diane feinstein

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The 23rd annual Lake Tahoe Summit will be held on Tuesday, August 20 at Valhalla in South Lake Tahoe.

Registration will begin at 9:00 a.m. and the main program at 10:00 a.m.

Since the first Lake Tahoe Summit in 1997, the area’s congressional representatives have pledged to keep working together and with local, state, and private sector partners to restore Tahoe’s environment, improve forest health, and confront climate change.

Senator Dianne Feinstein dubbed those helping to keep the region pristine as "Team Tahoe."

There are now an estimated 102 million dead trees in California, creating unhealthy forests that are prone to major and catastrophic wildfires. Even though funds are being allocated to remove many of them, where will that timber go?
For now, there aren’t many options because of what has transpired from the government since 1968.

In that year the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior issued orders restricting the volume of timber that could be harvested from Federal lands in the West. It was updated in 1969 to limit the total harvested to 350-million-board-feet.

California Senator Diane Feinstein is hosting the 21st annual Lake Tahoe Summit on Tuesday, August 22 at Vahalla in the Tallac Historic Site from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The theme for the day is "2017- A Pivotal Point for the Future of Lake Tahoe.”

The event will examine successful restoration projects and ways to address new challenges facing the lake. A key focus will be combating the effects of climate change in the Lake Tahoe basin.

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".

"We're here to celebrate because we love Lake Tahoe," Nevada Senator Harry Reid said at the 20th annual Lake Tahoe Summit on Wednesday. Reid, who started the focus on Lake Tahoe along with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore with the first Summit in 1997.

"Like a World Series team who can't rest on their laurels," said Reid, "we need to build on progress."

Reid went on with his World Series antidote and introduced the "All Star Lineup" at the 20th Summit, his last in office as he won't be seeking reelection after serving the state in Washington since 1987.

Lawmakers from Nevada and California met Monday on the shores of Lake Tahoe to discuss how to protect a national treasure as it faces continued threats to water clarity, invasive species, wildfire and drought.

Ever since President Bill Clinton held the first meeting in South Lake Tahoe in 1997, the annual focus of the Lake Tahoe Summit is to protect what Mark Twain called "the fairest picture the whole world affords."