Bee's Aug. 18 story on Enviro Summit

By Todd Milbourn - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, August 18, 2007

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. -- Lake Tahoe isn't as blue as it was 10 years ago, when then-President Clinton committed a bunch of green to it.

Construction of new houses is sending more runoff into the lake. Rising lake temperatures, attributable to global warming, may be threatening its native fish. And the threat of fires -- like the Angora blaze that roared two months ago near the lake's densely populated southern shore -- is as great as ever.

Still, Clinton and the parade of politicians who gathered among the pines on Tahoe's north side Friday lauded ongoing efforts to protect what Mark Twain once called "the finest view the world affords."

Since the inaugural Tahoe Forum a decade ago, government agencies and the private sector have spent, or pledged, nearly $1.1 billion for various restoration projects in the Tahoe basin, from new roads that better capture runoff to more scientific research.

"We owe the world the preservation of Lake Tahoe," Clinton told a crowd of more than 1,000. "When you have a place like this, it's not just for you, your children and your grandchildren. It's for everyone who might ever visit or even read about it."

Held at Sierra Nevada College, the annual forum featured a roster of California and Nevada politicians, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, was in the audience.

Devastation caused by the Angora fire was never far from the minds of speakers Friday.

Sparked by embers of an illegal campfire and propelled by dry branches and shrubs on the forest floor, the Angora fire destroyed more than 250 residences and caused an estimated $150 million in damage.

On Friday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that $45 million in federal money has been approved for clearing forest debris and restoring wildlife habitat around Lake Tahoe.

Feinstein said there's little question about the biggest challenge facing the lake.

"The risk of another conflagration is real and immediate," the senator said, referring to flammable debris -- fallen trees and branches -- she said remains on the forest floor.

Friday's summit comes on the heels of a report by researchers at UC Davis that found Tahoe's famously clear water is getting murkier.

When Mark Twain visited Lake Tahoe in the 1860s, he wrote the water was so pristine "the boat seemed floating in the air!"

In 1968, Lake Tahoe was so clear a visitor could see a research tool the size of a dinner plate at a depth of 100 feet. Today, something that size is out of sight after 68 feet.

The UC Davis report also found global warming is beginning to alter the lake's ecology. Nighttime lows in 2006 were on average four degrees warmer than in 1911. Such changes, the report said, have caused certain algae to bloom earlier and led to an increase in Lake Tahoe's population of warm-water fish such as carp and bass.

Clinton said environmental challenges Lake Tahoe faces mirror those faced by the planet.

"The fundamental fact is this: Tahoe represents the intersection of the two great environmental challenges we face today -- climate change and resource depletion," Clinton said. The former president recalled being stunned by the lake's beauty in his first visit to Tahoe, in 1971.

Since the first forum, the $1.1 billion in funding for restoration projects has come from an array of sources: $293 million from the federal government; $446 million from California; $82 million from Nevada; $52 million from local governments; and $216 million from the private sector, according to Feinstein.

The California Department of Transportation led one of the largest projects, a $213 million retrofitting of Tahoe roads so that they better capture runoff that can cloud the lake.

Ten years ago, research at Tahoe was spread among dozens of groups and agencies. After the forum began, researchers started collaborating more often, said Glenn Miller, a professor of natural resources at University of Nevada, Reno.

"That is one of the great legacies," Miller said.

Still, the Tahoe basin remains vulnerable to damage from development and rising temperatures, Clinton said.

The only way those challenges could be met, he said, is with a sustained coalition of public and private agencies and citizens.

"This is how it's supposed to work," Clinton said to a standing ovation.