For the first time a comprehensive management plan is being proposed for the Truckee River. This week, that plan will be revealed to the public. Reno Public Radio contributor Ky Plaskon has the story.
Along the Truckee River there are more than 130 groups and government agencies. Each one has its own way of managing things like people and pollution. Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful Executive Director Christi Cakirogluhas seen the result of this inconsistent management.
“It’s a lot of user trash and a lot of camping trash, and so we really want to reduce that and make the Truckee River a highlight of our region,” she says.
KTMB, Nevada Land Trust and the US Parks Service spent the last 18 months bringing all the stakeholders together, identifying hundreds of problems and solutions. The result is the 83-page One River Plan. It has 26 goals for the next year, including: Managing bathrooms, public access, restoration, mapping, biodiversity and homelessness.
Cakiroglu says ideally the end result of this plan would be a Truckee regional park to handle of that.
“Because that way you will have opened and closed hours, you will have staffing, you will have facilities and amenities and ideally the funding to maintain that,” she says.
In addition to improved lighting, trash management and public safety, one idea is to have bike repair along the river. Another is to create a venue for people to share stories about the river as part of our cultural heritage.
“We have a legacy to uphold here," Cakiroglu says. "We have inherited this phenomenal river corridor and we are really not doing enough to take care of it. And so how are we going to make sure that our kids feel safe taking their kids there to play along the river?”
The general public can see a draft of the plan and talk about the river on Tuesday at the Siena Hotel from 4 to 7 PM.
