• Home
  • How We Work
  • Where We Work
  • News Room
  • About Us
  • My Nature Page

The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Conservation in Africa

The Nature Conservancy in Asia Pacific - Conservation in Asia-Pacific

The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean - Conservation in the Caribbean

The Nature Conservancy in Central America - Conservation in Central America

The Nature Conservancy in North America - Conservation in North America

The Nature Conservancy in the United States - Conservation in the United States

The Nature Conservancy in South America - Conservation in South America

Frémont Cottonwood
(Populus fremontii)

Frémont Cottonwood
Frémont Cottonwood
© Jim Stimson

Appearance
The Frémont cottonwood is a majestic tree of bottom lands and stream bank environments. It has great spreading branches and a broad crown, which affords welcome shade and cooler temperatures in a larger landscape of semi-arid desert.

Habitat
Frémont cottonwood forms gallery forests or riparian woodlands along the lower reaches of the Truckee, Carson, and Walker rivers in the western Great Basin where soils are seasonally flooded or permanently saturated.  Spring runoffs are important for depositing the tufted seeds of the cottonwood in backwaters and river margins where they germinate and grow as the water table declines through the season.  Some springs allow for abundant regeneration of cottonwood, while lower runoffs provide for none. The less disturbed Frémont cottonwood riparian woodlands of these river systems naturally have a variety of willows in the understory along with an herbaceous layer of rhizomatous grasses, such as creeping wild rye.

Cottonwood saplings
Cottonwood saplings
© Jim Stimson
Threats
In areas that have been disturbed, the understory often is dominated by undesirable noxious weeds, such as tall whitetop (Lepidium latifolium). 

What the Conservancy is Doing
Restoration of native cottonwood communities is a primary goal of The Nature Conservancy's Truckee and Carson River projects. In the fall of 2001, for example, the Conservancy planted 10,000 cottonwood saplings at its McCarran Ranch property as part of a pilot project to bring back the Truckee River's lost riparian forest.  And at our River Fork Ranch property in the Carson Valley, a new grazing plan has been implemented, including fencing to prevent cattle from grazing young cottonwoods along the Carson River's banks.