Frequently Asked Questions

The League is an environmental watchdog. Our core focus is to protect Lake Tahoe’s inspiring water clarity. We are a constant presence watching out for the lake and urging decision makers to do the right thing. Science informs all of our decisions.

Our watchdog efforts include researching development plans and projects for flaws and loopholes, to ensure these projects comply with rules to protect Lake Tahoe. We also work to secure funding for river and watershed restoration. Finally, we provide education and outreach about the environmental challenges facing Lake Tahoe. We inspire and engage the public in the movement to Keep Tahoe Blue.

The League is pro-planning. Because overdevelopment is the number one reason that the lake’s water clarity is threatened, we know that wise land-use planning is the best way to protect Lake Tahoe. Tahoe is governed by a regional plan that determines the amount of allowed development, and includes regulations and goals aimed to protect and enhance Tahoe’s unique ecosystem. We seek comprehensive planning that is predictable and fairly enforced. Plans should assure that the region will achieve its environmental goals, called “thresholds.” The League supports four main concepts in regional planning: restoration, renovation, redevelopment and regulation.

Thresholds are environmental goals, or parameters of environmental progress. Regulations at Tahoe focus on achieving and maintaining environmental thresholds. The most well-known environmental goal at Tahoe is the threshold covering deep-water clarity. Scientific measurements of water clarity started in 1968. At that point, one could see a white disk submerged to a depth of 100 feet. Today, clarity has dropped to around 70 feet. One goal, or threshold, is to increase clarity to 100 feet once more.  

The thresholds also cover air and water quality, scenery and serenity, healthy soils and meadows, forest and vegetation, and wildlife and fisheries.

The League has been instrumental in most environmental success stories at Lake Tahoe.  The League led the effort to create Tahoe’s first unified planning agency, the TRPA. We were instrumental in securing hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds for restoration projects at the Lake, through the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act and the Environmental Improvement Program. The League led the effort to limit development on wetlands and steep slopes in the 1987 regional plan. We led the effort to establish urban boundaries in 1993. We led the effort to ban two-stroke jet skis in 1999. We led the effort to ban grazing in Meiss Meadows, the headwaters of Tahoe’s longest river, in 2002. We issued the “wake-up call” to begin the fight against aquatic invasive species.

Lake Tahoe is a national treasure. The pressure to exploit this resource is great and ever present.  Tahoe is losing its famed deep-water clarity, and some areas of its shoreline are succumbing to algae blooms, muck and water weeds. Scientists know why these events are happening, and know what measures are needed to prevent further harm. Tahoe needs a strong watchdog to ensure that there is a science-based plan to save the lake, and that rules meant to protect the lake are enforced.

The League is 100 percent privately funded. We are a nonprofit organization with thousands of members in 40 states and several countries. Our members represent a broad range of political perspectives. Over 80 percent of our donations are for $250 or less. Tens of thousands of individuals have supported the League since its inception in 1957.

The League represents the public interest, including the interests of future generations, in a pristine Lake. The environmental laws governing Tahoe were enacted by both California and Nevada, and approved by Congress. This demonstrates that there is a strong public interest in Keeping Tahoe Blue.

This makes us different from bureaucrats, appointees and politicians who make decisions at Tahoe. Sometimes, but not always, these representatives understandably work toward the economic or social interests of their constituents or their self-interest in being re-elected, even when those interests conflict with what is best for the lake environmentally.

Tahoe is a national treasure that has inspired generations of people. Like a centuries-old redwood grove or the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe is a unique natural wonder. It connects people with nature in its unspoiled state. The places on Earth that offer this kind of reminder are dwindling fast. The League has always advocated to Keep Tahoe Blue so that future generations may enjoy the same pristine lake we enjoy today.

Much of why Tahoe is threatened has to do with practices that happened decades ago, before a strong watchdog like the League existed. In the 1800s, the entire Tahoe Basin was clear cut to feed the silver boom in Nevada. In the early 1900s, roads, development, infrastructure and drainage pipes were installed across Tahoe in ways that continue to harm the lake. These “mistakes of the past” included the development of more than 50 percent of Tahoe’s wetlands, which are the lake’s natural filter systems. As a result, more nutrients and sediment are entering Tahoe than ever before and Tahoe is losing clarity.

The short answer is sediment and nutrients. These pollutants are clouding Lake Tahoe at a faster rate because of urban development. Rain and snowmelt fall on parking lots and roads, where sediment and nutrients hitch a ride to the lake. Believe it or not, fertilizer is still allowed at Tahoe, including golf courses, resorts and private properties close to the lake. Scientists are also finding that road sand used during the winter season is harmful to Tahoe. This sand, once it is ground up by cars and travels into Tahoe, floats in the lake for years.

The latest threats to Tahoe are aquatic invasive species and urbanization. An invasion of harmful non-native species like quagga and zebra mussels could destroy Tahoe. These mussels have invaded several western lakes, and wreaked havoc on ecosystems. A strong boat inspection program is essential to preventing these invaders.

Development pressure is greater than it’s been in a generation at Tahoe. Schemes for further urbanization have escalated in recent years, with disturbing plans for taller, higher density buildings. More urbanization will ruin Tahoe’s scenery and serenity, and increase water and air pollution. Strong public engagement with decisions makers is the only way to turn this tide.

Catastrophic wildfire poses a grave risk to communities, forests and water quality. We urge homeowners to work with their Fire Safe Council and conduct defensible space. In addition, we support forest thinning in the wildland-urban interface. Each year, we host Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day, which engages hundreds of volunteers to restore a section of forest near a community. To reduce wildfire risk, thinning should focus on small understory trees rather than mature trees.

Lake Tahoe’s ecosystem is changing. While many stretches of Tahoe’s shoreline remain pristine and inspiring, many other areas are experiencing dramatic degradation. The lake is now home to Asian clams, an aquatic invasive species whose waste products give rise to algae blooms. An unattractive water weed, milfoil, is found in marinas, along many beaches and in Emerald Bay. Non-native, warm-water fish have colonized certain areas. These new phenomena are changing how people experience Lake Tahoe’s shoreline.

Scientists have just begun tracking ecological changes along the shore. The League is urging regulators to enact a stronger standard to protect Tahoe’s shoreline clarity, because a blue Tahoe means a clear shore.

The Tahoe Keys, which were built on 750 acres of prime wetlands in South Lake Tahoe, broke ground in the late 1950s, before the League existed. The development was one of the reasons why a group of Tahoe’s citizens became so concerned that they formed the League and began pushing for the creation of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency so that development could be governed uniformly across the two states and five counties.

The airport was built in the 1950s and is the second largest development that destroyed a large portion of Tahoe’s sensitive wetlands, next to the Tahoe Keys. The airport does not provide a substantial economic benefit and is currently subsidized by the city’s taxpayers. Of the available options for restoring Tahoe’s wetlands, the League believes the airport poses a strong possibility. We believe the area would provide more value as a wetland and small-scale emergency staging zone, than a money-losing airport.

Yes. We have always felt the region holds great potential as an ecotourism destination for low-impact recreation. The League knows that communities with vibrant economies are best able to invest in environmental improvement and protection. The League supports the revitalization of Tahoe’s communities and the development of a sustainable economy. We are confident that economic vitality and environmental protection are both compatible and possible at Tahoe. After all, without a blue lake, there won’t be much of an economy at Tahoe.  

As a small nonprofit, the League only has the resources to focus on the main agencies in Tahoe and their broad-reaching plans and projects.

The League supports sustainable development at Tahoe. Everyone agrees that development practices of the past contribute to the degradation of the lake today. Tahoe was overdeveloped long before the League convinced the TRPA to enact urban boundaries, to limit casino growth, to limit development on wetlands, and institute a strict retrofitting program of all Tahoe properties to protect water quality.

Further development should only proceed as part of a comprehensive and strong plan to save the lake. So the question is not “How much development is good or bad for the lake?” It is: “What measures must we take to protect Lake Tahoe, when we know that property rights allow for a certain amount of development?”

No. Development occurs throughout the lake every year. Most projects comply with the current regional plan, and are not seeking exceptions from the rules.

Tahoe’s strong environmental regulations have helped protect the lake so far. What Tahoe is suffering from is a lack of certainty about future development regulations. Some properties that would be perfect candidates for small-scale renovation or redevelopment are not being improved because of unrealistic promises that regulations may soon be weakened.

The League strongly supports redevelopment that fixes past mistakes while not creating more environmental harm. We seek redevelopment that maximizes restoration and reduces coverage, especially in Tahoe’s overly urbanized areas. We support cleaning up Tahoe’s old and blighted properties and transferring development into Tahoe’s town centers, near existing infrastructure and transportation hubs.

We do not support redevelopment that spreads urbanization by transferring development rights outside urban boundaries, that degrades scenery through tall, high-density projects, and that exacerbates traffic congestion and water and air pollution.

No. The League has never endorsed such an idea, nor does it believe it is remotely possible. Tahoe contains so much private property that the national park idea was deemed infeasible by the early 1900s. The League does support using redevelopment to maximize restoration and to reduce Tahoe’s development footprint.

BMPs stand for “best management practices.” A term widely used by many industries, in Tahoe they refer to erosion control measures to capture rain and snowmelt so that runoff doesn’t flow off the property, carrying pollution and sediment into Lake Tahoe. BMPs are required on all public and private properties, including roadways. The BMP policy was enacted in 1993, but sadly almost 75 percent of properties have not complied with the ordinances. BMPs include a variety of measures. Stormwater retention basins, catchment basins, driveway drains, and planting native plants are just a few.

BMPs are required on all properties, but almost 75 percent have not complied. TRPA has started trying to bring properties into compliance through an incentive program that offers extra development rights. TRPA is overcompensating by providing excessive development rights that carry their own environmental impacts. Developers should be rewarded simply for complying with the law. If developers do receive bonus development rights, they should provide substantial and quantifiable environmental benefit like coverage reduction, hotel room reduction or wetland restoration. Under current practices, every old motel in Tahoe could be replaced by a hotel five times as big, an unacceptable scenario.

The League has long supported and respected property rights. When we discuss solutions to Tahoe’ environmental challenges, we always take into consideration the constitutionally protected rights of property owners.

Property rights are not unlimited. Like many places throughout the nation, Tahoe’s regulators place certain limits on the amount and type of development each property can support. For instance, sensitive lands, like wetlands and steep mountain slopes, in Tahoe are limited to 1-3 percent development. This provides environmental protections while also enabling property owners to practice their rights. Land conservancies also purchase properties with limited development potential, so that owners can be fairly compensated.

The region may be able to accommodate population increases if there is a plan to protect Lake Tahoe. The lake may be able to sustain a lot of people, just not a lot of high-impact, polluting activities. The League does not believe that increasing population to spur economic growth, in the absence of strong measures to protect Lake Tahoe, is a wise course. 

The League supports maximizing and protecting public access for low-impact recreational activities. The League also respects private property rights and has always taken a neutral stance on the public trust easement, which refers to the right of the public to access beaches between the high and low water mark in California.

The League has long supported the idea of charging a use fee for Tahoe. With at least six major highways entering the lake, the toll idea is not easily implemented. The TRPA, the only region-wide authority, lacks the ability to tax the public. However, TRPA could create a plan to encourage jurisdictions to charge use fees for restoration.

Tahoe needs both a strong watchdog and strong restoration programs. The League works to prevent further harm to Lake Tahoe’s sensitive ecosystem by promoting wise land-use planning. Rather than directly funding restoration projects, the League lobbies the state and federal governments to provide restoration funding. These efforts have resulted in far more restoration than the League’s revenue alone could have produced.

The League is a major reason Tahoe has received $1.5 billion in restoration funds through the Environmental Improvement Program. Every year, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service receive EIP funds to restore meadows, install BMPs, and other erosion-control projects. Also, in the 1980s the League pushed to create the California Tahoe Conservancy, which purchases and restores sensitive lands in Tahoe.

Finally, the League annually hosts Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day, an event that engages hundreds of volunteers in forest restoration and protection.

Each year, we fund Tahoe Earth Day, the Tahoe Bicycle Coalition, the Sierra Nevada Alliance and Tahoe-Baikal Institute. We provided seed funding for the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, and have funded programs to prevent invasive species. Each year, we host Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day to promote healthy forests and wildfire prevention.

The League is primarily a watchdog. When the League was founded in 1957, we were Tahoe’s only environmental organization, and faced huge issues, like a proposed bridge over Emerald Bay.  We are delighted to see that over the decades, dozens of great environmental organizations have formed to specialize in other areas, including education, trail stewardship, wildlife protection, native plant cultivation, wildfire prevention, and others.

The TRPA is a unique bi-state planning organization that governs environmental regulation and land use at Tahoe. It was created in 1969 to provide uniform planning over Tahoe’s two states, five counties and one city.

The governing board is similar to a planning commission in other jurisdictions. It includes representatives from Nevada and California, and one non-voting presidential appointee. The board must approve all major plans and projects.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Compact is an agreement between the states of California and Nevada that provides special environmental protections for Lake Tahoe. It is also created the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and determines who serves on the board. The Compact is like the Constitution of Tahoe. All plans and projects must be consistent with the Compact.

The Compact also provides an important reminder that the will of the people is to protect Lake Tahoe. Because of its unique mandate by both states and Congress, it reminds us that Lake Tahoe belongs to everyone, not just those who live, own property, or are represented by elected officials at Tahoe. For example, the Compact mandates that at least half of the TRPA governing board members are not local officials, but are appointed from outside the Tahoe Basin, to ensure that the voices of the people of the nation and both states are heard.

The League is a private nonprofit organization while the TRPA is a public governmental agency. The League led the effort to create the TRPA in 1969.

Yes, legislative advocacy is one of the main activities of the League. The League lobbies the two state’s legislatures, governor’s offices, and congressional representatives to take action, through funding and legislation, to Keep Tahoe Blue.

The League views litigation as a last resort, after all advocacy efforts have failed. We try our best to convince policy makers to choose the best course of action before a vote is ever cast. We file legal challenges when a plan or project violates the Compact or sets a precedent that endangers Tahoe’s ecosystem and communities.

Nutrient runoff is one of the leading causes of Lake Tahoe’s clarity loss. The League has long pushed to limit fertilizer use. In the early 1990s, the League convinced the TRPA to mandate that major landowners, like golf courses, create management plans to limit fertilizer use. However, after 20 years, it’s clear that much more needs to be done to protect the lake. The League is now urging the TRPA to identify viable alternatives to fertilizer.

Motor boating has been a recreational activity at Tahoe for many decades, long before it occurred to anybody that it might be detrimental to the lake. But because boat engine technology has not kept pace with car technology, a typical speedboat spews 1,600 times the emissions of a car.

The League supports sustainable motor boating at Tahoe if adequate measures are in place to protect the lake from aquatic invasive species, and air and water quality degradation. Tahoe’s regulators could lead the way to sustainability by requiring cleaner boat engine technology.

The League supports the sustainable recreational use of Lake Tahoe, including boating, and supports new boating facilities, including piers and buoys. However, it is crucial that the lake is protected from degradation, and that any new boat facilities are developed in compliance with a plan to achieve environmental goals. 

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency governs development permitting. We consistently urge TRPA to fairly apply its rules to all property owners.

Tahoe’s permitting system is not much different from many other jurisdictions, where residential home modifications may receive extensive planning commission review and must comply with local design standards, fire department standards, old growth tree removal restrictions and other rules. Most residential improvements, like adding a deck or garage, are possible by purchasing coverage from land banks. Tree removal permitting has been delegated to local fire jurisdictions, to streamline efforts to implement defensible space.

Likewise, large developers at Tahoe face substantial obligations that residential owners do not often face, including extensive environmental review.

A common sight in Tahoe is cars parked on bare dirt driveways, on county easements, or right in the yard. This practice harms Lake Tahoe. Parking or driving on dirt compacts soil and kills plants that stabilize soil, preventing natural filtration processes that reduce runoff and erosion.

Restoration and plant cultivation are the ideal solutions. If those are not options, paving the driveway will help stabilize the soil and prevent erosion. BMPs like catchment basins should also be installed to capture runoff from the paved area. New products like pervious concrete can also help capture rain and snowmelt.

There are many ways to help Keep Tahoe Blue. Install BMPs and use native plants, pick up after pets, ride bikes and public transportation, keep your boat inspected, and stay educated and involved.

To learn more about Tahoe, to sign up to be a volunteer, or to learn how you can help Keep Tahoe Blue, explore our website.