water quality

It's been almost a year since the 5,400 square foot Alta Mira Building was torn down in South Lake Tahoe in order to provide open space, improve water quality and remove blight.

The public is invited to the 16th annual Children's Environmental Science Day presented by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center on Sunday, August 2 at Commons Beach in Tahoe City. The event will begin at 12:30 p.m. and will continue until 3:30 p.m., with a free Mumbo Gumbo concert at 4:00 p.m.

History shows time and time again our greatest accomplishments at Lake Tahoe are achieved when people work together. In the past, Tahoe was known as a place where unproductive interactions between stakeholders led to a stunning decay in our environment and our economic vitality, creating a region that seemed frozen in time.

We face major environmental challenges at Tahoe, including the uncertainties of climate change. And as Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

There were just a few residents in attendance at Tuesday's construction kickoff meeting about the City of South Lake Tahoe's Sierra Tract Erosion Control Project, Phases 3 & 4. The project will reduce erosion and sediment discharges in to the Upper Truckee River and Lake Tahoe.

City planners and the contractor were on hand to present the building schedule and explain what residents will experience over the next two building seasons.

We face some big, daunting environmental restoration challenges here at Lake Tahoe. But helping our environment every day can be as simple as riding a bike, walking, or taking transit. And the hundreds of people who participated in the Tahoe Bike Challenge this June, including many of our employees at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, are showing how big of an impact our individual actions can have.

The public is invited to the League to Save Lake Tahoe's free Summer Kickoff party at the League to Save Lake Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe on Friday, June 10 at 5:00 p.m. Music, food, fun, prizes and education will all be part of the evening's activities.

The party will feature the grand re-opening of their Fritzi & David Huntington Environmental Education Center. Featuring cutting-edge interactive displays, the Education Center’s overhaul has improved the agency's ability to educate and engage the public about how to protect Lake Tahoe and the threats facing the Lake.

Location

UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center invites the community to join renowned limnologist Dr. Charles Goldman for an entertaining public presentation on the stories and history of five decades of scientific research at Lake Tahoe and the challenges ahead. Dr. Goldman’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 4 at the Tahoe Science Center in Incline Village, Nev.

UC Davis research at Lake Tahoe began with Dr. Charles Goldman. In 1959, Dr. Goldman formed the Tahoe Research Group and began regularly monitoring Lake Tahoe.

More than a hundred trained volunteers will continue a 15 year tradition with a one-day hands-on effort to capture a snapshot of the health of Lake Tahoe’s watershed on May 16 at Lake Tahoe Community College.

“Snapshot Day creates the opportunity for people of all ages and experience levels to take part in protecting our watershed,” said Jesse Patterson, deputy director for the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

Upper Truckee Marsh will be closed to dogs from May 1 through July 31 because it is a critical breeding habitat for special, threatened and endangered species such as Yellow Headed Blackbirds.

The Tahoe Conservancy announced the annual seasonal closure today but wanted to remind dog owners that their Cove East property just west of the river remains open for year-round, leashed dog access.

The University of California, Davis and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency recently released their yearly water clarity readings for Lake Tahoe. The good news: Mid-lake water clarity improved significantly in 2014, with an average reading of 77.8 feet. That’s 7.5 feet greater than the average reading for 2013, and almost 14 feet greater than the 64.1 feet measured in 1997, Lake Tahoe’s lowest recorded clarity.

Let us start with a common interactive scenario for Lake Tahoe:

40 years ago a family came to Lake Tahoe, walked to the water’s edge of a very full lake (on that day in 1975, Tahoe’s surface elevation was at 6228 feet), and said, “What a beautiful lake! Look how clear it is!” and they spent the rest of their vacation not knowing the environmental direction that Tahoe was heading.

Heavenly's Epic Discovery project passed their biggest hurdle Thursday as the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's (TRPA) Governing Board unanimously approved the newest year-round recreational experience in South Lake Tahoe. With it, comes a wide variety of outdoor recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike. Epic Discovery will include new zip lines, sky cycle tree canopy tours, a mountain bike park and trails, ropes courses, and interpretive and educational tours to teach visitors about the Lake Tahoe Region’s cultural and environmental resources.

The project to transform the look and feel of North Lake Tahoe’s California/Nevada state line by redeveloping the Tahoe Biltmore will move forward after the company overseeing it secured financing in a deal cemented with an undisclosed private equity firm on Thursday, March 12.

Boulder Bay LLC had been struggling to garner the necessary dollars to fund construction of the development ever since it received approval nearly four years ago after a 12-hour Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board meeting that witnessed more than 80 members of the community offer opinions on the project.

Heavenly Mountain Resort added summertime activities to the top of the gondola last summer but that was only the beginning if the Epic Discovery Project gets approval from the necessary agencies.

The City wants to recover some of the fees involved in the enforcement of a state mandated stormwater program which requires them to ensure commercial businesses are not discharging waste or pollutants into the storm drain system.

Keeping grease, oil and other contaminants out of the system is the goal of the program. Jason Burke, the City's Stormwater Program Coordinator, told the City Council on Tuesday that he will provide outreach and education to the high profile businesses that use grease and oil on a daily basis.

The City of South Lake Tahoe looked into charging fees for mandated stormwater inspections of commercial businesses during Tuesday's Council meeting.

Since the City operates under a stormwater permit issued by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board they must abide by their requirements which "include conducting commercial, industrial and municipal inspections in order to ensure commercial facilities are not discharging waste or pollutants into the City storm drain system."

As the incoming Chair of the 15-member Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board, this promises to be a hopeful and exciting year. 2015 will be full of opportunities, but also challenges, for the continued protection of Lake Tahoe.

The number one priority among our challenges is funding shortfalls. Federal and state funding that has paid for environmental restoration and protection efforts at Lake Tahoe for years is drying up and new approaches need to be pursued.

The New Year brings big changes both for me personally and for the Forest Service in Lake Tahoe. After 37 years with the agency, I’m looking forward to retirement and handing over the reins at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit to a new Forest Supervisor.

I’m grateful for steady Basin leadership that has enhanced relationships making them stronger. Days of past tensions between conflicting interests have passed. Today, local agencies work closely together on solutions that protect our communities and our environment.

Several areas of the Truckee River near Tahoe City are set for restoration because of erosion and degraded water quality caused by river users.

Years of people accessing the river and paved trail from Highway 89 pullouts has created the need for about 900 feet of stream bank and wet meadow restoration. This project will include reshaping the river bank through placement of woody material and boulders.

During last week's Loop Road open house, residents and businesspeople gave their input on what they felt the US Highway 50/South Shore Community Revitalization project should offer.

Results show that 82% of the people participating believe the most important goal is to beautify the corridor and create gathering spaces for locals and visitors.

Another 67% of the respondents believe there should be efforts to reduce traffic congestion and improve mobility options, 60% said the project should revitalize the area and boost economic development.

As the keynote speaker at last month’s National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation in Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell emphasized the central role collaboration must play for America to protect its natural resources, balance economic needs, and address emerging environmental challenges such as climate change.

“We are moving into an era of epic collaboration,” Jewell said, explaining that regional partnerships across jurisdictional boundaries are more important than ever for the federal department that manages 20 percent of our nation’s land.

Because of the drought, three wells in South Lake Tahoe have higher levels of contamination. Some wells have been shut-downs and the state of California is investigating.

If you've driven through the Bijou area of South Lake Tahoe over the last couple of years you know that it's been undergoing a major stormwater treatment transformation with the replacement of pipes and the addition of water treatment chambers.

The City of South Lake Tahoe held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, celebrating the near completion of the project which is treating stormwater runoff from 42 acres within the Bijou Commercial Core area, preventing 21,000 pounds of fine sediment particles from reaching Lake Tahoe each year.

With California and Nevada grappling with a third year of drought, one of the largest and most complex challenges we face over the long run at Lake Tahoe is adapting to a changing climate.

Climate change will affect the protection and restoration of our beautiful mountain lake as well as the expansive forests around it. And the health of our lake, forests, and communities are all intertwined.