Dry Creek Dam Removal Restoration Planting, November 2024 Just as the first major atmospheric river system of the new water year landed in northern California, SSI joined with intrepid volunteers to plant a diverse selection of 344 native plants and several dozen willow stakes along Dry Creek at the Beale […]
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This summer SSI staff and volunteers took to the lower Deer Creek Watershed to investigate nutrients, namely nitrates and phosphates. Nutrients are essential for life in a creek, but in excess, they can lead to overgrowth of algae and low-oxygen conditions (read more about how that happens here; scroll down […]
Read More >If you’ve been out wandering under the oaks in the last few weeks and looked up, you may have noticed tree branches sagging with the weight of huge crops of acorns. Or perhaps now you’re cleaning them up in your yard! But what gives? Why and how do these “bumper […]
Read More >The Yuba Watershed Institute’s forest treatment project, the Little Deer Creek Landscape Resilience Project, plays a crucial role in safeguarding the local community from the growing threat of wildfires. By managing forest density and removing excess fuels, the project aims to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fires in the densely […]
Read More >Researchers, led by Emma Walker, at Sierra Streams Institute’s Benthic Macroinvertebrates (BMI) lab recently started working on a new scientific paper after successfully presenting their preliminary findings at the Sierra Nevada Science Symposium. The paper focuses on the impact of water flow on stream bug communities and relies on extensive […]
Read More >Crew members working on the Woolman School prescribed burn as part of the The Sierra Foothill Forest Climate Resilience Project (SFFCRP). Photo Credit: Matt Berry On May 18th at the Woolman Outdoor School Campus, also known as the “Sierra Friends Center”, Sierra Streams Institute (SSI) coordinated a prescribed burn on […]
Read More >Faucherie Dam, Photo Credit: Nevada Irrigation District As you may have heard, this last winter was a rough one for some of Pacific Gas and Electric’s infrastructure, and the Nevada Irrigation District has had to scramble to continue getting water to their customers. You can read more about the details […]
Read More >In the uplands of the 58-acre Roy Peterson Wolf Creek Preserve, newly acquired by Wolf Creek Community Alliance as a generous donation from the Peterson family, a restoration project is underway. Matt Berry, a Restoration Ecologist at Sierra Streams, led Wolf Creek staff and volunteers in work that mimics the […]
Read More >The new year will bring a new bridge in Nevada City – eventually. This past August the Nevada City Council awarded a contract to Golden State Bridge Inc. of Benicia, CA for the demolition and reconstruction of the Nevada Street Bridge. This bridge crosses over the confluence of Deer Creek […]
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There’s something in the water! Hardly less charismatic than some gargantuan marine predator, Pectinatella magnifica or the “magnificent” bryozoan is a species of microscopic aquatic invertebrate – also known as a “moss animal” or zooid, usually less than a millimeter in size – that forms substantial, gelatinous colonies on submerged […]
Read More >This spring, with funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC), Sierra Streams Institute has kicked into high gear the process of developing a vegetation management plan for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcels in the Lower Steephollow region of the Sierra Nevada foothills. The plan will be shared with BLM […]
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Sierra Streams Institute created the Our Forests project to answer the question: “what would it mean for students to be able to engage with local environmental issues through real-world scientific investigation?” Benefits of Place-Based Community Science Funded through the National Science Foundation, Our Forests has been a collaborative project between […]
Read More >Spring is officially here, so now is the time to sign up to volunteer for Sierra Streams Institute’s summer creek surveys! This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in getting hands-on experience in the field of environmental science and those trying to explore and think more deeply about the […]
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As we move into spring with snow still on the ground, we wanted to revisit this topic and give a brief update on where we stand now. The atmospheric rivers have continued to provide us with rain and snow, filling creeks and reservoirs and contributing to a snowpack for the […]
Read More >Do you live in the Sierra Foothills? Do you love our beautiful watershed–the Yuba and Bear rivers and all of the wonderful tributaries that flow out of the mountains in Nevada County? Do you want to participate in conserving, restoring and educating people about our watershed? Sierra Streams Institute is […]
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This winter has certainly been one for the memory books, but what about the record books? With all of the rain we’ve received over the last few weeks, multiple questions have been coming up. Just how big is this storm compared to prior wet years? Is this a “drought buster”? What […]
Read More >Please join us on November 11 at the Nevada City Odd Fellows Hall, 212 Spring Street, Nevada City CA to chat about local environmental issues and have a snack! We will have a number of silent auction items to bid on, a perfect way to stock up on early holiday […]
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Summer sampling by the numbers: Summer Water Quality Summary: Between June and August, we collected water quality data from 12 sites in the Deer Creek watershed and 10 sites in the Bear River watershed. Learn more about our water quality parameters below! Oxygen is necessary for all forms of life. […]
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This past school year, Sierra Streams Institute had the joy of venturing into our local forests with over 300 3rd-5th grade students in Nevada County. The mission? Promote students’ environmental science agency, spark curiosity and increase interest in land stewardship through placed-based investigations into forest health. The program, Our Forests, […]
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The signs are related to bacteria levels. Every summer in the creeks, as the temperature increases and water flow decreases, we see an increase in bacteria at many of our monitoring sites. Some amount of bacteria is always present in creek water, but less water in the creek concentrates any […]
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