River-friendly living demonstration garden installed at Reno's Lake Park

The local nonprofit One Truckee River celebrated this week the installation of its newest project at Lake Park in Northwest Reno. The grand opening doubled as a community event to educate residents by conducting walking tours to learn more about the native plants and ways to make the most of the limited rainfall the area receives every year.  

The river-friendly demonstration garden serves as an example of how homeowners can improve their own gardens so that the Truckee River water quality remains in tip-top shape. 

“Our Truckee River is pristine, but we do have a lot of stormwater runoff,” executive director of One Truckee River Iris Jehle-Peppard said. “And so, everything that people can do to keep water onsite, to not over fertilize, to do water conservation, it really helps to increase our protection of our waterways.”

By Michelle Baker for This Is Reno