Lower Blackwood Creek Restoration

The Lower Blackwood Creek restoration project was designed to minimize fine sediment loading in Lake Tahoe.

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Project Facts
  • Department of General Services
  • Tahoe City, California
  • 1,200 lf of creek restoration
  • Winner of the Best-in-Basin Award

The Challenge

Water clarity in Lake Tahoe has been a concern for a number of years, and this project is the final piece of a comprehensive interagency restoration effort within the Blackwood Creek watershed. This California Tahoe Conservancy project, re-established a new channel segment, created small floodplain areas to accommodate peak flows, created riffles and pools for fish habitat, established riparian vegetation, and minimized sediment deposition into the lake by slowing flow velocities in the lower 1,200 feet of the creek before it enters Lake Tahoe.

The Solution

Though scheduled as a 2-year project, HRS completed the construction work in one season and within budget. HRS did not initiate any change orders for the work. The creek realignment, bank protection structures and biotechnical treatments are intact, and the creek banks have stabilized; fish are using the created habitat; and after two years, there was more than 95% plant survivorship, well exceeding the performance requirements for the revegetation.

Best-in-Basin Award

The project won the 2013 Best-in-the-Basin Award for Restoration Projects from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

What We Did

Our restoration expertise provides the right staff and equipment to meet permit requirements.

  • Backfill and compaction
  • Channel segmentation
  • Creek and bank stabilization
  • Fish habitat creation
  • Floodplain creation
  • Log and boulder construction
  • Material staging
  • Revetments
  • Riffle and pool creation
  • Rootwad structure construction
  • Slope shaping and preparation
  • Vegetation establishment

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