A tree-thinning project covering 800 acres near Clear Creek could get more water flowing to the Carson River.
Clearing some of the dense forest around Clear Creek near Carson City is an ongoing project by The Nature Conservancy in an effort to prevent wildfires from spreading quickly through the area.
David Berger is with the Nevada Water Science Center. He says thinning this patch of forest also enables more water to move from Clear Creek down to the Carson River. That rapidly flowing water will be carrying less sediment as it eventually reaches the Lahontan Reservoir.
“The more sediment comes down, the more storage capacity Lahontan is going to lose because you’ll get more sediment down there and it’ll fill the reservoir [with sediment],” Berger says.
The Lahontan Reservoir is about 50 miles southeast of Reno and stores water from the Carson and Truckee Rivers.
If that water supply is low, Berger says it'll kick off a chain reaction, impacting the entire eco-system.
