Forest health

During the Comstock era an estimated 80 percent of Lake Tahoe Basin forests were clear cut to provide timber for building Virginia City and the miles of mineshafts it sat upon. The legacy of the Comstock harvest is a Tahoe area forest, which has little age, size, or spatial diversity. The aggressive suppression of fire during the intervening century resulted in overstocking of small, shade tolerant (understory) trees and an abundance of downed woody fuels. The stresses of drought, which struck in the early 1990's and 2000's, and fierce competition among overstocked stands, have led to widespread tree mortality. Understory tree growth, forming a ladder fuel and a massive buildup of fuels create a high risk of crown fire in the Basin.

The US Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is engaged in an aggressive thinning campaign to improve forest health and reduce the risk of catastrophic fire. The League strongly supports these goals and encourages the Forest Service to first concentrate on fuels reduction projects in the areas closest to our communities. In addition, we monitor the Forest Service and ensure they use environmentally sensitive methods of extraction to ensure that erosion and wildlife impacts are kept to a minimum.

Currently, excess unmerchantable fuels, referred to as slash, are disposed of by chipping or by burning them in piles. It is the League’s hope that the forest fuels can be reduced to the point at which controlled low-intensity understory burns can be set to mimic the historic fire regime, thereby maintaining forest health.

In addition, the League to Save Lake Tahoe has been working extensively with the Tahoe Fire Commission, a panel of experts appointed by the governors of California and Nevada, to study the causes of the Angora fire and make findings and recommendations. The League has been working with the commission since it started meeting last fall to make recommendations on how to best manage our forests, reduce fire risks and protect our communities while still maintaining high water quality standards.