Clear Creek Watershed Council

Upcoming Meeting November 18

2008-11-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

The Clear Creek Watershed Council is pleased to announce that Ralph Seiler of United States Geological Survey (USGS) will be giving a presentation on sediments and water quality on Clear Creek. The public is invited and we look forward to meeting all of those interested in this work.

The meeting will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on November 18 at the Stewart Community Building on the corner of Center Drive and Clear Creek Avenue in Carson City. If you need more information, please e-mail clear.creek.watershed@hotmail.com.

Conservation Easement: Partners Protect 853 Acres of Clear Creek

2008-11-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

Conservation easement secures wildlife habitat and scenic beauty in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Partners and supporters took a field trip of the meadow during a celebration of the easement event earlier this week.

Douglas County, Nev. (October 30, 2008) – 853 acres of some of the most ecologically rich and scenic stretches of Clear Creek on the eastern slope of the Carson Range are now permanently protected thanks to a partnership between Clear Creek Tahoe and The Nature Conservancy.
Clear Creek Tahoe has donated a conservation easement of the 853 acres in the Clear Creek watershed to The Nature Conservancy, ensuring that the land remains natural open space in perpetuity. A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on a piece of property now and in the future, while protecting the property’s ecological or open-space values.
“We are honored to have The Nature Conservancy as our land steward partner,” said Jim Taylor, Managing Partner of Clear Creek Tahoe. “We hope that this project and the work we have done to include protected open space can become a model for how to balance development and caring for the environment in other projects in the future.”
The conservation easement is adjacent to a project being undertaken by Clear Creek Tahoe which includes a planned community and a golf course, and is just one of the elements that help make the project more environmentally friendly. “I was expecting to see a sea of bright green when I arrived – golf courses and other artificial things, but you can’t even see the golf course from here . . . this is beautiful and natural,” said Margie Evans, Clear Creek Watershed Council Coordinator, of the scenic ridgelines and open meadow protected by the easement.
The conservation easement is part of a larger effort to protect important pieces of the Clear Creek watershed, an effort that involves a diverse group of partners including Carson City and Douglas counties, the US Forest Service Carson Ranger District, the Carson River Coalition, the Clear Creek Watershed Council, and the Washoe Tribe.

Kathryn Landreth, State Director of The Nature Conservancy, thanks supporters of the Clear Creek Conservation Easement at a celebration event.

“We owe this great success and the protection of a crucial piece of the Clear Creek and Carson River watersheds to the work of many dedicated partners, as well as the citizens of Carson City and Douglas County who worked to see a portion of this landscape conserved,” said Kathryn Landreth, State Director of The Nature Conservancy.
Clear Creek is the only tributary to the main fork of the Carson River that flows year round, making its water very important for a large-scale landscape. The easement safeguards a large piece of land around the creek that will help the water remain pristine and clean. The easement also preserves critical riparian and wet meadow habitat for hundreds of birds like northern goshawks, mountain quail, and western bluebirds, as well as other animals that rely on the area. Adjoining neighboring Forest Service and Washoe Tribal land, the additional protected swath provides a larger continuous piece of connected habitat for animals that use the corridor.

Birds of Clear Creek

2008-08-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

A high diversity of bird species can be found throughout the Clear Creek corridor. Due to the quality and quantity of various habitats found throughout the corridor, you can find migratory songbirds, raptors, and wading birds. In fact, Clear Creek provides high quality habitat for many birds to utilize throughout their life cycle. There are many birds that will use the Clear Creek watershed for breeding, nesting, feeding, or as a stopping point during their migratory journey. The overall list of known birds seen in the area is lengthy; however, there are some species that are quite commonly found throughout the year or during peak migration periods.

The following is a short-list of the most commonly seen birds in the Clear Creek corridor:
*(b) denotes known breeders in Clear Creek.
Cooper’s Hawk (b), Red-tailed Hawk (b), American Kestrel (b), California Quail, Mourning Dove, Black-chinned Hummingbird (b), Downy Woodpecker, Red-shafted Northern Flicker, Western Kingbird, Warbling Vireo (b), Steller’s Jay (b), Scrub Jay (b), Black-billed Magpie, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper (b), House Wren Western Bluebird (b),
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (b), American Robin (b), European Starling (b), Cedar Waxwing, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, (b) Orange-crowned Warbler, Black-headed Grosbeak (b), Spotted Towhee (b), Green-tailed Towhee, Song Sparrow (b), Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Brewer’s Blackbird (b), Bullock’s Oriole (b), House Finch (b), Lesser Goldfinch, Cassin’s Finch, House Sparrow