Opinion: Clean up South Lake Tahoe

Littering in Tahoe is a big problem. Everywhere you go, there is trash and no one picks it up. People don't throw their trash in the garbage; they leave their trash on the ground and it makes its way into the lake. Other people who pass by it don't pick it up either. The problem started with the tourists who come to the beaches and throw their trash anywhere and they think that it won’t do anything to our lake. Tourists don’t take care of nature and our lake as much as the locals here. Some locals leave their trash everywhere as well. Instead of using trash receptacles, they leave their trash and other items on the beach. This has led to there being trash in the lakes and all over the place. It makes the lake look dirty and it’s bad for the environment.

Littering in Tahoe has affected the lake in so many ways. The trash pollutes the water, making it dirty and there is barely any life in it. Street litter washes into storm drains, into our waterways and ultimately ends up in the lake. Some of it goes on to the beach and some of it stays in the water where it kills wildlife. In addition, “Tahoe has lost about one third of its clarity since 1968. Another important pollutant is nitrogen, over one half of which comes from atmospheric fallout created by vehicle exhaust and pollution blown in the area.” When you see trash around town or in the lake, it gives Tahoe a bad impression of how the locals take care of the environment. Littering affects nature because whatever you throw away lets out chemicals that kill the plants. Contamination happens when substances are spilled or buried into the soil. Wild animals are also affected by littering because they’re hungry and eat whatever they find. Birds collect materials for their nests which sometimes cause them to die of malnutrition.

Both people and bears have also been affected. Children can be seriously injured by a broken bottle or a rusty piece of metal. All the littering causes people to get sick. Bears have also been affected. In South Tahoe, it has become common for bears to keep visiting residential areas, and many have gotten used to feeding off of our garbage. “A bear that has frequent access to human food will likely lose its natural fear of humans and also may damage property in its quest to reach the food source, often times resulting in a death sentence for the animal: ‘a fed bear is a dead bear.’ Also other animals mistake garbage as food or shelter”.

Lake Tahoe started a cleaning program called “The Clean Tahoe Program”. The program has two crews working different areas around town cleaning up the trash. They clean more than “350 lineal miles of public thoroughfare. Their purpose of the program is to keep the community litter-free and to ensue bears, coyotes, raccoons and other wild animals to have no access to the trash. The program organizes events throughout the year like the spring cleanups, community cleanup day where residents can bring unwanted items and dispose of them with a small fine”. The Clean Tahoe crew also pays for bins that bears won’t be able to get to and bins at bus stops and other public locations throughout the city. Securely covering garbage cans and recycle bins can stop animals from getting into them and being trapped inside. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for other people’s trash, too. “Your actions can be the difference between life or death of an animal.”

If the Clean Tahoe program would get most of the people in Tahoe to help cleanup we would see big changes in our environment. Tahoe would be a nicer place to live in and to visit. People in Tahoe take for granted how beautiful Tahoe is and don’t mind the littering because they think one piece of trash won’t do much damage to our environment. People should pick up their trash because it's not that hard to do and it would be a safer place to live in.

Elizabeth and Jennifer are sophomores at South Tahoe High and wrote this as a business letter assignment, quasi-research paper on a community/school concern.