If It’s Your Dog, Then It’s Your Doody

Litter. Dog poop. Unsafe fires. Bear safety. These are just some of the issues impacting our Region. Today, the Lake Tahoe Outreach Committee unveiled the Take Care™ campaign to help reduce these impacts and promote a more responsible use of our great outdoors.

The campaign was designed for use in outreach efforts by public agencies, private businesses and nonprofit organizations in the Region. Aimed at residents and visitors, the campaign is a series of reminders that poke fun at the mistakes we all make when we’re not paying attention.

The initial launch includes messages for the 2015 summer season: general litter, cigarette butts and beer bottle litter, dog waste, fire safety, bear awareness, and aquatic invasive species prevention. A Take Care toolkit featuring the digital files for all of the messages is now available to download for free at www.takecaretahoe.org.

“We held a workshop in September 2013 with more than 60 regional stakeholders to address these issues,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO and member of the Lake Tahoe Outreach Committee. “We heard loud and clear that a unified stewardship brand was needed to bring the region together to elevate our messages and see the biggest impact. We are thrilled to finally make the materials available to our regional partners for use in their outreach efforts.”

“The campaign is really fun and so different than what we normally use,” said Madonna Dunbar, of the Incline Village General Improvement District and the Tahoe Water Suppliers Association. “We are excited to join the regional effort by using the Take Care campaign to help keep our beaches, parks and trails clean.”

“We picked up more than 2,300 pounds of litter from just six beaches after last year’s July 4th holiday,” said Jesse Patterson, Deputy Director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe and member of the Lake Tahoe Outreach Committee. “It is our hope that the community will adopt this new campaign in time to see a dramatic difference this year.”

For more information, and to download the toolkit, click here.

Take Care was developed by the Lake Tahoe Outreach Committee, which is comprised of the Tahoe Fund, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, League to Save Lake Tahoe, UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Tahoe Resource Conservation District, and Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative.

Funding for Take Care was provided by Tahoe Fund, Martis Fund, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Barton Health. The campaign was developed by the creative team of Meg Siegal and Nate Laver.