Long-time League to Save Lake Tahoe director resigns

League to Save Lake Tahoe Executive Director Rochelle Nason has resigned today, effective October 2011, after nearly 20 years of working to protect and restore Lake Tahoe.

League Program Director Carl Young will serve as interim executive director, with Nason serving as a senior advisor, until a new executive director has been selected.

“Rochelle Nason has grown the League from a tiny organization with a single full-time employee into the substantial and influential group that it is today,” Robert Damaschino, chair of the board of directors. “The ‘Keep Tahoe Blue’ movement has flourished under her leadership and with it the level of public investment and attention to the conservation of the region. The entire Lake Tahoe Basin will continue to benefit for years to come from what she has accomplished over the past two decades.”

Nason joined the League as staff attorney in 1992, and became executive director in 1993.

“I will always love Lake Tahoe and will return frequently as a visitor, but this summer my family and I decided to make our permanent home in the San Francisco Bay Area and I did not wish to continue my current schedule of travel between the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe during the coming winter," Nason said. “I am very pleased to be leaving the League in excellent condition financially and organizationally, and look forward to watching it continue to thrive and grow. It will also be satisfying to watch the public investment that the League worked so hard to secure over the years invested in projects that will help Keep Tahoe Blue.”

After more than two decades of environmental leadership, Nason’s professional accomplishments will have a lasting effect on the Lake Tahoe Basin. She led the League’s successful efforts to:

· Establish and maintain urban boundaries for Lake Tahoe’s communities to prevent commercial, residential, and tourism uses from spreading into conservation and recreation areas.

· Initiate the drive for public funding of the Environmental Improvement Program for Lake Tahoe, which has resulted in the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in the conservation of the area in the public interest.

· Provide a voice for conservation groups on the steering committee of the 1997 Lake Tahoe Presidential Forum. The Forum brought national focus to the problems of Lake Tahoe and highlighted the mutual interdependence of economic and environmental health.

· Persuade the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to adopt a ban on two-stroke engines from Lake Tahoe. This ban received national attention and accelerated the marine engine industry’s movement towards cleaner technology.

· Establish the legal principle that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is obligated to achieve and maintain environmental standards for the Lake Tahoe Basin

Program Director Carl Young will work with the League’s board to assure a smooth leadership transition. Carl has a strong background in science and in League programs. He has served as program director since 2007 and played an integral role in all the League’s advocacy activities.

Additional information on the League is available at KeepTahoeBlue.org.

(Press release from League to Save Lake Tahoe)