The Feather River Headwaters Aspen Restoration Project

Restoring the Headwaters

Plumas Audubon Society is partnering with the Plumas National Forest on a four-year effort to restore aspen stands, mountain meadows, streams, and wildlife habitat above Antelope Lake.

The Feather River Headwaters Aspen Restoration Project encompasses more than 30,000 acres across portions of the Boulder Creek, Indian Creek, and Lone Rock Creek watersheds in the Mt. Hough Ranger District.

Beginning with planning and baseline monitoring in 2026, restoration will include conifer thinning to promote aspen regeneration, pile burning to reduce fuels, and low-tech stream restoration using Beaver Dam Analogs and Post-Assisted Log Structures to improve meadow hydrology and habitat. Implementation is planned for 2027–2028, followed by monitoring through 2029 to see how the landscape responds.

The project is supported by a $1.335 million California Wildlife Conservation Board grant funded through Proposition 68.

A New View of Restoration

Plumas Audubon Society is using drone imagery to help map and monitor restoration sites within the Feather River Headwaters Aspen Restoration Project in the Plumas National Forest.

Hundreds of overlapping photographs can be combined into detailed orthomosaics and reconstructed as 3D point clouds, providing new ways to visualize meadows, aspen stands, forest structure, streams, and restoration treatments.

By repeating these flights over time, drone imagery can help us document change, analyze restoration outcomes, and tell the story of a recovering landscape—while providing information that can help guide future restoration efforts.