THE JMT WILDERNESS CONSERVANCY

​Major Restoration Project will Revive Reds Meadow Valley

Begins with Groundbreaking Ceremony on September 26, 2026.

THE JMT WILDERNESS CONSERVANCY (JMT Wild) will officially break ground this fall on a vital, high-elevation meadow and riparian terrain restoration project in Reds Meadow Valley, west of Mammoth Lakes. The groundbreaking this September will launch a four-year effort to restore the ecological health of two large meadows and four recreation sites located along six miles of the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. These ancestral lands of the North Fork Mono and Bishop Paiute Tribes are a gateway to iconic landscapes along the John Muir Trail (est. 1915) and the high Sierra Nevada.

The public and media are invited to attend a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 1:00 PM PST at Agnew Meadows Campground. Remarks will be made by leadership from JMT Wild, Inyo National Forest, the California Natural Resources Agency, and project partners. Tribal Chairman Ron Goode of the North Fork Mono Tribe will offer a sage smoke blessing and ritual, along with a traditional invocation to the Ancestors and Creator for permission to enter these lands.

Work on the Reds Meadow Valley project has already begun with three years of extensive design and modeling of treatments, and this summer, with the installation of field monitoring equipment and drone flights for high-resolution imagery to document the Valley’s baseline conditions. JMT Wild is excited to celebrate the launch of this restoration effort. It will restore habitat for a wide range of biodiverse species, re-open wet meadow terrain for wildfire mitigation, and enhance water sustainability at the headwaters of the San Joaquin River while improving the visitor experience for generations to come.

Over the past 200 years, resource extraction, road development, livestock grazing and the near eradication of native beavers, have resulted in degraded meadows, altered and incised waterways, and hard compacted soils. The forced re-location of Indigenous Peoples throughout the Sierra undermined the ancestral stewardship of these forest landscapes. In recent decades, these impacts were compounded by increasingly intensive recreational demand. During high season, more than 2,000 visitors and approximately 900 vehicles enter Reds Meadow Valley on a daily basis.

Through extensive field surveys and satellite imaging, most recent studies estimate over 65% of Sierra wetland meadow and riparian terrain has been lost to dense conifer growth and intense vegetation fuel loads. Reclaiming and restoring wet meadows is a fundamental part of wildfire management, where they act as natural firebreaks and provide critical refuge for animals in fire events.

Located just west of the Town of Mammoth Lakes, Reds Meadow Valley is home to some of the Sierra Nevada’s most spectacular scenery including Devils Postpile National Monument, Minaret Falls, Rainbow Falls, the Minarets, Thousand Island Lake, the Ritter Range, and the headwaters of the San Joaquin River, California’s longest and most diverse in wildlife.

“What people see as a beautiful recreational destination is also one of the Sierra Nevada’s most important ecological landscapes,” said Marla Stark, President of JMT Wild. “Healthy montane meadows retain and store water, reduce erosion, provide critical wildlife habitat, and help the landscapes become more resilient to wildfire risks, drought and climate change. Restoring these systems is a vital priority that benefits everyone downstream.”

The effort began in 2022 after the Inyo National Forest invited the JMT Wilderness Conservancy to lead the ecological restoration component of the Reds Meadow Valley riparian corridor improvements. Since then, the Conservancy has assembled a multidisciplinary team of restoration ecologists, hydrologists, landscape architects, engineers and conservation specialists to design and implement this landscape-scale project. California’s commitment to publicly fund this effort, along with the support of private-sector environmental philanthropy, are making the project possible.

For more information on the Reds Meadow Valley Restoration Project, the September Groundbreaking Ceremony, and the JMT Wilderness Conservancy, visit jmtwilderness.org/RMVgroundbreaking

About JMT Wilderness Conservancy:
Since 2018, JMT Wilderness Conservancy has focused on restoring Sierra Nevada meadow ecosystems and the riparian recreational corridor along the iconic John Muir Trail, America’s oldest recreational hiking trail. The JMT’s 217 miles follows the Sierra Nevada crest and, with its access trails, encompasses roughly 2.8 million acres through the heart of California’s snowpack and prime alpine wilderness. JMT Wild’s mission is to recover and restore montane meadows and riparian terrain that has been damaged by 200-year historic impacts, now compounded by intense recreational use. Our Monitoring & Stewardship Program, powered by a dedicated team of experienced field managers and undergraduate environmental majors, ensures precise data collection and quality control oversight to guide our restoration efforts. In 2024, we adopted the U.S. Forest Service’s Lost Meadows Model that analyzes California’s 10,000 hand-surveyed Sierra meadows with AI-enabled satellite imaging and LiDAR technology in order to locate and reclaim the historic scope of these meadow ecosystems. By partnering with tribal ecologists using TEK methods and employing Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration (LTPBR) techniques, we are implementing sustainable land management practices to restore and, where possible, expand these critical ecosystems. No Water.

Media contact:
Nicole Reitter
[email protected]
530.448.3382