tahoe conservancy

The gates have closed to Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe, but the grounds will remain open for the public to enjoy year-round.

The California Tahoe Conservancy announced the closure today and wants to remind park users that when the gates close, services such as water, restrooms and trash collection are not available.

Fall and winter park users are reminded to park legally and not to block the gate, and to pack out your garbage so the park can remain clean for all others to follow, and to protect the wildlife.

The public is invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony that will celebrate the completion of the Sierra Tract Phase 3-4 of their erosion control project on Friday, October 28 at 10:30 a.m. on the corner of Palmira Ave. and River Dr.

An underground low impact stormwater system has been created to treat runoff and remove pollution (primarily fine sediment) from developed roadways, commercial, and residential land uses that discharge directly into the Upper Truckee River and
eventually Lake Tahoe.

The U.S. Forest Service and California Tahoe Conservancy are hosting a field trip for any members of the public interested in their multiple-year project, the Upper Truckee River Reach 5 Restoration Project in South Lake Tahoe.

On Wednesday, September 28 at 5:30 p.m., people invited to head out there to see the final stage, a project over a decade in the works

Protecting Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada is the job of many stakeholders. Its not just a local job, not just a California job, not just a Nevada job, not just a national job, and as witnessed through President Obama's visit to the Lake Tahoe Summit Wednesday, it can only be successful through partnerships of all of those entities along with agencies, local and private investment.

On Tuesday, August 29, the day before the Summit, California Senator Diane Feinstein hosted a lunch for local officials, agencies and federal counterparts, described as the "Lake Tahoe Stakeholders Luncheon".

The seasonal dog closure of the Upper Truckee Marsh ends on Sunday, July 31.

Each year, the California Tahoe Conservancy closing the marsh to dogs from May 1 through July 31 to protect the critical breeding habitat for special, threatened, and endangered species.

Beginning today, July 11, and going until October 14, the Truckee River will be closed near the South Lake Tahoe airport in order for the Upper Truckee River Reach 5 Restoration Project to be completed.

The 3rd annual Wildfire Safety Expo will be held in South Lake Tahoe on Saturday, June 11 from noon to 3:00 p.m. at the TJ Maxx parking lot at the "Y" where Highways 50 and 89 meet.

A day full of activities celebrating the outdoors and pets will be Saturday, June 11 at the Harrah's Tahoe upper parking lot from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Action Adventure Expo will be partnering once again with the Hike for the Humane Society. Not only will there be guided hikes through Van Sickle Bi-State Park, but there will once again be a $5 vaccination clinic, and lots of vendor celebrating Lake Tahoe.

The California Tahoe Conservancy today announced that free firewood gathering permits and firewood locations are now available online. Permits are valid until December 31 of the year printed or downloaded.

“The new online system will make our program more accessible to people throughout the Tahoe Basin and will save people time because they will no longer need to come into our office to obtain a firewood permit. The rest of the program remains unchanged,” said Milan Yeates, the Conservancy’s Community Firewood Program Coordinator.

The U.S. Forest Service and California Tahoe Conservancy will be finishing their fourth and final year of creating a new channel for the Upper Truckee River near the South Lake Tahoe airport. To accomplish their final tasks, the meadow and river will be closed to the public for much of the summer in order to divert the water into the new channel, relocate fish and mussels, and finish up vegetation projects.

On Thursday, the California Tahoe Conservancy Board awarded more than $7 million for seven watershed restoration and forest health projects around the lake. Thirteen different applicants submitted 32 grant requests totaling $30 million, but with just $13,950,000 to give out, it was a very competitive process.

The money comes from Proposition 1, the $7.545 billion water bond approved overwhelmingly by California voters in November 2014. It was divided around the state to agencies like the Conservancy for water supply infrastructure projects.

The Knights Inn could be purchased by the City of South Lake Tahoe for $6 million should a grant be awarded them by the California Tahoe Conservancy. If that happens, the City would purchase, and then demolish, the motel located on Highway 50 near Ski Run Boulevard to make way for a new environmental and retail project.

There is grant money available through the CTC which the City will apply for. The funds come from the state's Proposition 1 Water Bond which was approved by voters in 2014 to authorize $7.545 billion in general obligation bonds for water projects.

El Dorado County and its Board of Supervisors have been in full stride throughout the last year solving critical issues, making important changes to protect tax dollars and providing expanded services to the public.

After decades of planning, analysis, and public input, the California Tahoe Conservancy Board recently approved the final plan to restore the largest remaining wetland in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Upper Truckee River and Marsh Restoration Project will restore over 500 acres of highly disturbed wetland habitat, improving the natural filtration capacity of the Marsh and reducing a major source of fine sediment that clouds Tahoe’s famed lake clarity.

The Lake Tahoe Community College Board of Trustees, the City of South Lake Tahoe and the California Tahoe Conservancy will soon be voting to swap land they own around the college so the South Lake Tahoe Greenway Shared-Use Bike Trail can be built between Bijou Community Park and Sierra Tract neighborhood.

Sometime in the future, one will be able to hop on a bike at Van Sickle Bi-State Park and travel on Class 1 trails to Sierra Tract, and hopefully beyond.

The concept for the trail where people would walk and bike safely off the main roads actually began in 1985. Caltrans owned land through the middle of neighborhoods where a highway was proposed, but when it was apparent that would never be built, the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC) joined Caltrans in discussions to obtain the land.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board on Wednesday approved a $7,500 settlement agreement with the Tahoe Keys Marina and Yacht Club, LLC.

The settlement is for the Tahoe Keys Marina and Yacht Club’s unauthorized grading and creation of coverage at a California Tahoe Conservancy property located near the end of Venice Drive in South Lake Tahoe. The property impacted by this violation is not classified by TRPA as a stream environment zone or wetland.

The California Transportation Commission announced this week that it will award nearly $9 million in Active Transportation Program (ATP) grant funding to help complete three major bike and pedestrian projects in the City of South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City.

Members of the Lake Tahoe Bikeway Partnership applied for the grants. The partnership formed several years ago to secure funding for critical trail segments to improve bicyclist and pedestrian safety and complete the Lake Tahoe Bikeway, a comprehensive multi-use trail network for the Lake Tahoe Region.

Successful conservation actions from a collaborative Lake Tahoe partnership spanning the past 15 years have helped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decide today that Tahoe yellow cress (Rorippa subumbellata), a flowering perennial plant in the mustard family found only along the lake’s sandy shoreline, does not warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

This annual beach cleanup is in conjunction with California Coastal Cleanup day. Be a part of the largest single-day cleanup effort in the Sierra, now in its 7th year! Join hundreds of volunteers this day in cleaning up the Lake Tahoe region in partnership with Clean Tahoe, Sierra Nevada Alliance, California Conservation Corps, Americorp, South Tahoe Refuse, and California Tahoe Conservancy.

More info at https://tahoecleanup.wordpress.com/

Location

In what many locals was hoping wouldn't be the case, the Barton Ranch in South Lake Tahoe is set for demolition.

Family members who own the land and the buildings have spent years trying to get to this point in order to remove what they say is a dangerous set of buildings that have caused problems with vandals and vagrants.

On Tuesday, employees of Allied Environmental, Inc of Shingle springs were on site to remove asbestos in preparation for demolition.

The underwater scenes could be straight out of "Creature of the Black Lagoon." Long feathery tendrils of green plants, growing at alarming rates in the Tahoe Keys and attracting fish not before known in the crystal blue waters of the lake.

The plant described here is better known as the Eurasian Watermilfoil. It is joined by another nuisance non-native plant, the curlyleaf pondweed, in creating problems in the waters of the Tahoe Keys.

Tahoe Resource Conservation District, in partnership with South Tahoe Public Utility District, is hosting FREE Water Conservation Workshops this summer.

The next one on the schedule is "Understanding and Implementing Micro-irrigation."

The aftermath of the thousands of people who flocked to South Lake Tahoe's beaches last Fourth of July was a ghastly sight. South Lake Tahoe made headlines around the world for the embarrassing amount of trash left on the beaches. It took hundreds of volunteers days to pick up the thousands of pounds of garbage left on the beautiful beaches.