Strategic resort leader brings valuable experience, business acumen and passion for the Lake Tahoe environment to the Board

The Tahoe Fund welcomes Shaydar Edelmann, vice president and general manager of Heavenly Mountain Resort, to its Board of Directors. Edelmann’s resort leadership experience and deep connection to the Lake Tahoe environment will further the efforts of the organization to improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy.

“I’m excited to welcome Shaydar to our Board of Directors. His knowledge of the region and its challenges, paired with his professional experience will be invaluable to our efforts,” said Verdi DiSesa, Tahoe Fund board chair. “As we look to the future and continue to seek out new opportunities to improve the Tahoe environment, his insights will surely be an asset to the Tahoe Fund.”

Edelmann’s career in the ski industry has spanned the past 25 years, with most of it spent in the Lake Tahoe area working for resorts including Alpine Meadows, Boreal Mountain Resort, Soda Springs and Woodward Tahoe. Edelmann has demonstrated his commitment to environmental stewardship and community engagement through various projects, including helping to establish California’s first recycled water snowmaking system. He also managed the construction and opening of Woodward Tahoe before serving as the general manager of Woodward Park City during its construction and grand opening. Edelmann joined Vail Resorts in 2020, serving as vice president of mountain operations at Park City Mountain Resort before moving back to the Tahoe area in 2024 to lead the team at Heavenly.

In addition to contributing to the Tahoe Fund board of directors, Edelmann serves on the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Council and is a member of the Ski California executive committee. In his free time, he enjoys skiing and snowboarding, golf, mountain biking, and traveling around the world to catch as many surf waves as possible.

“The Tahoe Fund has a strong track record in its efforts to improve the Tahoe environment. I look forward to working with the exceptional, dedicated staff and board, and to contributing to the organization’s efforts to ensure the Tahoe environment is both cared for and accessible for everyone to enjoy,” said Edelmann.

The Tahoe Fund is a nonprofit organization that supports environmental improvement projects that restore lake clarity, expand sustainable recreation, promote healthier forests, improve transportation and inspire greater stewardship of the region. Learn more about the Tahoe Fund and its current and completed projects at www.tahoefund.org.

The key to restoring Tahoe’s forests and preventing catastrophic wildfire is a robust and talented workforce. That’s why the Tahoe Fund is raising $50,000 to provide scholarships for more than 50 students in Lake Tahoe Community College’s (LTCC) Forestry Education & Job Placement program.  

LTCC’s Forestry Education & Job Placement Program teaches students how to assist with forest management, planning, and implementation work. For three years running, the Tahoe Fund has provided scholarships for students in the program, and recently awarded a grant to support the program administrator to ensure student success. 

“We can’t fix our forests without foresters and a robust forest health workforce, and that workforce is critically understaffed,” explained Amy Berry, CEO of the Tahoe Fund. “We are hoping our community can see what we see—that these students are our future, and any support we can provide may make all the difference in their success and ours.” 

Over the next five years, forestry management occupations are projected to have more than 200 annual job openings in the greater Sacramento region alone. Approximately 76% of these jobs will be for middle- and high-skilled occupations. California community colleges like LTCC are a big part of the plan to prepare this crucial workforce of the future.

LTCC Forestry program graduates will be prepared for careers with Tahoe-based employers, including CAL FIRE, the USDA Forest Service, the California Tahoe Conservancy, the Tahoe Resource Conservation District, private forestry contractors, and other agencies that are part of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team.

Spencer Benlien, a former scholarship recipient in the Forestry program, is now attending the Rausser College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is studying Ecosystem Management and Forestry. He shared his experience in the program during LTCC’s Scholarship Awards Banquet last year. 

“I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the scholarship committee for believing in my potential and providing this opportunity for me,” said Benlien. “It is an honor I cherish, a validation of my endeavors, and a motivation to continue striving for my dreams.” 

This op-ed by Amy Berry and Caitlin Meyer was published in the Reno Gazette-Journal on December 4, 2024. 

If you drive down Mt. Rose Highway, you will see remnants of the recent 5,824-acre Davis Fire: Retardant sprayed across the mountain, charred trees on ridgelines, and a forest floor turned black by flame. You will also see “Thank You Firefighters” signs dotting the roadway, reflecting our shared feelings of deep gratitude to firefighting personnel for saving lives and homes.

But here’s what you won’t see: Signs thanking foresters for carrying out forest health treatments in the area. With good reason, we hear often about courageous efforts to suppress wildfire. But the unsung heroes in those firefights are our foresters, who work year-round on wildfire prevention.

In many ways, prevention is suppression.

Due in large part to a history of logging to feed silver mines in the 1800s, plus decades of policy to put out wildfires as quickly as possible, Tahoe’s forest has far too many trees in it. A forest with too many trees is like a cup with too many straws. Trees are competing with each other for essential resources like water and sunlight, and as a result, are unhealthy, dying by the millions, and decreasingly resilient to wildfire, drought and invasive bugs.

To address these problems, foresters are implementing forest health treatments. Forest health treatments are highly tailored, science-driven efforts to get rid of excess, hazardous and dead trees and underbrush by removing them from the landscape, or using low-intensity prescribed fire to clear them out. Importantly, these treatments do not entail clear-cutting or anything like it. Clear-cutting is what made our forests so unhealthy in the first place. No mainstream practitioner would advocate for its return. 

In sharp contrast, forest treatments create healthier trees and more resilient forests that are better able to withstand wildfire and other threats. As it turns out, they also help our firefighters. Here’s why. 

When a wildfire breaks out, excess woody material in the forest becomes potent fuel, allowing the fire to spread faster, hotter and more erratically. Overgrown low-lying vegetation acts as “ladder fuel,” carrying flames into taller trees. In a dense continuity of taller trees, flames are forced upward to the top of the tree canopy, where they form high-intensity “crown” fires that race across the landscape. It is nearly impossible for firefighters to manage these sky-high walls of flame.

Forest treatments help by creating space between trees, which lets wildfire spread on the ground at a lower intensity, in a way that is much safer and more manageable for firefighters.

During the Davis Fire, treatments gave firefighters a chance to get the fire under control and minimize its impact to the community. Nevada State Forester and Firewarden Kacey KC explained, “In untreated areas, the fire ran through the tree crowns, killing all vegetation and creating extremely difficult conditions for firefighters. In contrast, when the fire hit treated areas, its intensity was greatly reduced and it went to the ground. This lower intensity fire was easier for firefighters to control. It also kept large portions of forest alive and had the bonus effect of clearing hazardous fuels off of the forest floor, similar to a prescribed burn.”

We saw this during the Caldor Fire, too. New research examined the impact of treatments done in the years leading up to the fire. In treated areas, fire severity was significantly lower, making trees three times more likely to survive and helping firefighters stop forward progress into the Basin.

“In Nevada, and across the U.S., we’re seeing great success with these treatments, which decrease wildfire’s damage to forests, homes and even watersheds,” KC said.

If this was a board game and you wanted to help your firefighters beat a wildfire, you would play a “forest treatment” card. The Tahoe Fund is working closely with private, nonprofit and public agency partners to play this card again and again. 

For example, we teamed up with local organizations to bring BurnBot’s remote-operated forest management tools to the region. BurnBot’s masticators completed a 22-acre treatment in Incline in just three days. Next spring, its prescribed fire machine will allow crews to conduct burns during extended weather windows and without smoke or the risk of runaway flame.

This fall, with support from the Tahoe Fund and others, the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada hosted a 10-day Intentional Fire Training. This was the first step toward developing a skilled workforce to help blend Indigenous knowledge and techniques with modern forest restoration practices.

Utility companies are also stepping up to help. The NV Energy Foundation contributed $250,000 to the Tahoe Fund’s Smartest Forest Fund to support more game-changing initiatives that increase the pace and scale of forest treatments. NV Energy is also doubling down on its efforts to create resiliency corridors in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, by treating thousands of acres around power lines.

This work is so important because it helps our forests and our firefighters. Forest treatments give both trees and firefighters the edge they need to succeed. So, while you may not see it on a sign (yet!), we want to say it here: Thank you, firefighters and foresters!

Amy Berry is the CEO of the Tahoe Fund. Caitlin Meyer is the Tahoe Fund’s chief program officer.

View this op-ed with a Reno Gazette-Journal subscription here.

Header photo by California Tahoe Conservancy

The NV Energy Foundation is making a major investment in the health of Tahoe’s forests with a $250,000 grant to the Tahoe Fund’s Smartest Forest Fund. This significant contribution will help increase the pace and scale of forest restoration efforts and better prepare Lake Tahoe communities for wildfire. 

“In Lake Tahoe, catastrophic wildfire is not just a threat, it’s our reality,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “Thanks to the NV Energy Foundation, we will be able to invest in more game-changing solutions and innovations to reduce excess fuels in our forests and better prepare them to withstand fire.” 

The Smartest Forest Fund was launched in 2019 to use philanthropy to drive innovation through seed funding and de-risk opportunities for the Tahoe Fund’s public agency partners. Already, more than $1 million has been committed to over 25 projects and helped to secure over $27 million in public funding.

Innovative projects that have received funding through the Smartest Forest Fund include BurnBot’s remote operated machinery that speeds up fuels reduction by 10x; a software platform called LandTender that uses high-definition imagining and artificial intelligence to map landscapes for forest health treatments; and scholarships for students in Lake Tahoe Community College’s Forestry Program.

“This project will support the important work being done in and around Lake Tahoe to ensure the health of this incredible natural resource and protect the surrounding communities,” said NV Energy President and CEO Doug Cannon. “The Tahoe Fund drives outcomes in innovative, creative ways through collaboration and bringing the right partners to the table. I can’t think of a more deserving organization or better partner to collaborate with on this project.”

The NV Energy Foundation is committed to connecting with the community through philanthropic efforts, including civic leadership, financial contributions and volunteerism. Doing so makes our communities better places to live and work, which makes them better places to do business. We measure our success through the eyes of our employees, stakeholders, customers, business partners and neighbors. Learn more about the NV Energy Foundation’s grant cycle and funding priorities at nvenergy.com/foundation. 

Learn more about the Tahoe Fund, the Smartest Forest Fund and the initiatives it has helped support at www.tahoefund.org.

Photos by Hannah Pence, HPM Photography