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As 2021 draws to a close, we want to send out a big thank you to all our supporters. Because of you, we are able to continue to improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy.

Some highlights of what you made possible in 2021: 

• We helped our partners at Clean Up the Lake remove over 28,000 pounds of trash from Lake Tahoe.

• With our partners, we began the largest invasive plant removal project in Tahoe’s history.

• We funded new technology to increase the pace of wildfire mitigation.

• We celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Spooner Lake Visitor Center and Amphitheater.

• We helped provide opportunities for underserved youth to experience the outdoors while preparing them for life’s challenges in the SOS Outreach mentorship program.

• We met our funding goal to build a new Tunnel Creek Singletrack trail.

• Take Care Tahoe launched a new ambassador program to educate visitors and promote responsible recreation.

• We celebrated the opening of the new Outdoor Learning Center at the Lake Tahoe Wildlife Center.

• We exceeded our fundraising goal to send campers from Camp Wamp, a camp for children with disabilities, on field trips to the East Shore Trail.

• The ribbon was cut on the Lily Lake Trail, Tahoe’s newest trail.

• We provided Search and Rescue teams funds to improve their efficiency and educated the community during Backcountry Safety Awareness Week.

• We partnered with the Homewood Marina to install the first electric boat charging station on Lake Tahoe.

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Thank you for showing us the true power of philanthropy. With your help, we can accomplish even more in 2022. Cheers to a happy, healthy, and productive new year! 

Partnership with PixlBank’s new I Love Tahoe campaign will support efforts to lessen the impacts of plastics in Tahoe

The Tahoe Fund and Raley’s have partnered with the social good platform PixlBank to launch a unique social campaign designed to promote responsible tourism and inspire residents and visitors to reduce plastics in Lake Tahoe. 

The campaign focuses on the “Drink Tahoe Tap” message and is part of a larger initiative called I Love Tahoe. 

In stores or online, people will be directed to the Drink Tahoe Tap campaign page on the I Love Tahoe website where they can upload a photo of themselves drinking Tahoe Tap water – some of the purest water in the nation. They can then share their photo directly to their social media pages to unlock a $10 donation from Raley’s that will go towards installing water refill stations to help reduce plastic water bottle waste in Tahoe and to work with partners at UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and the Tahoe Water Suppliers Association. 

“We are always looking for creative ways to encourage people to take care of Tahoe,” said Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry. “We think this is a fun way to drive more people to drink Tahoe Tap instead of using plastic water bottles.  We are thankful to our partners at Raley’s for continuing their efforts to get this message out.”

The campaign is an extension of the partnership with Raley’s to promote Drink Tahoe Tap water bottles in their stores. Drink Tahoe Tap water bottles are available for purchase at all nearby Raley’s locations. 

To help motivate people to share their photos and incentivize others to Boost those photos with donations, PixlBank has developed a built-in sweepstakes model that converts peoples’ actions (and donations) into entries to win awesome prizes, like GoPro® cameras and video drones. 

I Love Tahoe and Drink Tahoe Tap will give Tahoe visitors and residents a fun and rewarding way to empower and invest their social currency in the preservation and restoration of Lake Tahoe.

Collaborative Funding Makes It Possible to Restore 17 Acres of Wetlands

The USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU), in partnership with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), has begun the largest invasive plant removal project at Lake Tahoe, the LTBMU said today. This new project will remove 17 acres of invasive plants in the Taylor and Tallac creeks and marshes as part of a comprehensive restoration of one of the last natural wetlands in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Left unchecked, aquatic invasive plants can have devastating effects on Tahoe’s ecosystem and recreational resources.

“Invasive plant eradication projects have typically been measured in single acres,” said Sarah Muskopf, Aquatic Biologist with the Forest Service. “Using new technologies, including larger mats, reduces the cost of implementation and allows us to meet restoration objectives more efficiently.”

Crews are staking large tarps known as bottom barriers to the bottom of the Tallac Marsh and hope to have all the tarps in place by early 2022. Bottom barriers starve invasive weeds such as Eurasian watermilfoil of sunlight and are commonly used in the Tahoe Basin to control infestations. 

“Wetlands improve our region’s natural resiliency in the face of climate change by filtering runoff and other pollutants. The restoration of these marshes pays dividends in keeping the lake clear and improving wildlife habitat,” said Kat McIntyre, forest health program manager with TRPA. 

This project falls under the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program (EIP), an unparalleled collaboration working to achieve the environmental goals of the region. Funding is provided by federal Lake Tahoe Restoration Act allocations as well as $100,000 in private contributions from the Tahoe Fund. 

“We are thrilled to be able to support this absolutely critical invasive plant removal project thanks to the support of the Merrill Family Foundation,” said Amy Berry, CEO of the Tahoe Fund. “It is inspiring to see our public agency partners take on a project of this size as they continue to tackle this ongoing threat to Tahoe’s water quality.” 

The Forest Service asks recreators to respect the fencing around the project for public safety and to help ensure the project is successful. The project will not impede access to Kiva and Baldwin beaches and is anticipated to last through 2024.

Over $30,000 in grant funding will help regional volunteer search and rescue organizations with critical equipment upgrades

The Tahoe Fund granted $30,250 to Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Hasty Team for critical equipment upgrades. These two regional volunteer search and rescue teams, who collectively responded to over 120 missions last year, now have new tools to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of future rescues. 

“These volunteer rescue teams put in grueling work in all manner of weather and terrain and they are prepared to do it 24/7. Part of being prepared is having the most up-to-date equipment and the Tahoe Fund is happy to make that happen,” said Cory Ritchie, Tahoe Fund vice chair. “We are incredibly grateful for their life-saving contributions toward safe and sustainable recreation in Tahoe.”

Since 1976, Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue has been conducting fast, thorough, and safe rescues while educating the public on backcountry safety to reduce the number of incidents. The team is made up of EMTs, emergency room doctors and nurses, firefighters, ski patrollers, paramedics, and experienced backcountry skiers and snowmobilers who volunteer their time to help others.

“The Tahoe Fund grant allowed us to purchase a new set of GPS tracking radios to keep up with the growth of our volunteer team,” said Andrew Oesterreicher, Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue board member. “With the new radios, we can ping the location of a team member every time they key the mic. This provides increased safety to our team members in the field and allows those at the command post to keep a log of what areas have been searched and by whom.”

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Hasty Team was founded in 1971 and is comprised of non-paid professionals in the Northern Nevada area. The team specializes in backcountry, mountain, dive, swiftwater, helicopter hoist, and technical rope rescues. This grant will provide the team with 25 mountain rescue kits, 15 new radios, and new technical rescue ropes to improve the capability and efficiency of future rescues.

“The generous grant from the Tahoe Fund has allowed us to purchase lightweight rescue gear for our Mountain Rescue Technicians and other equipment team members need to perform at a high level,” said Hasty team member Sas Hadden. “Having everyone on the team outfitted and equipped identically has helped us tremendously and made the technical rescues we undertake safer and more efficient. 

After serving the citizens of Northern Nevada and California for over 50 years, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Hasty Team recently voted to pursue accreditation with the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), and this grant will help the team significantly throughout our upcoming MRA accreditation tests and, ultimately, will help us maintain the high level of technical proficiency that has come to be expected from the Hasty team.”

The various search and rescue teams throughout the Tahoe Basin share the same goals and often end up on the same calls, particularly during searches that occur during winter storms. The teams have started training and collaborating together on a more regular basis and are expanding their regional approach to search and rescue.