This summer, Keep Tahoe Blue’s work reached from marshes to mountains, beaches to boardrooms. With donors, volunteers, partners, and our staff of experts leading the way, we pushed forward on long-term ecosystem restoration, stopped new threats at Tahoe’s doorstep, and inspired community members to step up for the Lake. 

A Generational Win: Motel 6 Property and the Upper Truckee Marsh 

For decades, a South Shore Motel 6, parking lot, and restaurant property blocked the Upper Truckee River from connecting with a critical part of its surrounding marsh and floodplain, Tahoe’s largest and most important natural pollution filter. This spring, after years of advocacy and persistence, Keep Tahoe Blue’s efforts helped secure the property’s purchase by the California Tahoe Conservancy.  

Demolition began in July 2025, with crews removing buildings, pavement, and hazardous materials to make way for wetland restoration. It was a long-awaited milestone and a moment to celebrate brighter things ahead for the Upper Truckee River corridor. 

Our role? Keeping the project a priority in regional planning, helping secure funding and providing dollars of our own, and ensuring Tahoe’s voice was heard by decision makers in Sacramento. This milestone means the Upper Truckee Marsh will once again be united in filtering pollution and protecting the Lake’s clarity. It’s a generational win for Tahoe, and Keep Tahoe Blue will remain at the table as restoration planning moves forward. 

Building Transit Solutions: Emerald Bay Shuttle Pilot 

Emerald Bay sees 1.8 million visitors annually, with traffic and unsafe parking harming water quality and the visitor experience. Starting July 15th, Keep Tahoe Blue helped launch the Emerald Bay Shuttle pilot which will run until September 28th, offering shuttle service from Camp Richardson, Sugar Pine Point, and South Lake Tahoe’s “Y” Transit Center directly to the heart of Tahoe’s most iconic destination. Alongside the new shuttle, 50 illegal roadside parking spots were removed. 

As transit lead, we worked with local and state partners to create the pilot program to help alleviate traffic and environmental impacts. We also brought on partners in science and technology to test real-world solutions to reduce car pollution and erosion, like The Tyre Collective’s proprietary technology that captures harmful tire wear particles directly at the wheel. Shoebox-sized devices were attached to an Emerald Bay Shuttle bus and are currently collecting data that will allow us to discover the true pollution impacts from wear and tear on vehicle tires.  

The shuttle program’s early ridership is promising, but long-term solutions don’t happen overnight. Each shuttle ride is a vote for a cleaner Lake, less traffic, and a better Tahoe experience. Grab your rides before September 28! 

Protecting Tahoe from Golden Mussels 

Invasive golden mussels are viewed at California Department of Water Resources labs in West Sacramento, Yolo County, California. Photo November 6, 2024.
Xavier Mascareñas / California Department of Water Resources

Golden mussels, a newly detected invasive species in California, can survive over a week out of water and devastate freshwater ecosystems. Their arrival so close to Tahoe is a red alert. 

Keep Tahoe Blue launched the AIS Defense Team this summer, training volunteers to educate beachgoers, boaters, and paddlers on prevention at Tahoe’s busiest shoreline locations. Alongside our Eyes on the Lake program — which is mandatory training for all Tahoe marina staff to spot and report aquatic invasive species (AIS) — we’re building Tahoe’s first line of defense. Prevention is the only option, and every trained volunteer is part of keeping Tahoe’s waters safe. 

Partnering with Tahoe Keepers, we made AIS defense fun and rewarding, offering prizes for completing Eyes on the Lake surveys through the Citizen Science Tahoe web app and registering as a Tahoe Keeper, and by teaching anyone and everyone how to properly “Clean, Drain, Dry” all equipment before hitting the water. This outreach turned awareness into action when it mattered most. 

Cleaner Beaches, Stronger Communities 

The 12th annual “Keep Tahoe Red, White & Blue” Cleanup showed real progress: 669 volunteers collected 26% less litter than last year, thanks to good stewardship behavior by recreators and the Tahoe Blue Beach program. Over 12 years, this event has removed more than 27,000 pounds of litter from Tahoe’s shoreline — evidence of small actions adding up. 

Labor Day weekend brought more hands-on wins: 15 volunteers removed 2,000 gallons of invasive weeds from Johnson Meadow, while 70 volunteers collected nearly 140 pounds of litter from Kings Beach at our 11th Annual Labor Day Cleanup. Together, they proved community stewardship is Tahoe’s strongest asset. 

A Better Blueprint for Palisades Tahoe 

After months of honest, hard-nosed negotiations, this July, Keep Tahoe Blue and our conservation partners Sierra Watch reached a settlement with Palisades Tahoe Resort and its owner Alterra Mountain Company. The agreement right-sized the development plan by reducing bedrooms by 40% and commercial space by 20%, and by permanently doing away with plans for an indoor waterpark.  

The agreement preserves parcels near Shirley Canyon from ever being developed and includes nearly all previously proposed new workforce housing. The win shows how we’re acting Bigger Than Tahoe to protect the Lake from impacts, in this case from new traffic that starts outside the Basin, but touch the Lake.   

Speaker Series: Jean-Michel Cousteau 

On August 23, the Keep Tahoe Blue speaker series hosted legendary ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau at UNR’s Lake Tahoe campus. He drew from his six-decade career in conservation to show that all the world’s waters, from Tahoe to the sea, are all connected. The same challenges facing Tahoe are felt in our global oceans, like the impact of invasive mussels in Lake Huron and the threat of golden mussels here at home; plastic pollution in oceans and on Tahoe’s shoreline; and the message that protecting water is everyone’s responsibility, including the next generation of stewards. 

Jean-Michel drove home the message that when we protect our waters, we protect ourselves. His talk inspired seasoned conservationists and first-time attendees alike, proving that protecting Tahoe is part of protecting the planet. Audience members shared how the Cousteau family inspired their own careers, underscoring the power of education and storytelling. 

Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day: Continuing the Legacy 

For more than a quarter century, our Tahoe Forest Stewardship Days have restored vital ecosystems, watersheds, and forests — the Lake’s natural filters that help stop sediment from affecting the Lake’s clarity. On September 20th, the 28th Annual Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day will have volunteers returning to the Lam Watah Trail at Kahle Drive in Stateline, Nevada, to finish the work started last year, removing invasive weeds and healing degraded land. It’s a hands-on way for the community to make Tahoe’s ecosystems more resilient against climate change. 

A Bright Future Ahead 

Summer 2025 showed Tahoe’s future is shaped by science, solutions, and people working together. Whether restoring wetlands, piloting alternative transit solutions, defending against invasive species, uniting volunteers, or donating to support our lake-saving work, every win builds resilience for the future for the Lake we love. With fall approaching, Keep Tahoe Blue is ready to carry these successes forward, and we invite you to join us. 

Next up: the Keep Tahoe Blue Speaker Series returns on October 2 with Dr. Charles Goldman, the “Godfather of Tahoe Limnology,” whose pioneering research inspired Keep Tahoe Blue’s science-to-solutions approach. RSVP today and be part of the conversation.