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By Tim Hauserman
The Little Truckee River snakes it’s way between the Stampede and Boca Reservoirs just a few miles from Truckee. The Little Truckee ripples through lovely stands of Jeffrey pines and lush wildflower dotted meadows. It’s the pleasing course of water you pass while riding your bike from Boca to Stampede. But fly fishing guides noticed that the river lacked trout, and the Truckee River Trout Unlimited’s set out to improve the situation for fish in 2011.
Five years later, the Little Truckee River Fish Habitat Improvement Project is complete and considered a huge success. The project’s goals were to improve fish habitat for all stages of wild trout, disperse recreational use and sustain the important local fly fishing recreational industry. Instead of the fish congregating in just a few spots, the goal was to spread trout throughout the stream by providing plenty of prime fish habitat for them to reproduce.
For several years, David Lass from Trout Unlimited organized volunteer workdays on the Little Truckee. They planted willows to provide shade and stabilize the banks, spread gravel to foster spawning, and then this past fall brought in the big guns: Bulldozers and excavators to haul nearly a hundred trees and several hundred boulders into the stream channel to provide deep channels and variety to the river bed. Just a few days after it was completed the fish started to be seen in the newly created habitat. Speaking to the Sierra Sun, Lass says, “it can only get better from here.”
For more information on the project and Trout Unlimited go to tahoetroutbum.org
THINK OF ME, LYNN RICHARDSON, FOR ALL OF YOUR LAKE TAHOE AND TRUCKEE REAL ESTATE NEEDS!
YOUR FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES 
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