund. And then the last, Iwould say, year or so, we've
focused more directly on thisforest management work and
starting these new partnershipswith the upstream entities.
Megan Kay (16:58):
I'm just wondering how wildfire intersects with
those long term goals ofmanaging has wildfire sort of
gone up in the priority list?
Stefanie Morris (17:06):
Yeah, I think there's a couple things that for
us really started to trigger.
One is we're just seeing thatthe wildfire behavior is
different. It's changing, likewe're seeing things that never
happened before, and thentalking about the season like
there is no wildfire seasonanymore. It's kind of any time,
and then with climate change. SoI think sort of those three
(17:29):
factors, and also looking at theimpacts in Colorado, wow, it
seems logical and morefinancially reasonable to stop
this from happening or you know,mitigate it as best we can,
instead of having to deal withall of the expense and sort of
logistics of fixing the problemafter a wildfire comes through.
(17:51):
it's really twopieces. I think that it's not
Megan Kay (17:51):
Yeah, I to necessarily like standard
operating procedure. I think Ido like the word adaptation,
working with the Forest Serviceand others about how they manage
the forest and how we cancontinue happening. We at our
program, we try to push the firepartner together to adapt so
that we don't have those hugeadapted
these are going to be long term.
(18:14):
impact on water supply, onreservoirs. And really, a lot of
the projects that we're lookingat, they're multi benefit. It's
not just a water supply benefit.
Obviously, there's biodiversity.
Things are going to be writteninto your like standard
operating procedures. It seemslike.
There's what they call thewildlife urban interface, the
(18:35):
WUI, and then protecting othercritical infrastructure. So, you
know, power lines and things ofthat nature. So I think that
it's really what we're lookingat globally to try to do is work
with these partners to have a 10year vegetation management
(18:56):
strategy, and that would reallybe focused on treating a certain
number of acres in that 10years, but also doing the
planning and finding ways to getnew resources and new
partnerships. Because every timeyou do a project forest service
land, you have to do NEPA,National Environmental
(19:20):
Protection Act. So you know, youneed surveys. You need to
understand what environmentallysensitive areas are. And so all
that takes time. So right nowthere's a lot of money, federal
money and California state moneyfor lands in California where
(19:41):
the reservoirs are, to do theseprojects. But in order to take
advantage of those monies, youreally have to have all that
planning done. And so we'relooking at trying to expedite
the planning, and have a bunchof projects that are ready to
(20:01):
go, that will be ready to go infive years. And here's all the
other work that we need to dofor the next 10 years. It is a
long term plan to manage theforest in an adaptive way.
Kara Steeland (20:16):
Yeah, and I mean, we're really, we're really just
one of the partners in thisgroup. We're all trying to work
together to, like Steph said,Get multiple benefits out of
these projects and protect ourwhole community. And we're not,
you know, trying to change howthe land is managed. Really,
we're just trying to increasethe pace and scale of a lot of
the great work the ForestService and its partners are
already doing. So by workingtogether collaboratively, we can
(20:37):
pool all of our resources to beable to hopefully, kind of make
more meaningful change on thelandscape, just because there
needs to be a larger scale,larger scale work done to
actually change fire behavior ifit was to come through our
watershed. So there's many otherpartnerships throughout the
western US with water utilitiesand public land agencies that
have kind of paved the way forthese sort of partnerships.
Megan Kay (20:57):
I feel like that is a natural segue into the next step
of this conversation, whichwould be looking ahead, I mean,
past that sort of 10 year cycle,but looking ahead, based on what
you guys have seen around thecountry, around the world, about
adapting what do you guys thinkare going to be some challenges
moving forward, but also likemaybe things that excite you,
(21:19):
like as Scientists and resourcemanagers, you know, so a little
bit of challenge and a littlebit of like, well, hey, you
know, here's some inspiration.
Stefanie Morris (21:26):
Well, I think everyone's really motivated to
look at these partnerships anddo the work at the sort of scale
and pace that Kara was talkingabout. I think some of the
challenges are, and I think thisis a regional issue. Think there
are solutions, but there isn'tenough resources and equipment
(21:46):
to once you treat it, you haveto take the material out of the
forest. So the mills and like,what are we going to do to have
those resources be available sothat when you are able to do
these projects, you can removethe material from the forest? So
I think that's something thatit's a challenge, but I'm also
excited by it. It's really notsomething that our expertise,
(22:06):
but trying to put the rightpeople in the right room with
the right problem solvingskills, to say, what are the
ways we can all work together?
Like, is there federal funds byequipment? Does the university
want to have a program and havethis equipment and be able to
mill and train. And you know, isthere ways that we can work all
together so that we can all havethose resources? And one kind of
(22:27):
really cool program that NorthStar Community Services District
in up in Truckee is looking atis having a biofuel plant so
they can take all the materialfrom the projects they do, and
then they can heat the villageat North Star, which is really
cool. And so like, what othercreative things can be done? And
how do you also put money intoincentivizing companies to come
(22:49):
up with those creative solutionsso that we can deal with that
really big issue of, what do wedo with the material after we
work through the treatment? AndI'm sure Kara has a lot better
ideas, but that's, that's my twocents.
Kara Steeland (23:02):
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we're talking
about this 10 year vegetationmanagement strategy, but we're
also thinking about another 10years out. You know, as we're
writing a current vegetationmanagement strategy, it's
obviously the forest is alwayschanging and evolving,
especially with climate change.
So and you know, when, when aproject's complete, you still
have to go in and maintain it inthe future. So I think we're
aware that it's not, you know,10 years and we're done with
(23:24):
this, however many acres we endup treating it's, you know, it's
going to be ongoing, and we wantto continue to have these
partnerships.
Megan Kay (23:35):
Wildfire is stressful and wildfire evacuations are
stressful. That's why the LivingWith Fire Program has created
our wildfire evacuationchecklist. It's a really simple
checklist to help you learn howto pack a go-bag and prepare
your home and your family, evenyour pets, for wildfire
evacuation. I've included thechecklist in the links in the
(23:55):
show notes below, so be sure tocheck that out. You can also
find it on our website atlivingwithfire.com now back to
the show. What has changed sinceyou guys have been there, as far
as what you manage for? Have thegoals changed, or anything? Or
is, is it always the same?
Kara Steeland (24:15):
Well, I think we've been super fortunate in
this watershed, in that wehaven't had really any large
scale fires that have impactedour water quality. Obviously,
the Caldor fire came into Tahoe,which is part of the overall
Truckee River watershed, but theresidence time, or the time that
water stays in the lake isreally long in Tahoe. So even
with that ash, and they saw somewater quality impacts, we
(24:37):
haven't seen anything downstreamthat would make us change how we
have to treat the water. So Ithink that's where Steph brought
up the idea that we're fortunatein that we're not having to
actually mitigate any of thingsthat have actually happened so
far we're having, we're kind oftaking a more proactive approach
instead of a reactive approach.
Currently, because we're we'refortunate to have not had those
large fires here yet.
Stefanie Morris (24:56):
So I think what we've seen is in the middle
Truckee River watershed, there'sa lot of good work that has been
going on. And so since we'vesort of been involved in working
with this group that's trying topull together an MOU, and it's
largely based off the north Yubawatershed partnership, which is
a really great program, andthey're already doing a lot of
(25:16):
work. Is we're building astructure, or putting in, like a
structure in place where, like,for example, we don't own the
land around the reservoirs. As Imentioned, it's owned by the
Forest Service. We can't just goout there and do work. But what
TMWA can do is we can help, youknow, bring funds and sort of
planning expertise to that groupto help increase the skill and
(25:37):
pace of those projects. And soone thing is, there's a lot of
grant funds that are available,but they sometimes can be
and otherpartners, where they have an MOU
restrictive. And so what'sreally cool is that some of the
money that TWMA can put on thetable to help these projects
happen doesn't have those samerestrictions. So it can count
for, like a local match and ifroad work needs to be done so
(25:58):
that they can get in to do thefields reduction project. Some
of our money could be used forthat purpose, to make sure that
the you know, that the projectcan move forward without having
to wait to find other money. Andso there's flexibility in the
money that we can provide to,you know, to these groups. And
just to step back one second, Ithink, way before TMWA ever got
(26:19):
involved. There's been a lot ofreally cool partnerships, and I
really admire the work that theNature Conservancy, Mickey
Hazelwood in particular, hasdone in the Truckee Meadow
watershed to try to deal withthis upfront. He's been talking
about this for decades.
(26:53):
that allows the National ForestFoundation to implement projects
kind of on behalf of andconsistent with what the Forest
Service would do, and how theywould do it. And so it's really
allowing those kinds ofpartnerships, I think, really
help increase the pace and scaleof the work that can be done,
which is really cool.
Megan Kay (27:10):
Would you say that those types of partnerships in
this area, in which I would saymaybe, like the Sierra Nevada,
Great Basin, are strong?
Stefanie Morris (27:19):
I mean, we just literally have the coolest
partners. Everyone really ispassionate about this work and
really wanting to work together.
That includes the Truckee RiverWatershed Council, who've
already done a lot of projects.
And really there's there'sthings that can complement too
and and whereas we may not domeadow restoration because that
may be more habitat, but doing afuels reduction project on a
(27:43):
meadow with meadow restorationcan be a really good thing for
the environment, for stoppingfire, because it can slow the
metal will slow the fire down.
It also thinning out the fuelabove the meadow allows more
water to go into the meadow, soit just makes it an overall
healthier ecosystem.
Kara Steeland (28:01):
I was just gonna say yeah. And when Steph was
mentioning the NatureConservancy, we have probably,
over the last, I don't know, 12years, maybe a little more, we
they own the land aroundindependence Lake, like Steph
mentioned, we own all of thewater rights and manage and
operate the lake itself, butthey own the land around and
it's the independence Lakepreserve, and through the
Truckee River fund, we havehelped fund a lot of forest
restoration work around thatreservoir. And that's kind of a
(28:24):
good model, too, for our region.
You know, in terms of TMWA wasstepping in and helping fund
that work to protect watersupply, but it's also
maintaining ecosystem health,maintaining forest health,
improving fire behavior, all ofthose things that that benefit,
really, the whole community. Sothat's been great work that has
been going on, and they've,they've spearheaded that. We've
just provided a little bit offunding. So they're really, like
Steph mentioned, we have amazingpartners that are doing really
(28:46):
all dog great on the ground,heavy lifting.
Stefanie Morris (28:49):
I think there needs to be more education about
the impacts of wildfire on waterand water systems. So I'm really
appreciative that you're talkingto us. And then I think it's
hard for maybe this community tounderstand why we are funding
work in California. And so Ithink just understanding where
(29:11):
your water comes from when youturn on your faucet, and 80% of
our water comes from the TruckeeRiver, and that's including
upstream storage. So it's allcoming out of these forests and
out of that watershed. And sojust the importance of
protecting that, even thoughit's not in our state, is very
(29:33):
high, because that is 80% of ourour water supply.
Megan Kay (29:41):
Thank you for listening to the Living With
Fire podcast. You can find morestories and resources about
wildfire at our website,livingwithfire.com the Living
With Fire program is funded bythe Bureau of Land Management,
the Nevada Division of Forestryand the US Forest Service. And
we're managed by the Universityof Nevada, Reno extension an
equal opportunity institution.
The wildfire behavior is different. It's
(00:03):
changing. There is no wildfireseason anymore. It's kind of any
time working with the ForestService and others about how
they manage the forest and howwe can partner together to adapt
so that we don't have those hugeimpact on water supply, on
reservoirs, and really, a lot ofthe projects that we're looking
at, they're multi benefit.
Megan Kay (00:27):
This is the Living With Fire podcast brought to you
by the Living With Fire Programat the University of Nevada,
Reno extension. Welcome back tothe Living With Fire podcast.
It's been a while since we'veput out any episodes. This one
has been on the shelf for awhile. I recorded this interview
a couple years ago in 2023 sothis is an interview with Kara
(00:49):
Steeland and Stephanie Morrisfrom the Truckee Meadows Water
Authority, all about howwildfire can potentially impact
water systems and what thatlooks like for you know, those
of us who live and rely on thesewater systems. Before we get to
the episode, though, I wanted tointroduce y'all to Jenni Burr,
who's new to our team. Jenni,you wanna introduce yourself
(01:12):
real quick?
Jenni Burr (01:13):
Hi. I'm Jenni Burr, and I am joining the team as the
outreach and contentcoordinator.
Megan Kay (01:19):
Awesome. We're really happy to have Jenni. She's got
lot of great ideas andenthusiasm, and I'm just excited
to see all the stories on thepodcast that are gonna be
produced by you. So Jenni'sgonna be kind of transitioning
into the voice of the LivingWith Fire podcast. So welcome.
Jenni Burr (01:36):
Thank you.
Megan Kay (01:36):
You want to give us kind of like a little bit of
about who you are.
Jenni Burr (01:40):
So I was born and raised in Nevada, and then went
away in my college years andmoved back to Nevada in 2020,
after working for the federalgovernment and the National Park
Service. And I'm excited to beback in Nevada. I'm also really
excited to join this team, andwe're going to be exploring some
(02:02):
of the stories about what ourexpanding team is doing. So we
have some folks working on CWPPsor community wildfire protection
plans. So we're going to let youknow all about what those are.
We're also going to try to letyou know a little bit more about
our partners, and once schoolstarts, we're gonna pop Spencer
(02:24):
on to talk a little bit aboutwhat's going on with what he's
doing in the K-12 curriculumworld, and try and interview
some of the students with.
Megan Kay (02:33):
Great. Yeah. So lots of things to look forward to.
Really excited about getting toshare more stories. So without
further ado, we've been waitingtwo years for this episode. I'm
excited to finally put it out.
Enjoy.
Kara Steeland (02:56):
So my name is Kara Steeland, and I'm a
Stefanie Morris (03:01):
My name is Stephanie Morris. I am the
Director of Legal and RegulatoryAffairs at the Truckee Meadows
Water Authority. Our system is,in a way, starts out very
hydrologist with the TruckeeMeadows Water Authority.
naturally. So we have a numberof reservoirs, starting with
Lake Tahoe, and then we own thestorage capacity and storage
rights on Donner Lake andIndependence Lake. And then in
(03:24):
addition to that, we have theability to restore water in
Pastor Boca and stampedereservoirs. And so this
community's water supply islargely stored upstream in
California, and most of the landin the middle Truckee River
watershed, which is what we'reconcerned about is, in large
part, around the reservoirsowned by the Forest Service. So
(03:47):
just for context, the middleTruckee River is approximately
315,000 acres, and 260,000roughly, of that is owned by the
US Forest Service. So we're inthe situation where we have
these reservoirs and naturallakes with, you know, ability to
store water, and the TruckeeRiver, which is a natural river,
(04:07):
and it's a part of ourconveyance system, until we
divert water here to treat itand serve it to this community.
And we're largely not the landowner of along the Truckee River
or around the reservoirs, and sowe're really starting to look at
how to mitigate so that we don'thave impacts. So we're very
(04:28):
focused on what that sort ofinsurance policy of mitigation
so that we don't have thosewater quality impacts or have a
lot of sedimentation coming intothe reservoirs that decrease the
ability to store water beforewildfires happen, and so that
really is requiring us, and wecan talk all about this, to work
(04:49):
with the Forest Service and lookfor other partnerships to be
able to effectuate the work thatwe think needs to happen to
protect watershed. In terms oflooking at climate change and
looking at how wildfires arebehaving differently with
climate change, and then lookingat examples, both locally and
(05:09):
also outside of our area, wherewildfires have had devastating
impacts on water supply. And Iwant to pause and just say, we
would never serve water thatdoesn't meet the, you know,
required water qualitystandards. So it's not about,
oh, we're going to have to servewater that doesn't meet
standards. No, that's nevergoing to happen. It's about
(05:33):
mitigating because you can haveimpacts and it would create
potentially increased treatmentcosts and or having to rely on
other sources of water for acertain amount of time. So we
want to mitigate those inadvance, so never gonna serve
water that doesn't, is nothealthy and doesn't meet all of
Megan Kay (05:53):
That's good to know as a customer. So can we step
the standards.
back just a second, because Ithink you did a great job of
explaining one you're nevergoing to deliver unsafe water,
but the impacts, so then theimpacts to us, to citizens or
people who live in this area, itwould be like financial because
the cost of treating the watercould go up as a result of a
(06:14):
wildfire. So I was just curiousabout that. So what happens to
the water systems, like in theTruckee after a wildfire that
could potentially like cause youto have to treat it more.
Stefanie Morris (06:25):
Yeah, so we've had a there was a small fire on
Martis Creek, which is a prettysmall watershed that drains into
the Truckee River. And there wasso much extra sediment and
organic material ash coming inthat for several days, we just
turned off our diversion andrelied on groundwater instead of
(06:46):
surface water. So that's oneway, and that was very small. So
if we had a larger fire and itwas affecting more of the
Truckee River, we probablycouldn't just rely on
groundwater for extended periodsof time. We would have to treat
the Truckee River water that'sbeen impacted to meet standards,
and so the treatment costs wouldgo up and it would be different.
(07:08):
So for example, we just built anew water treatment plant on
Whites Creek. It's our MountRose water treatment plant. And
right now that area is above theHumboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest. If there were a fire inthat watershed, that plant is
not equipped to be able to treatbasically, the pH would be off
(07:29):
and we wouldn't be able tocurrently treat it. We would
have to upgrade that facility inorder to do that. So we want to
just avoid that. So those wouldbe the impacts. The other huge
impact is that people don'treally think about is you have
these reservoirs, and you havesediment coming into the
reservoirs, and when you havesediment coming in and large
(07:50):
quantities, which we've seen,for example, in Colorado, and
some of their wildfires, some oftheir water supply reservoirs
have gotten tons of sediment,and the rivers got tons of
sediment, which increase therisk of flooding, and then also,
just from a reservoirperspective, it reduces the
capacity of water that we canstore. And our upstream storage
(08:11):
is this region's drought supply.
So we don't want to reduce that.
We want to maintain thatcapacity.
Megan Kay (08:18):
I mean. And then that makes total sense, because,
like, basically, the ash istaking up room in the reservoir
so there's less water or thesediment, not the ash.
Kara Steeland (08:26):
Yeah, a major problem, like after the Martis
Stefanie Morris (08:26):
And in reservoirs, just because there's
fire in 2001 was that the firehappens, and that's a problem,
the treatment plants, but thenin the reservoirs, because those
but it's actually when you getthose big rain storms after the
fire happens, and you have aburn scar with pretty much no
vegetation left on it, and thesoil can be come really
hydrophobic. The water just runsoff instead of actually
are used for multi purpose, likerecreation, when you have that
absorbing and infiltrating intothe soil. And so you get huge
(08:49):
debris, kind of plumes washingoff into the tributaries,
eventually ending up in theriver. And then that's where you
see super high turbidity, lotsof debris and sediment in the
high organic carbon and waterisn't moving as much and it's
waterways. And then we havetrouble treating it when it's
that high and Total OrganicCarbon, which also comes with
that debris, when it increasesat that high of a rate, it's
difficult to treat, and itrequires a lot more chemical
warmer, then that creates kindof a Goldilocks environment for
(09:10):
costs.
Megan Kay (09:12):
So basically, you're you're creating more algae.
Kara Steeland (09:15):
It's that we're used to a certain level of
turbidity in the river, and thenwhen it increases with the
algae to bloom, which then isnot necessarily great for water
carbon, then we're going to haveto use more chemicals.
Megan Kay (09:23):
What is turbidity?
Kara Steeland (09:24):
Turbidity is basically sediment in the
waterway. So like, when you lookat Lake Tahoe and it's very
clear, it means it has lowturbidity. But when in the
quality. As an example, afterwildfires last couple years went
spring, when you start to seesnow melt in the river gets kind
of brown and churning, that'shigher turbidity.
through and some of theirreservoirs, they were getting
(09:53):
what we call halves or harmfulalgal blooms, which very toxic,
so not good.
Megan Kay (10:07):
And it's very difficult to treat. Like what
you're saying.
Kara Steeland (10:10):
Yeah, I mean, when you have it in the upstream
reservoirs and you're releasingit into the river, then it's
moving, but when it gets to us,yeah, there could be some
increased treatment cost, butit's more concentrated in the
reservoirs from sitting thereand not running around.
Megan Kay (10:22):
I wanted to take a quick break to talk about the
Living With Fire Program. Maybeyou found this podcast and
you're wondering, what is theLiving With Fire program? Well,
we've been around since 1997we're managed by the University
of Nevada, Reno extension, andwe're really a collaborative
effort amongst federal, stateand local firefighting agencies,
(10:43):
as well as resource managementagencies to help people adapt,
prepare and live more safelywith wildfire. So if you haven't
already, check out our website,livingwithfire.com where you'll
find all of our resources andtools that will help you live
more safely with wildfire. Okay,back to the show. So next thing
(11:06):
I want to ask then is, how doyou prepare or mitigate these
effects of the runoff of postfire, like when you have precip
events after fire and you getall this runoff into the river,
what kind of things does TruckeeMeadows Water Authority, or just
partners in general, do to kindof to mitigate that.
Stefanie Morris (11:23):
There's not a way to mitigate once you have a
fire and you have that burnscar. I mean, there's maybe some
ways, but in large part, it'shigher treatment costs. So what
we want to do, and what we'rereally focused on, is, how do we
avoid having those wildfires goaround our reservoirs and around
the Truckee River so that wedon't have to mitigate. We
(11:45):
mitigate in advance, and wedon't ever get those runoff in
that area. So really, the keyway to do it is throughout the
watershed, to work with partnerslike the Forest Service and
implement fuels reductionsprojects. So removing fuel from
the forest, and doing it in away that allows the fire to
burn, but away from homes andfrom infrastructure, and from,
(12:09):
you know, water supplyinfrastructure that's natural,
and the way to do that is tohave healthy upstream
watersheds. And so we really arefocusing on partnerships. Our
board, the Truckee Meadows WaterAuthority Board approved half a
million dollars over the nexttwo years to close a funding gap
on a project that the US ForestService is doing with the Nature
(12:30):
Conservancy as well as theNational Forest Foundation. And
that's the ladybug project,which I'll just tell you that's
because it's above Ladybug peakand it's on the slope of
stampede because everyone alwaysasks, why is it the ladybug
project, and that area thatthey're working on is
complementing other work that'sbeen done around stampede
reservoir. And essentially, it'son the slope, and it's in an
(12:51):
area that burned in the 1960sand a bunch of trees were
planted, and so it's very thickand forested, and it's not a
healthy forest right now, andthere is a lot of fuel, and so
this project would treatapproximately 2500 acres. And
Kara can tell you all about thedifferent treatments that they
are going to apply, but ourboard approved funding that, and
(13:13):
it's really a pilot for us toshow why it's necessary and to
show kind of Here's what itlooked like. And here's what a
healthy forest looks like. Andthis is hopefully going to allow
the fire to slow down and notreach the slopes of the
reservoir and not burn. And evenif it did burn, it's not going
to have as much fuel, it won'tbe as hot and as intense. And so
(13:36):
it helps mitigate firecontinuing.
Megan Kay (13:38):
Yeah, so it won't take out all the vegetation and
root systems and then createbasically the prime conditions
for runoff, right?
Stefanie Morris (13:46):
Yes, and we need to do a lot more of that.
So this is, like a baby step toshow Hey, this is a really good
partnership, and here's how wecan all work together. The other
thing that we're doing is, thisyear, our board approved funding
a forest ambassador, and sobecause approximately 85% of
forest fires are started byhumans, and we're seeing a lot
of increased recreation in ourwatershed and in the forest,
(14:09):
which is great. This is a personwho, again, was a partnership
with the National ForestFoundation and the
Humboldt-Toiyabe US ForestService. And they are being
trained by the Forest Service,and they're out on the trails,
and they're educating the publicabout responsible recreation.
Because not only is it importantnot to start a fire, but it's
Megan Kay (14:27):
treatments that we're gonna have.
important for our watershed andour water supply to pick up our
trash, to pick up dog poop, andto basically stay on the trails
Kara Steeland (14:35):
Yeah. So there, I mean, for the ladybug project,
and not cut new trails, becausewhen you do that, you cause
potential for increasedsedimentation because you're
removing vegetation inparticular above creeks and
rivers. So it's a reallyexciting program, and we have a
really great Her name is Megan,and you might see her out there
in particular above WhitesCreek, handing out dog treats
it's kind of the pretty standardtreatments you see throughout
(14:55):
and candies and educating thepublic about responsible
recreation and healthy forests.
(15:16):
the forests here now with kindof the vegetation management and
forest thinning. So they'redoing hand thinning on some of
the more sensitive areas, likenear Aspen groves and that, that
kind of thing. But then they'rejust doing the standard kind of
timber removal and masticationof almost over 2000 acres, and
then some roadside hazardtreatments for trees near
(15:37):
roadways, and also doing fireline construction for prescribed
fire. That will be the last stepon the landscape when they're
actually able to do it.
Obviously, conditions here areoften difficult for prescribed
fire, but that's their laststep.
Megan Kay (15:49):
Yeah, the windows are getting smaller and smaller,
which is an ongoingconversation. So who does those
treatments then on the land?
Kara Steeland (15:57):
So that's another partnership also. We're working
with the National ForestFoundation on that one. They're
the implementation partner forthe Forest Service, so they're
spearheading that project. Itstarted last year, and it should
be completed by 2025 so theyhave contractors out there
working, and yeah, they'llcontinue to do that work.
Megan Kay (16:14):
Have you guys been doing this type of work for a
long time, or is this relativelynew, these types of projects?
Kara Steeland (16:19):
So we have been funding the Truckee River fund
since 2004 so we provide,typically around $800,000 a year
to watershed restoration work.
It has not always been focusedon forest management. It's been
focused on a wide range ofrestoration work throughout the
Truckee River watershed,including kind of more
traditional stream and riverrestoration, like in the river,
a lot of education outreachwork, lots of projects you've
(16:42):
seen kind of happen around theTruckee Meadows, then in the
headwaters, have been fundedpartially through the Truckee
River fund. And then the last, Iwould say, year or so, we've
focused more directly on thisforest management work and
starting these new partnershipswith the upstream entities.
Megan Kay (16:58):
I'm just wondering how wildfire intersects with
those long term goals ofmanaging has wildfire sort of
gone up in the priority list?
Stefanie Morris (17:06):
Yeah, I think there's a couple things that for
us really started to trigger.
One is we're just seeing thatthe wildfire behavior is
different. It's changing, likewe're seeing things that never
happened before, and thentalking about the season like
there is no wildfire seasonanymore. It's kind of any time,
and then with climate change. SoI think sort of those three
(17:29):
factors, and also looking at theimpacts in Colorado, wow, it
seems logical and morefinancially reasonable to stop
this from happening or you know,mitigate it as best we can,
instead of having to deal withall of the expense and sort of
logistics of fixing the problemafter a wildfire comes through.
(17:51):
it's really twopieces. I think that it's not
Megan Kay (17:51):
Yeah, I to necessarily like standard
operating procedure. I think Ido like the word adaptation,
working with the Forest Serviceand others about how they manage
the forest and how we cancontinue happening. We at our
program, we try to push the firepartner together to adapt so
that we don't have those hugeadapted
these are going to be long term.
(18:14):
impact on water supply, onreservoirs. And really, a lot of
the projects that we're lookingat, they're multi benefit. It's
not just a water supply benefit.
Obviously, there's biodiversity.
Things are going to be writteninto your like standard
operating procedures. It seemslike.
There's what they call thewildlife urban interface, the
(18:35):
WUI, and then protecting othercritical infrastructure. So, you
know, power lines and things ofthat nature. So I think that
it's really what we're lookingat globally to try to do is work
with these partners to have a 10year vegetation management
(18:56):
strategy, and that would reallybe focused on treating a certain
number of acres in that 10years, but also doing the
planning and finding ways to getnew resources and new
partnerships. Because every timeyou do a project forest service
land, you have to do NEPA,National Environmental
(19:20):
Protection Act. So you know, youneed surveys. You need to
understand what environmentallysensitive areas are. And so all
that takes time. So right nowthere's a lot of money, federal
money and California state moneyfor lands in California where
(19:41):
the reservoirs are, to do theseprojects. But in order to take
advantage of those monies, youreally have to have all that
planning done. And so we'relooking at trying to expedite
the planning, and have a bunchof projects that are ready to
(20:01):
go, that will be ready to go infive years. And here's all the
other work that we need to dofor the next 10 years. It is a
long term plan to manage theforest in an adaptive way.
Kara Steeland (20:16):
Yeah, and I mean, we're really, we're really just
one of the partners in thisgroup. We're all trying to work
together to, like Steph said,Get multiple benefits out of
these projects and protect ourwhole community. And we're not,
you know, trying to change howthe land is managed. Really,
we're just trying to increasethe pace and scale of a lot of
the great work the ForestService and its partners are
already doing. So by workingtogether collaboratively, we can
(20:37):
pool all of our resources to beable to hopefully, kind of make
more meaningful change on thelandscape, just because there
needs to be a larger scale,larger scale work done to
actually change fire behavior ifit was to come through our
watershed. So there's many otherpartnerships throughout the
western US with water utilitiesand public land agencies that
have kind of paved the way forthese sort of partnerships.
Megan Kay (20:57):
I feel like that is a natural segue into the next step
of this conversation, whichwould be looking ahead, I mean,
past that sort of 10 year cycle,but looking ahead, based on what
you guys have seen around thecountry, around the world, about
adapting what do you guys thinkare going to be some challenges
moving forward, but also likemaybe things that excite you,
(21:19):
like as Scientists and resourcemanagers, you know, so a little
bit of challenge and a littlebit of like, well, hey, you
know, here's some inspiration.
Stefanie Morris (21:26):
Well, I think everyone's really motivated to
look at these partnerships anddo the work at the sort of scale
and pace that Kara was talkingabout. I think some of the
challenges are, and I think thisis a regional issue. Think there
are solutions, but there isn'tenough resources and equipment
(21:46):
to once you treat it, you haveto take the material out of the
forest. So the mills and like,what are we going to do to have
those resources be available sothat when you are able to do
these projects, you can removethe material from the forest? So
I think that's something thatit's a challenge, but I'm also
excited by it. It's really notsomething that our expertise,
(22:06):
but trying to put the rightpeople in the right room with
the right problem solvingskills, to say, what are the
ways we can all work together?
Like, is there federal funds byequipment? Does the university
want to have a program and havethis equipment and be able to
mill and train. And you know, isthere ways that we can work all
together so that we can all havethose resources? And one kind of
(22:27):
really cool program that NorthStar Community Services District
in up in Truckee is looking atis having a biofuel plant so
they can take all the materialfrom the projects they do, and
then they can heat the villageat North Star, which is really
cool. And so like, what othercreative things can be done? And
how do you also put money intoincentivizing companies to come
(22:49):
up with those creative solutionsso that we can deal with that
really big issue of, what do wedo with the material after we
work through the treatment? AndI'm sure Kara has a lot better
ideas, but that's, that's my twocents.
Kara Steeland (23:02):
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we're talking
about this 10 year vegetationmanagement strategy, but we're
also thinking about another 10years out. You know, as we're
writing a current vegetationmanagement strategy, it's
obviously the forest is alwayschanging and evolving,
especially with climate change.
So and you know, when, when aproject's complete, you still
have to go in and maintain it inthe future. So I think we're
aware that it's not, you know,10 years and we're done with
(23:24):
this, however many acres we endup treating it's, you know, it's
going to be ongoing, and we wantto continue to have these
partnerships.
Megan Kay (23:35):
Wildfire is stressful and wildfire evacuations are
stressful. That's why the LivingWith Fire Program has created
our wildfire evacuationchecklist. It's a really simple
checklist to help you learn howto pack a go-bag and prepare
your home and your family, evenyour pets, for wildfire
evacuation. I've included thechecklist in the links in the
(23:55):
show notes below, so be sure tocheck that out. You can also
find it on our website atlivingwithfire.com now back to
the show. What has changed sinceyou guys have been there, as far
as what you manage for? Have thegoals changed, or anything? Or
is, is it always the same?
Kara Steeland (24:15):
Well, I think we've been super fortunate in
this watershed, in that wehaven't had really any large
scale fires that have impactedour water quality. Obviously,
the Caldor fire came into Tahoe,which is part of the overall
Truckee River watershed, but theresidence time, or the time that
water stays in the lake isreally long in Tahoe. So even
with that ash, and they saw somewater quality impacts, we
(24:37):
haven't seen anything downstreamthat would make us change how we
have to treat the water. So Ithink that's where Steph brought
up the idea that we're fortunatein that we're not having to
actually mitigate any of thingsthat have actually happened so
far we're having, we're kind oftaking a more proactive approach
instead of a reactive approach.
Currently, because we're we'refortunate to have not had those
large fires here yet.
Stefanie Morris (24:56):
So I think what we've seen is in the middle
Truckee River watershed, there'sa lot of good work that has been
going on. And so since we'vesort of been involved in working
with this group that's trying topull together an MOU, and it's
largely based off the north Yubawatershed partnership, which is
a really great program, andthey're already doing a lot of
(25:16):
work. Is we're building astructure, or putting in, like a
structure in place where, like,for example, we don't own the
land around the reservoirs. As Imentioned, it's owned by the
Forest Service. We can't just goout there and do work. But what
TMWA can do is we can help, youknow, bring funds and sort of
planning expertise to that groupto help increase the skill and
(25:37):
pace of those projects. And soone thing is, there's a lot of
grant funds that are available,but they sometimes can be
and otherpartners, where they have an MOU
restrictive. And so what'sreally cool is that some of the
money that TWMA can put on thetable to help these projects
happen doesn't have those samerestrictions. So it can count
for, like a local match and ifroad work needs to be done so
(25:58):
that they can get in to do thefields reduction project. Some
of our money could be used forthat purpose, to make sure that
the you know, that the projectcan move forward without having
to wait to find other money. Andso there's flexibility in the
money that we can provide to,you know, to these groups. And
just to step back one second, Ithink, way before TMWA ever got
(26:19):
involved. There's been a lot ofreally cool partnerships, and I
really admire the work that theNature Conservancy, Mickey
Hazelwood in particular, hasdone in the Truckee Meadow
watershed to try to deal withthis upfront. He's been talking
about this for decades.
(26:53):
that allows the National ForestFoundation to implement projects
kind of on behalf of andconsistent with what the Forest
Service would do, and how theywould do it. And so it's really
allowing those kinds ofpartnerships, I think, really
help increase the pace and scaleof the work that can be done,
which is really cool.
Megan Kay (27:10):
Would you say that those types of partnerships in
this area, in which I would saymaybe, like the Sierra Nevada,
Great Basin, are strong?
Stefanie Morris (27:19):
I mean, we just literally have the coolest
partners. Everyone really ispassionate about this work and
really wanting to work together.
That includes the Truckee RiverWatershed Council, who've
already done a lot of projects.
And really there's there'sthings that can complement too
and and whereas we may not domeadow restoration because that
may be more habitat, but doing afuels reduction project on a
(27:43):
meadow with meadow restorationcan be a really good thing for
the environment, for stoppingfire, because it can slow the
metal will slow the fire down.
It also thinning out the fuelabove the meadow allows more
water to go into the meadow, soit just makes it an overall
healthier ecosystem.
Kara Steeland (28:01):
I was just gonna say yeah. And when Steph was
mentioning the NatureConservancy, we have probably,
over the last, I don't know, 12years, maybe a little more, we
they own the land aroundindependence Lake, like Steph
mentioned, we own all of thewater rights and manage and
operate the lake itself, butthey own the land around and
it's the independence Lakepreserve, and through the
Truckee River fund, we havehelped fund a lot of forest
restoration work around thatreservoir. And that's kind of a
(28:24):
good model, too, for our region.
You know, in terms of TMWA wasstepping in and helping fund
that work to protect watersupply, but it's also
maintaining ecosystem health,maintaining forest health,
improving fire behavior, all ofthose things that that benefit,
really, the whole community. Sothat's been great work that has
been going on, and they've,they've spearheaded that. We've
just provided a little bit offunding. So they're really, like
Steph mentioned, we have amazingpartners that are doing really
(28:46):
all dog great on the ground,heavy lifting.
Stefanie Morris (28:49):
I think there needs to be more education about
the impacts of wildfire on waterand water systems. So I'm really
appreciative that you're talkingto us. And then I think it's
hard for maybe this community tounderstand why we are funding
work in California. And so Ithink just understanding where
(29:11):
your water comes from when youturn on your faucet, and 80% of
our water comes from the TruckeeRiver, and that's including
upstream storage. So it's allcoming out of these forests and
out of that watershed. And sojust the importance of
protecting that, even thoughit's not in our state, is very
(29:33):
high, because that is 80% of ourour water supply.
Megan Kay (29:41):
Thank you for listening to the Living With
Fire podcast. You can find morestories and resources about
wildfire at our website,livingwithfire.com the Living
With Fire program is funded bythe Bureau of Land Management,
the Nevada Division of Forestryand the US Forest Service. And
we're managed by the Universityof Nevada, Reno extension an
equal opportunity institution.
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