Tahoe Area Sierra Club Group

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TASC Officers:

Chair:
Roger Rosenberger

Co-chair:
Carla Ennis

South Shore Conservation:
Michael Donahoe

Outings:
Glenn Polochko

Webmaster & Secretary:
Bryan Holzbauer

Welcome to the official home page of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club Group!

Invasive Mussels

Click here for information on invasive mussels.

Evening at Echo Wine Tasting Event

Join us for this year's Evening at Echo Wine Tasting fundraising event.
Tickets are available for sale for $35 per person.

Shorezone

Click here for our position on the proposed TRPA shorezone plan.

Clinton's challenge

"We owe the world the preservation of Lake Tahoe." That's what former President Bill Clinton said Friday
at Sierra Nevada College on the 10th anniversary of the 1997 Presidential Summit. That was his challenge
to us.

Are we up to it?

Personally, I think we are if we can apply two of the major lessons from the Angora fire. One of those
lessons is that Tahoe is an amazing community that knows how to pull together when the need is there.

It was eerie visiting the Red Cross emergency shelter during and after the Angora fire. With a disaster
like this, you'd expect to see wall-to-wall cots with salvaged personal belongings strewn everywhere.
Not so at Tahoe. The place was pretty much empty. That's because friends and neighbors and hotels and
restaurants and shops opened up their doors and took care of their own.

We are a community that cares.

A second major lesson from the fire is that we didn't do enough to protect our homes and neighborhoods.

We were great at responding to the emergency. We weren't as good at preventing it. Almost 75 percent of
the homes in the neighborhoods that burned did not have defensible space. There were way too many shake
roofs, wood piles and flammable shrubs and small trees.

Individually and as neighborhoods, not enough of us took on the expense and hard work of protecting
ourselves from wildfire. This isn't limited to the Angora area. Most of us haven't done enough.

So if this is what we learned from the fire, how do these lessons apply to preserving Lake Tahoe for the
world?

First of all, it seems to me that our community needs to see the preservation of Lake Tahoe as a
critical need and pull together to meet this challenge. There are three new pieces of information that
should alert us to the crisis at hand. The lake lost 4.6 feet of clarity last year. Also, scientists are
telling us we need to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the lake by 55 percent if we are to reach
our clarity goals. And third, climate change is here and it means less snow and more rain. (Snow melts
slowly into the earth where the pollutants are filtered out. Rain creates runoff that carries pollutants
into the streams and lake.)

The challenge is clear. It's also clear from our response to the Angora fire that we're capable of
meeting major challenges. Are we ready to take this one on?

Secondly, we as individuals and neighborhoods have not done enough to protect the lake. Preserving this
unique treasure is going to take some hard work and sacrifice and a shift in our individual and
collective thinking. Right now too many of us treat the regulators at Tahoe like we treat the IRS. It's
an attitude of "I'll only do what I have to." Or even "catch me if you can, and if you do, I'll pay the
fine."

It's easy to slip into a mentality of "my neighbor is getting away with it, so why shouldn't I?" Yes,
there are people who have learned how to game the system. They get permits to build things that aren't
good for Tahoe, but only benefit their own individual pocketbooks. But do we want to let these few
individuals set the bar as to what's right and wrong? Are they to be our moral compass? I sure hope not.

I hope this 10th anniversary celebration moves us to re-engage with the business of saving this Jewel of
the Sierra for future generations. It's time for all of us to pull together: individuals, regulators,
neighborhoods, environmentalists, businesses, agencies, elected officials. As Mr. Clinton put it, it's
not just for us, it's for the world.

-- Michael Donahoe is conservation co-chair of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club.

Angora - A Wake-up Call

The Angora Fire is a wake-up call. It’s tempting to push the snooze button, roll over,
and go back to sleep. Please don’t.

During the first few days of the fire, the Sierra Club’s immediate concern, like
everyone else’s in Tahoe, was for the health and safety of those in the path of the
fire - residents and firefighters alike. Many of our friends and neighbors lost everything.
Others had their lives seriously disrupted for days/weeks. Helping with food and
shelter and passing on information was the call of the day.

Now that the embers have cooled and people are involved in the arduous task of
rebuilding their lives, we are looking at what we and others can do to minimize future
fires like this – both here in the Basin and throughout the country.

What can be done?

The Sierra Club and many others have worked hard in the past to reduce the risk of
devastating fires. It wasn’t enough. We need to do more.

In 2002 the National Sierra Club developed a 7 point Community Protection Plan
(see our website http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/tahoe/ for details) that was
designed to reduce the risk of wildland fire for communities next to National Forests.
Our premise was that “every community at risk deserves protection and that the
highest priority is providing protection where it is needed most: in the Community
Protection Zones (1500 feet around communities).” The Plan had a pricetag of 2
billion dollars a year for 5 years, which seems like a lot until you consider how
much more it costs to fight fires, replace homes and make up for lost tourist dollars.

We were not successful in getting our Plan adopted. Spending money “over there” became
a higher priority than making our communities safer here at home. That is still the case.
We need help putting pressure on our Legislators and Administration Officials to make
our at-risk communities a top priority.

In 2003, Sierra Club California and the Planning and Conservation League sponsored
SB 1369 (Kuehl) to increase the area of defensible space required around legal
structures in high fire risk areas from 30 feet to 100 feet. That is now the law.
But it’s clear from the Angora Fire that either the new law wasn’t sufficiently known
about and/or it wasn’t enforced. The law already authorizes the needed enforcement
steps, from notification of non-compliance, to fines, to doing the required work and
sending the homeowner the bill. We need help encouraging CalFire to step up their
efforts in enforcing this defensible space law – and we need help urging Governor
Gibbons and Nevada Legislators to enact a similar law in Nevada.

Another component of fire safety is the material used in building your house. The
California State Fire Marshall has developed ignition resistant construction
standards for homes in the wildland urban interface. Even though these new code
requirements are not legally mandated until 1-1-08, we urge our members and others to
re-build according to these new standards. It’s a question of your own safety and that
of your neighbors.

Ignition resistant building materials. Defensible space. Removing surface and ladder
fuels from Community Protection Zones. We all know there are no guarantees,
especially on windy days with low humidity during drought years, but we think these
steps, taken together, will go a long way to prevent further Angora Fires at Tahoe and
elsewhere.

The Tahoe Area Sierra Club (TASC) believes all of this can be accomplished without
compromising the lake and it’s clarity. Is there confusion about what can and can’t be
done re: defensible space? Definitely. So let’s all take responsibility for
getting the right information out there. Are there barriers and cumbersome processes? Yes.
So let’s work together to overcome them. Are there funding gaps? It looks like it.
So let’s use our joint influence to find the necessary money.

Solving Tahoe’s complex problems is challenging. There is no single silver bullet.
As we proceed, let’s not, to mix a metaphor, throw out the bar-b-que with the spent charcoal.

And while we’re working to prevent future fires, we need to continue to pull together
to support those who were impacted by Angora. The headlines may soon disappear.
The hard work won’t.

Click here to Send an E-mail to
TRPA Governing Board Members

TAHOE TREES SAVED!!!

By Michael Donahoe, Tahoe Area Sierra Club Group (TASC) Conservation Co-chair

It takes a tree at least 150 years to even begin thinking about calling itself “old growth”. So I guess working a year and a half to save such a tree and others like it from the chopping block is a small price to pay. It was a year and a half ago that TASC ExCom member Ed Ferranto, a skilled skier, began his journey.

Heavenly Mountain Resort wanted to get its North Bowl skiers up the mountain faster. They claimed the old Boulder and Olympic lifts took too long and wanted to replace them with a single high speed detachable quad. All well and good. Except that the new lift would go right through a rare north facing stand of old growth Red Fir, Western White Pine, White Bark Pine and Lodgepole Pine. Retired USFS Forester Jon Hoefer estimated that some of the trees in the 100 acre stand were up to 500 years old. Since 95% of the trees in the Tahoe Basin were clear cut in the late 1800’s to shore up the mines in Virginia City, this stand of trees took on added significance.

Ed, a marine engineer and ship captain by training, went to work looking at options. His main allies outside the TASC ExCom were John Friedrich and Ben Pignatelli of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, Autumn Bernstein of the Sierra Nevada Alliance and independent contractor Jennifer Quashnick. Together they convinced Heavenly to explore building an angled or “kinked” lift (a technology already in use by Heavenly’s parent company Vail in some of their Colorado resorts) that would avoid most of the old growth trees. “GET KINKY” signs and stickers started showing up around town.

Most of the locals were dead set against cutting the old growth. But Heavenly was adamant. The “kinky” lift was too expensive and had some technical problems as well. And the other option of simply replacing the old ski lifts with new high speed equipment in the current alignments was dismissed as taking too long and being too inconvenient.

Our efforts at compromise had failed. It was time to take the matter to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) for a decision. That happened on 2-28-07. There was a big storm the day before and a landslide on Hwy 50 that forced some Board members to tele-conference from their homes. After 8 hours of debate, the Governing Board voted to allow Heavenly to cut down the old growth trees.

We went home that night quite depressed. It wasn’t until a few days later that it occurred to us that that the meeting on the 28th violated Open Meeting laws because the public hadn’t been able to tele-conference along with the Board members who couldn’t make the meeting.

This faint glimmer of hope turned into a floodgate as attorney Michael Graf outlined the strengths of our case and convinced TRPA to rehear the whole issue. At that new hearing on April 25th, thanks to the votes of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, and California TRPA Board members Mara Bresnick, CA Assembly Speaker appointee, Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz, CA Governor appointee Steve Merrill, El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago and CA Senate Rules Committee appointee Jerry Waldie, the old growth stand was saved, leaving Heavenly with the option of getting “kinky” or replacing the current lifts in their present alignments. It should be noted that the following Nevada Governing Board members voted against saving the trees: Shelly Aldean, Carson City Board of Supervisors, Jim Galloway, Washoe County Supervisor, Chuck Ruthe, Governor of Nevada appointee, and Coe Swobe, Nevada at large member. Douglas County Commissioner Nancy McDermid, and Allen Biaggi, Director of NV Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources were absent. Both their replacements voted against saving the trees. As did the following California members of the Board: Julie Motamedi, Governor of CA appointee and Board Chair; Mike Weber, City of South Lake Tahoe Council member.

If you have time, please provide feedback to Board members on their votes. You can find their e-mail addresses under the Shorezone section.

Was the victory worth all the work?

You bet!

And we are grateful that Heavenly accepted the TRPA Board’s decision and didn’t drag this matter on for months or even years.

We are also delighted that Heavenly Mountain Resort is finally joining Sierra at Tahoe and Alpine Meadows as being among the most environmentally friendly ski resorts in the West. (Hopefully Alpine’s participation in this elite group will continue under their new ownership.)

We urge all our skier/boarder members to show their appreciation by purchasing season passes for next year at one of these resorts. Our goal is to have Tahoe become the Green Skiing Capital of North America.

SKI GREEN; SKI TAHOE.

SKI GREEN; KEEP TAHOE BLUE!

Please make sure next year’s plans include a visit to Heavenly’s North Bowl. Come see what all the fuss is about. Heavenly’s ski lifts will now go around the old growth trees rather than through them. This stand survived the clearcutting that devastated Tahoe forests during the Comstock era. Some of the trees even predate Columbus’ first visit to America.

Most of Tahoe’s expert skiers consider this stand some of the best tree skiing in the world. Come see for yourself.

And please spread the word. We have not yet turned the corner on saving Tahoe’s fragile ecosystem and restoring its famed clarity. We need eco-tourists and eco-businesses to come here and provide the base for an economy that truly values the natural environment and understands that sustainability is impossible without it.

Thanks to Kay Edwards, Carla Ennis, Bryan Holzbauer, Joyce Powell, Lin and Jerry Yeazell and all of you other Toiyabe Trails readers who wrote letters, made phone calls, sent money, analyzed documents, attended meetings, talked with decision makers, sent your prayers and energy. The number of people who truly want what’s best for Tahoe is amazing. If we build on that, we can create the future we want for ourselves, for our children, and for future generations.

Many years ago, Sierra Club founder John Muir said, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul.”

One of those places has just been preserved.

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Media Contacts - Elected Officials

Tahoe Area Group Monthly Meetings

WHEN: 3rd Thursday of Every Month 6:30 - 9:00 P.M.
(Refreshments will be ready at 6:20, so come early)

WHERE: DOUGLAS CO. FIRE STATION ON ELKS PT. RD.
Take Hwy 50 to the stoplight at Round Hill Shopping Center. Turn west and go 1/2 block. Turn left into Fire Station parking lot. Meeting is in the classroom there.
NOTE: If the parking lot is full, continue a few yards down Elks Pt. Rd., turn left and park along Dorla Court.

Outings & Events

May 24 (Saturday) (1A)
Wildflower hike at Sagehen Creek.
Come and enjoy the many early bloomers at Sagehen Creek which is just north of Truckee.
The hike is 4 miles round trip with little elevation gain. Our hike will begin at 9AM and ends about 3PM.
Please bring sunscreen, bug spray, water, and a lunch. To register and get directions,
go to the website www.wildflowerhikes.com . The directions are found by going to “hikes by difficulty”
and then to the Sagehen Creek page. We hope to see and learn about the spectacular display of
bright blue Camas Lilies!

June 15 (Sunday) (2B)
Weber Lake to Paradise Lake on The Pacific Crest Trail
A seldom hiked section of the Pacific Crest Trail. Very interesting rock formations and remote
meadows not often seen. Lunch at beautiful Paradise Lake. Learn about birds on that section of trails.
1500’ elevation gain and about 12 miles. DOK.
Leader: Glenn Polochko (530-587-5906, gpolochko@yahoo.com). Strenuous

June 28 (Saturday) (2B)
Tahoe Wildflower Hike (Moderate)
Join me for an early season hike at Barker Pass on the west side of Lake Tahoe. This hike has a
great flowers and wonderful views of both Lake Tahoe and the Desolation Wilderness. This moderately
difficult hike covers about 4 miles round trip with an elevation gain of less than 1000 feet.
Bring sunscreen, water, and lunch. We will begin the hike at 9:30AM and return at mid afternoon.
To register go to the website www.wildflowerhikes.com. You will also find driving directions
by clicking on “Hikes by Difficulty” and then on “Barker Pass”.

July 12 (Saturday) (2B)
Sand Ridge Lake Via Andersite Peak
Hike north of Rt 80 by way of Andersite Peak to lunch at Sand Ridge Lake. See Granite out cropping
and mossy grass meadows. Learn about the geology of the area. 1000’ elevation gain and 10 miles total.
DOK. Leader: Glenn Polochko (530-587-5906, gpolochko@yahoo.com). Moderate

July 20th (Sunday) (2B)
Tahoe Wildflower Hike
This hike is relatively hard (about 7 miles with an elevation gain of 2000 feet), but well worth the effort.
We begin at one of the most beautiful Lakes south of Lake Tahoe – Woods Lake. We first climb about 1000 feet
to Round Top Lake finding a wide variety of flowers along the way. From there we hike another 1000 feet
to Round Top peak, and with a little luck find and learn about the stunning late bloomers that live here.
The view from Round Top summit is awesome (10,300 feet) – you can see Lake Tahoe in one direction and
the Desolation wilderness in the other. To register and find driving directions, go to the
website www.wildflowerhikes.com. The directions are found under. “Hikes by Difficulty” where you then
click on “Round Top”. Bring sunscreen, water, and lunch. We will begin at 9:00AM and return by 5:00PM.
Strenuous

Create Your Own Adventure

Tahoe Wildflower Hikes

Tahoe Rim Trail