Lake Tahoe sled hill clean up Saturday nets very little trash

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. - The League to Save Lake Tahoe sled cleanup event at Spooner Summit on Saturday was "wonderfully uneventful," said the League's Communications Director Chris Joseph.

In years past, numerous plastic sleds and pieces of sleds have been found across the popular sledding hill at the intersection of US50 and SR28.

"Our volunteers found very little trash at the site, which can be attributed to a number of things," said Joseph.

He highlighted the League's addition of a dumpster and portable toilets at the site, something they have now done for two consecutive winters, and the fact that Clean Tahoe regularly visits the sledding site to clean up.

The Tahoe Fund added the sled corrals a few years ago when the bad habit of leaving sleds and pieces of sleds on the ground when sledders departed. Take Care Tahoe encourages all users to practice Slediquette – this means properly disposing of broken sleds in designated sled corrals, using dumpsters, and sealed trash cans, or simply taking trash home with them if other disposal options aren’t available.

The sled corrals, small, fenced-off areas made for collecting broken pieces of sleds, are located at Spooner Summit, Van Sickle Bi-State Park at Stateline, Fallen Leaf Lake Road, and Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake, and Truckee. Take Care Tahoe Volunteers, including members of the League’s Tahoe Blue Crews, work throughout the winter to remove sleds and other trash from these areas.

There still may be some hidden trash that will be uncovered when the snow starts to melt.

"When spring decides to arrive and the snow recedes, we fully expect to see plenty of litter emerge from hibernation," said Joseph. "However, we also anticipate that the on-site facilities - combined with paid and volunteer litter removal work this winter - will have diverted large amounts of sled-related litter compared to past years."