LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – More than 50 regional leaders, organizations, and agency representatives gathered at Thunderbird Lodge earlier this month for the third annual Lake Tahoe Litter Summit (LTLS), hosted by Clean Up The Lake. The event celebrated progress in litter reduction and advanced collaboration on future prevention efforts, featuring updates from Clean Up The Lake, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Keep Tahoe Blue, and ECO-CLEAN Solutions.

PROGRESS & COLLABORATION

Clean Up The Lake shared progress from its underwater cleanup and monitoring programs, where they recovered thousands of pounds of litter from Tahoe and nearby Sierra lakes. The organization called for stronger cross-agency coordination to tackle pollution at its source. Sierra Nevada Alliance highlighted its Lake Tahoe Ambassador Program, which trains youth stewards in conservation and outreach, while Keep Tahoe Blue reported major litter reductions through its Blue Beach Program. ECO-CLEAN Solutions showcased its beach-cleaning robot now operating across multiple sites.

SHARED CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

This year’s summit addressed challenges around funding, coordination, and infrastructure, with participants outlining joint strategies to secure new funding, strengthen partnerships, and better utilize programs like the SNA Ambassadors, who already work on litter mitigation, to help strategize areas of need they could be utilized in the future. Breakout sessions had everyone focusing on core topics that needed addressing. This included discussions on:

(A) Expanding refill stations through local funding from multiple sources to decrease the reliance on plastic water bottles;

(B) Developing a shared resource database to improve cross-agency collaboration and provide a hub of information for anyone who wants to work on litter mitigation, from simply holding one of their own clean-ups. This resource was also decided to be a new home for what was once going to be a separate committee on data unification. Where this one resource could hold not only contact information and resources, but also the data showing litter-based statistics in the Tahoe basin to date from multiple sources;

(C) Developing a new funding source to help tackle an ongoing funding stream for the much-needed maintenance in the Tahoe basin when it comes to litter.

LOOKING AHEAD

Looking ahead, Clean Up The Lake will work in alignment with the Destination Stewardship Council’s Litter Action Committee, where the CEO of Clean Up The Lake is also the co-chair of this committee with Marilee Movius of the League to Save Lake Tahoe. Together, they will host monthly meetings where the committee will focus on furthering these key items. Anyone who is interested in being part of the solution is encouraged to join this committee and its meetings and the effort to make Lake Tahoe litter-free. Please reach out to Clean Up The Lake for more information about upcoming meetings.

“The Lake Tahoe Litter Summit shows that protecting this region takes shared responsibility,” said Jenny Uvira, programs manager for Clean Up The Lake. “Each year, we move closer to a unified, proactive approach to cleaning up the lake and keeping the Tahoe basin litter-free.”

For more on Clean Up The Lake, visit their website at https://cleanupthelake.org/.