Nonprofit seeks projects that will improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy

The Tahoe Fund today announced the opening of its annual call for projects. The nonprofit is seeking projects for its 2024 portfolio that will increase the pace and scale of forest restoration, improve lake clarity, expand sustainable recreation, provide innovative solutions to transportation challenges, and create more stewards of Lake Tahoe. 

Public agencies, nonprofits and environmentally focused businesses are invited to submit proposals for projects that require $5,000 to $1,000,000 in funding. Projects with the ability to leverage additional public funding as a result of Tahoe Fund support will be prioritized.

“Every year we are blown away by the incredible projects brought to us by our partners around the Basin,” said Caitlin Meyer, chief program officer for the Tahoe Fund. “In our last fiscal year, we granted over $1.4 million to 52 different projects, like the 72-mile scuba cleanup of Lake Tahoe’s shoreline, aquatic invasive species removal in Emerald Bay, and the new Ski Run Community Park in South Lake Tahoe, which will serve over one thousand young people. We can’t wait to see what’s in store this next round of submissions.” 

Since its inception, the Tahoe Fund has worked with more than 30 partners to support over 130 projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Some highlights include the building of the Tunnel Creek Singletrack Trail on Tahoe’s East Shore, scholarships for the Lake Tahoe Community College Forestry program, basinwide programs that provide free bikes and bike safety gear to residents in need through the Lake Tahoe Bike Coalition, adaptive summer activities for people with disabilities and their families through Achieve Tahoe, and scuba cleanups of litter hotspots by Clean Up The Lake.

All submissions will be reviewed by the Tahoe Fund Board of Directors, which is tasked with developing the Tahoe Fund’s project portfolio. Projects submitted for consideration may receive immediate funding or be selected for a Tahoe Fund project campaign in 2024. 

“From the health of our forests to the clarity of our Lake, the Tahoe Basin faces many challenges,” said Cory Ritchie, Tahoe Fund Board Chair. “Through our annual call for projects process, we are looking for ideas both big and small that will improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy.” 

Project submissions are due by January 31, 2024. Guidelines and the request for project submission form can be found here.

Feeling welcome in the outdoors is not a given for all young people in the Tahoe Basin. That’s why the Tahoe Fund supports programs that are helping more kids experience the benefits of nature, like Gateway Mountain Center’s Youth Ecology and Adventure Camps (YEA! Camps). 

YEA! Camps are a free program for high-risk Tahoe youth to help them overcome adversity and develop crucial life skills such as adaptability, communication, and empowerment through outdoor adventure and mindfulness lessons. The camps help young people build a strong connection to themselves, their community and the natural world, all while learning how to become environmental stewards. 

Last summer, YEA! Camp counselors saw their campers develop strong connections to the outdoors while they learned important life lessons. They shared in lively discussions with campers about how the choices they make now – like vaping or smoking – might impact their ability to recreate outdoors as they age.

Campers who were experiencing frustration in their personal lives found solace in new activities like rock climbing. By the end of the summer, the campers would proudly pick up trash and point out graffiti as they became more aware of the leave no trace principles and the importance of maintaining a healthy ecosystem to live in.

Thanks to support from Tahoe Fund donors, YEA! Camps were able to expand their programs and are now serving under-resourced communities in North and South Lake Tahoe.

Artists have given new meaning to the adage “one person’s trash is another’s treasure,” with the unveiling of “Surfaced,” a new art installation created with more than 450 pounds of items recovered from last year’s 72-mile scuba cleanup of Lake Tahoe. Commissioned by the Tahoe Fund with support from Tahoe Blue Vodka, the sculpture was created to educate visitors about what was found lying beneath Tahoe’s blue waters and encourage environmental stewardship. It was unveiled today at its permanent home at the new Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline, Nevada on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.

“This sculpture is the result of the unprecedented effort by Clean Up the Lake to remove 25,000 pounds of litter from Lake Tahoe,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “From its prominent new home at the Tahoe Blue Events Center, ‘Surfaced’ will serve as an important and beautiful reminder that it’s up to all of us to take care of Tahoe.”

Using litter found underneath Tahoe’s surface, including lures and bobbers, sunglasses, paddles, traffic cones, chains, anchors, and rubber edging often found on docks and buoys, internationally recognized artists Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova, represented by public art agency  Building 180 created an original sculpture depicting a bald eagle, Lahontan cutthroat trout and Ponderosa pine tree, as voted on by the public.

“Lake Tahoe’s beauty not only inspired me to move to California, but to create Tahoe Blue as well,” said Matt Levitt, Founder of Tahoe Blue Vodka. “From day one, I’ve been committed to conservation and am incredibly proud of what the 72-mile scuba cleanup effort accomplished. And now this amazing artistry, constructed of litter pulled from Lake Tahoe, will serve as a reminder of what a small group of dedicated individuals can accomplish and bring full circle that mission to preserve.”

The artists, known for creating beautiful art from recycled and reclaimed materials, spent the last year working on the design and parsing through litter that divers from the nonprofit Clean Up The Lake had stored in a 20-foot container. Their goal was to find elements that would capture the distinct features of the animals being depicted in a way that was as close to their actual appearance as possible.

“Our biggest challenge was deciding which items would be able to withstand the weather and hold up over time, while also representing the colors and textures of the species we were trying to create,” said Building 180 artists Stockdill and Salnikova. “Prior to this, the sculptures we have designed have typically only featured one animal. This one was unique because it required us to think creatively about how we would use the litter provided to create three detailed, different sculptures, then merge them into a single piece.”

The design started with the artists deciding on the scale of the sculpture, then determining whether they had enough pieces of each type of litter to form the different elements. Although they were limited to using only things pulled from the scuba clean-up of Lake Tahoe, they found exactly what they needed to execute their design.

Stockdill and Salnikova collected precisely enough white paddles to form the tail feathers of the eagle. They used a mosaic technique to turn brightly colored bits of plastic — from sunglasses, lures and bobbers — into the thousands of tiny, life-size scales on the trout. The fins? Crafted from a traffic cone. And they made the bark of the Ponderosa pine tree stump out of hundreds of feet of chain. The stump, which measures three feet in diameter and is three feet tall, makes up much of the weight of the sculpture, which in total weighs nearly 700 pounds.

“We are honored and excited to see this litter-art sculpture become a part of our community here in South Lake Tahoe. It is meant to serve as a symbol to the public to remember to be stewards of our lands and our lake, and to never stop trying to make a difference,” said Clean Up The Lake founder and CEO Colin West. “Our dive team will be under the surface of Lake Tahoe all winter this year, working to do a more thorough cleaning of litter hotspots, performing deep dive exploratory surveys, and monitoring for any presence of aquatic invasive species around the lake.”

“Surfaced” can be found at the new Tahoe Blue Event Center, a 5,000-seat arena with an additional 10,000 square feet of meeting room space, located in Stateline, Nevada on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. The Tahoe Blue Event Center will be host to 125+ events throughout the year including concerts, sporting events, family shows, conferences, banquets, meetings, trade shows, consumer shows, and more.