It has been an intense few weeks. Since canceling our annual Founders Circle Dinner on August 18th, we’ve seen wildfire come into the Basin and the complete evacuation of South Lake Tahoe. We can not express our gratitude enough for the amazing firefighters who helped keep the Lake Tahoe community safe.

Our board has been discussing how we can help and what happens now. We wanted to share a quick update with you on our thoughts on the post-fire work ahead:

FOREST RESTORATION

The Caldor Fire is still not out, but we have already learned a great deal from the intensive firefight that took place as the fire crested Echo Summit and entered the Tahoe Basin. The fire was unstoppable in its march to the Basin due to areas with unnaturally dense forests and dried-out vegetation. Simply put, we have too much fuel in our forests and we need to find solutions to get it out.

A key learning is how important the forest thinning and fuels treatments around South Lake Tahoe were in helping improve the odds for the firefighters. The treated areas gave the firefighters room to maneuver, dropping 100+ foot flames down to 15 feet. The great defensible space work of individual homeowners is also another important piece of the story. 

Through our Smartest Forest Fund, we are already investing in state-of-the-art technology to help decrease the threat of catastrophic wildfire around the Tahoe Basin. We recently granted funds to Vibrant Planet for Tahoe Basin stakeholders to use a first-of-its-kind land management tool, Land Tender, to help increase the pace and scale of forest restoration work. We are more determined than ever to expand upon this work in partnership with the public agencies. We hope you will support these efforts. 

TRAILS

While the fire was held outside of the community of homes in Tahoe, it scorched many favorite trails in Tahoe. In addition, the dozer lines used to help suppress the fire unfortunately also destroyed many trails. The Tahoe Rim Trail around Echo Summit and many trails built and loved by the Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association (TAMBA) were heavily damaged. There is going to be a lot of trail restoration work in our future. We have pledged to our trail building partners that we will be ready to help fund this important work with our Caldor Trails Restoration Fund. We hope we can count on your support of this effort.

The Caldor Fire raged through an area containing some of the region’s favorite trails. The fire burned many parts of trails, bridges and trail infrastructure. Between damage from fire itself, as well as from dozers constructing suppression lines, more than 15 miles of trail suffered damage in the Tahoe Basin.

LAKE CLARITY

With weeks on end of heavy smoke and ash falling, we can’t help but wonder what the impact is on the Lake’s famed clarity. We recently pledged funding support in partnership with other Tahoe agencies for a RAPID response science proposal from the Tahoe Science Advisory Council to investigate the influence of the wildfire smoke on the Lake. This will provide important insights into the impacts and help drive future clarity improvement efforts. 

As we await these results, the Clean Up The Lake team is back in the water and continues to make progress in their scuba clean up of the Lake after a delay due to the fire. 

We hope this finds you all safe and breathing a little easier now that blue skies have returned to Tahoe. We are working on a series of post-fire events for our supporters to help better understand what happened and how we can help. We will be in touch shortly with details. 

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or observations.

In gratitude,

Amy Berry, CEO 

Allen Biaggi, Board Chair

As we are all watching the Caldor Fire situation, many people are asking how they can help. Although firefighters and first responders greatly appreciate the generosity and kindness of donations, firefighting agencies are fully supplied with everything they need. Donations from the public are logistically complicated to accept and firefighting agencies do not have the capacity to do so. 

If you would like to offer assistance to those affected by the Caldor Fire, donations are best directed towards evacuees. Here are funds that are helping victims of the Caldor Fire: 

El Dorado Community Foundation – The El Dorado County Community Foundation set up a Caldor Fire Fund. All donations go to families and individuals impacted by the fire. You can donate here. 

The American Red Cross – The American Red Cross is staffing evacuation centers and providing support for evacuees of the Caldor Fire. You can donate here. 

Placer Food Bank – The Placer Food Bank is on the front lines of emergency food response/distribution to those impacted by the River and Caldor Fires. You can donate here. 

Food Bank of Northern Nevada – The Food Bank of Northern Nevada is offering food assistance for Caldor Fire evacuees. You can donate here.

Monitor Incident Information – Stay up to date on the current acreage, containment statistics, evacuation information, and more by visiting the incident link tree. For the latest Caldor Incident information, attend a live CAL FIRE AEU community meeting daily at 5PM at www.facebook.com/CALFIREAEU.

Visit TahoeLivingWithFire.com and follow @tahoelwf on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more wildfire preparedness and prevention information.

TAHOE CITY, Calif. (Aug 24, 2021) – Thanks to a $10,000 match by an anonymous donor in addition to other contributions, the Tahoe Fund has exceeded its $25,000 fundraising goal to support Camp Wamp field trips. The funds will cover the costs to transport campers and their camp counselors from Camp Wamp, a sleepaway camp for children with disabilities, to the Tahoe East Shore Trail and Sand Harbor State Park in 2022. 

“We are so grateful to those who contributed to this effort and recognize the life-changing value that programs like Camp Wamp can provide to kids with physical disabilities,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “With this program, the kids will now be able to experience the magic of the east shore of Lake Tahoe.”

Camp Wamp founder Stephen Wampler, whose ascent of El Capitan continues to inspire people around the world, had his own life changed by a camp experience. He wants to ensure that others with physical disabilities have the same opportunity. Kids at Camp Wamp experience the joys and camaraderie of camp life and push each one to discover how capable they really are. Steve’s story is all about “what you CAN do!”

Camp Wamp offers six one-week sessions every summer in July and August for kids ages 10 to 18 with physical disabilities. Since 2002, the camp has hosted over 1,250 kids, and is focused on teaching campers about self-reliance and their own ambition. They sleep outdoors on the 129-acre property on cots under the stars, they hike, fish on 9-acre Deer Lake, climb a rock wall, participate in arts, crafts, and have competitions.

“On behalf of our entire Camp Wamp team, we are so appreciative of the support for our program,” said Stephen Wampler, Camp Wamp founder. “The opportunity the Tahoe Fund is helping us create on the Tahoe East Shore Trail and at Sand Harbor for the kids who come to camp is something they will never forget.”

Tahoe Fund Makes First Tahoe Trails Endowment Grant for Regional Trail Work

The Tahoe Fund awarded the first grant from the new Tahoe Trails Endowment to support a four person trail crew from the Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association (TAMBA) this fall. The $11,700 grant will fund the efforts of the crew for three to four weeks, including transportation, tools, and personal protective equipment. Established as a way to address the long-term needs of Tahoe’s growing trail network, the Tahoe Fund hopes to grow the Tahoe Trails Endowment to $3 million to fund annual trail maintenance throughout the region.

“With higher trail usage now than ever before, it is critical to have a long-term plan in place to care for Tahoe’s trail network,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “Although there’s still a way to go before we reach the fundraising goal for the endowment, we’re excited to offer the first grant to start putting this plan into action.”

This fall, TAMBA’s official trail crew will leverage the grant money to work on existing trails throughout the Tahoe Basin, addressing maintenance needs as they arise. Their focus will be on erosion control, fixing storm drainage, clearing brush and trees, and improving signage.

“This funding is critical to providing our crew the flexibility to address unforeseen maintenance issues as they arise during the field season, as much of the existing funding for this crew for this year was already earmarked for specific projects,” said Patrick Parsel, TAMBA trails director. “One of our goals will be to prep trails for the winter months.”

While the endowment is being built, the Tahoe Fund is also working with trail partners including the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, TAMBA, US Forest Service and Nevada State Parks to develop a Regional Trails Plan that will establish a long-term priority ranking for trail work.

The endowment was launched with a generous $100,000 donation from Chris and Viktoria McNamara. Learn more and contribute to the Tahoe Trails Endowment here.