Summer is a wonderful season at Lake Tahoe. With long days and near-perfect temperatures, Lake Tahoe’s bountiful environment has attracted summer migrations for thousands of years. As the snow melts each year, the Washoe people of Nevada and California, the original and current custodians of Lake Tahoe, return to the heart of their homeland, not only for food but also for spiritual fulfillment. In fact, travel is human nature. From nomadic hunter-gatherers to those seeking knowledge, new relationships, and escape, we have always been on the run.
Many of us who now call Lake Tahoe home were originally tourists. Its stunning scenery attracts people from all over the world, and an increasing number of them are settling in nearby metropolitan areas with easy access to this national treasure. Lake Tahoe’s natural attractions bring both benefits and challenges. A $5 billion tourism-based economy supports improvements in infrastructure, public safety, transportation and the environment. At the same time, impacts such as litter, traffic and parking can worsen if outdoor recreation is not managed sustainably. The Tahoe Regional Planning Authority (TRPA) has long recognized that to effectively address these issues, we must work together on a regional scale and adopt a new management paradigm at Lake Tahoe.
Last year marked a significant milestone with the launch of the region’s first-ever Tourism Land Stewardship Plan, a collaborative initiative involving 18 federal, tribal, state, local, private and nonprofit organizations. To implement the plan and redefine outdoor recreation and tourism, a new Stewardship Council is working to transform our approach, and each of us must lead by example and take collective action to embody the principles of responsible recreation. Too often, irresponsible behavior stems from a lack of awareness. The Lake Tahoe Ambassador program is entering its third season of educating people on how to care for Tahoe. Ambassadors model the kind of behavior we want to see, encouraging beach and trail users to pick up trash and take it home with them. Additionally, land managers are investing in additional trash receptacles and implementing more frequent trash pickups.
As a founding member of the council, TRPA is committed to collecting comprehensive data that will help secure transportation funding, foster regional partnerships, and prioritize infrastructure and transportation improvements. While actual traffic volumes in the Tahoe Basin have remained largely unchanged over the past 20 years, recreation and congestion patterns have changed significantly, and the basin’s infrastructure must keep up.
In addition to new behaviors, climate change is having a direct impact on outdoor recreation. Studies show that 1,000 more vehicles travel on Highway 50 beyond Echo Summit for every 10-degree increase in temperature. TRPA and partners are working to holistically address climate-driven travel challenges and better manage Tahoe’s busiest recreational corridors. Ongoing improvements to the popular Nevada Highway 28 corridor are a prime example. Completed just five years ago, the East Shore Trail has already seen more than 1 million riders and 3,700 daily riders. The East Shore Express shuttle continues to operate from Sand Harbor to Chimney Beach, where the USDA Forest Service is expanding parking areas and highway managers are simultaneously removing on-street parking.
Space. Sand Harbor Nevada State Park will be introducing a parking reservation system later this summer, the first of its kind at a Lake Tahoe public beach.
Further south, in the Zephyr Cove/Shoals area, great coordination between the Forest Service, Nevada Department of Transportation, Douglas County, the League to Save Lake Tahoe, and Zephyr Cove Resort management has resulted in safe drop-off areas, traffic lights and crosswalks, and paid parking across the highway. Unsafe on-street parking was banned in the area this year, and Zephyr Cove has actively participated in the League’s Blue Beach program, providing more trash cans and increased security on busy weekends.
Regular, reliable transportation is expanding in other ways too: North Lake Tahoe’s TART Connect microtransit service recently celebrated its one millionth ride, and Lake Link on the South Shore continues to make progress and expand its service area.
The principles of destination stewardship are shaping a new spirit in Tahoe, but there is still much work to be done. Mark Twain, one of Tahoe’s most famous historians, once wrote, “Travel dispels prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” If this is true, coming to Tahoe can be life-changing for residents and visitors alike — so long as the culture you encounter here is inclusive and compassionate. We hope you will join us in caring for Tahoe this summer.
Julie Regan is executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
