Category Archives: Recreate

Bruce Bledsoe’s “Truckee River Articles”

John Champion Park in Downtown Reno

Insightful research led Bruce Bledsoe’s career as a journalist and opinion page editor for the Reno Gazette-Journal.  In 2001 Bruce Bledsoe won “Editorial of the Year” with his piece: “Private briefings affront to public.”  Retiring from the newspaper business didn’t stop his desire to research interesting topics or write about them.  Let’s just say that the Truckee River stands out as interesting being one of the most fought over rivers in the nation.  Bruce has taken up the challenge to fill in the gaps in all of our knowledge of our iconic river with an entire series on the Truckee River — covering topics from atmospheric storms to zeroing in on where the diminished and diminishing “flood project” is going.

Bruce has generously provided to the Yacht Club some of his most recent insightful articles on the Truckee River, but many more are soon to be available on his website.  We’ll let you know when that happens – right here.  In the meantime, enjoy these 14 copyrighted articles found in our resources page.  We’ve put the first 6 articles online already and will add others over the next couple of months.  Check back with us to learn about not only the founding mothers of the “Yacht Club”, but how the Club influenced the flood project.

John Champion Park in Downtown Reno

John Champion Park in DownTown Reno

Bruce writes about Boise’s restoration of its much maligned and neglected namesake river and how that led to the town’s green belt success story.  And what about those “flood walls” you see (too often)?  Who thought that up?  Just what were the “Vista Reefs” that the Army Corps of Engineers engineered away?  And is it possible to protect communities from flooding caused by encroachment on river floodplains and wetlands when private property rights advocates say “anything goes”?  Bruce answers these questions – and plenty more – to help you and me understand how we got to where we are today and visualize a way forward.  Thanks, Bruce!

[Click on “Resources” and find the articles you’re interested in.  If the particular article link isn’t active, check back as we are adding them a little at a time.]

Wasting away in Reno-will-regret-it-ville

Watering on a hot and windy afternoon wastes 30% of the water

With apologies to Jimmy Buffett, it appears that some Renoites have few qualms about watering during hot afternoons.  Not a good idea now with Truckee River flows soon to reach pitifully small levels.  But it isn’t a good idea ever.  Why?

Never mind that the local water purveyor, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), says to “Shut your sprinklers off between noon and 6 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day”.  A better reason to water early in the morning (4 am – 11 am) is because it is cheaper and better for your lawn, too.  Watering in the afternoon costs you money because you’re wasting at least 20-30 percent of the water coming out of your sprinklers.  During our warm and frequently windy afternoons a significant portion of your irrigation water goes directly into the air or gets blown off course onto sidewalks and driveways.  Many sprinkler systems already have way too much pressure and spray out fine mists of water that’s even more susceptible to immediate evaporation into the air.  [Click here for some tips on watering lawns.]

So keep the Truckee River flowing through town this summer – and next – by using less water, using it efficiently (no leaks or broken irrigation sprayers or floods down the gutter), and not watering in the afternoon.  You’ll save a little money, and the river and all its critters will thank you.  Really.

Watering on a hot and windy afternoon wastes 30% of the water

Watering on a hot and windy afternoon wastes 30% of the water

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout spawn for first time since 1938

Today the RGJ’s environmental reporter Jeff Delong reported on the successful spawning of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout in the lower Truckee River in 76 years.  The fish dug spawning beds and reproduced in the Truckee River between the mouth of the river and Marble Bluff Dam.

Truckee River flows into Pyramid Lake in the summer of 2013

Truckee River flows into Pyramid Lake in the summer of 2013

The article tells the story of how we lost this valuable resource largely to the construction of the Derby Dam on the river which diverts a significant flow of the river to the Newlands Irrigation Project.

We can only hope that the river and the fish can now thrive once again in the 21st century.

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout mount at Sutcliff

Just 14 years ago …

Time has a way of compressing as we get older.  It seems like only yesterday that our water resources in our lakes and rivers were in great shape.  Today, not so much.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Lake Tahoe was at full capacity, the reservoirs on the Truckee, likewise.  The Truckee River was flowing at over 1000 CFS during May and June.  We just didn’t know then that we were at the cusp of a 14 year-long dry spell .  It has taken its toll on Lake Tahoe storage (just 17″ above its rim as of this writing, and almost certain to go below this summer or fall).  Pyramid Lake has fallen many feet in elevation, but what is dramatic is the amount of shore exposed by the receding water in this long-term drought.  As we’ve explained in other posts, we westerners have relied on a repeat of the precipitation patterns for this century as we have for the preceding century and a half.  So far, it’s not working out for us.

Compare these two photos (taken from locations at the south shore of Pyramid Lake in Aug 2004 and this April 2014.  The latter photo is taken from a position which shows the amount of recession Pyramid is undergoing with so much demand on the remaining flows of the Truckee River.  During the last 3 years only a fraction of the total river flow actually reached Pyramid Lake.  (The first photo takes in a larger view of the Lake, but Anaho Island and the Pyramid are visible in both images.)

August 2004 Pyramid Lake view to Anaho Island from south shore.

August 2004 Pyramid Lake view to Anaho Island from south shore.

April 2014 Pyramid Lake view to Anaho Island from south shore.

April 2014 Pyramid Lake view to Anaho Island from south shore.