Tahoe In Depth: Special Summit Edition
The 27th issue of Tahoe In Depth: Special Summit Edition is now available at various businesses across Lake Tahoe!
New Page for the Tahoe Living Working Group
The Tahoe Living Working Group page has moved here: trpa.gov/housing/tahoe-living-working-group. If you have saved the old web address, you may want to update it for easier access to information about Working Group meetings.
Joanne Marchetta
Joanne Marchetta was the Executive Director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency from 2011 to 2022. The mission of the bi-state Compact agency is to cooperatively lead the work to preserve, restore, and enhance the natural and human environment of the Lake Tahoe Region. Ms. Marchetta led the Agency and basin through transformational changes to strengthen the environment, economy, and communities of Lake Tahoe. She came to Tahoe in 2009 to serve as TRPA’s General Counsel before taking on the leadership role as director.
Ms. Marchetta has always had a passion for combining environmental protection, land use planning, and real estate development in unique and responsible ways. Following graduation from the University of Michigan with a forestry degree and Catholic University with a law degree, she started her professional career in Washington DC as a litigator for the Department of Justice. She led environmental enforcement cases under many of the federal environmental statutes — clean air, clean water, and hazardous waste cleanup actions. She worked for U.S. EPA during the Bush and Clinton administrations where she negotiated some of the largest hazardous waste cleanup agreements in the state of California. Later at the Presidio Trust in San Francisco, she helped to transform the Presidio from an Army base to a financially self-sustaining national park.
Joanne served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Tahoe Prosperity Center.
Special Caldor Fire Issue of Tahoe In Depth
TRPA worked with the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team and partners to produce a special issue of Tahoe In Depth. The issue covers the Caldor Fire, what we know now, and what megafires like it may mean for the future of Tahoe’s forests. This special issue will be available at the new Tahoe In Depth newspaper kiosks, fire stations, and select locations.
Click here to view the issue.
TRPA Accepting Lottery Applications for New Tahoe Piers
Lake Tahoe, CA/NV –The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) will be accepting lottery entries between June 1 and June 30 this year for the limited number of pier allocations allowed every two years under the Shoreline Plan, the agency said today.
Adopted by the TRPA Governing Board in 2018, the Shoreline Plan lifts a longstanding moratorium on new shorezone structures and places a cap on the number of private piers and buoys allowed at Lake Tahoe. The Shoreline Plan allows additional piers and moorings to be permitted at a measured rate through periodic lotteries until the cap is met. The plan allows for a maximum of 128 private piers and 1,486 new private moorings.
Every two years, TRPA can permit up to 12 new piers in the Tahoe Basin, with a preference for multiple-parcel, shared use piers. Through the lottery, TRPA will select applications that can move forward to the permitting process by July 20, 2021. No additional pier allocations will be available until 2023.
Information and instructions for the lottery application process and eligibility criteria are available here.
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency leads the cooperative effort to preserve, restore, and enhance the unique natural and human environment of the Lake Tahoe Region, while improving local communities, and people’s interactions with our irreplaceable environment. For additional information, contact Jeff Cowen, Public Information Officer, at (775) 589-5278 or jcowen@trpa.gov.
Elk Point Bubble Curtain Protects Against Aquatic Weeds
Zephyr Cove, NV — When Charles Jennings moved to Elk Point four years ago, he noticed thick green and brown plants dominating the bottom of the marina. The plants were knocked back last fall but could possibly return. A new, innovative bubble curtain installed across the marina entrance earlier this month is making the possibility of another weed infestation less likely.
The Tahoe Resource Conservation District and Marine Taxonomic Services made the initial treatment in the marina in 2018 by installing underwater mats called bottom barriers, which starve the invasive weeds of sunlight. But the initial treatment does not guarantee the plants won’t return.
“The main goal of the Elk Point Marina bubble curtain is to keep aquatic invasive species plant fragments from entering the marina where they could establish new plant infestations, and to collect and dispose of the plant fragments,” said Charles Jennings, vice president of the Elk Point Country Club Homeowners Association.
The homeowners association, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), the Tahoe Fund, and the League to Save Lake Tahoe partnered to fund a bubble curtain across the marina entrance to keep invasive plant fragments from reestablishing in the marina. Perforated air hose lines on the bottom of the channel create walls of bubbles that help slow plant fragments from entering the treated area. Unlike the bubble curtains in the channels of the Tahoe Keys, this bubble curtain works in reverse, to keep plant fragments out, rather than in.
“We are excited to partner on this innovative new use of a bubble curtain to keep aquatic invasive plants out of the marina,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “Aquatic invasive species are one of the great challenges the lake faces, and it is going to take all of us working together on new solutions.”
Aquatic invasive weeds such as Eurasian watermilfoil are not native to Tahoe and without a natural check to their growth, the weeds quickly colonize and outcompete native species. Watercraft can spread aquatic weeds around the lake from fragments tangled on their propellers and anchors, resulting in new infestations that are expensive and difficult to treat.
“It’s a constant battle to control and treat aquatic weeds,” said Dennis Zabaglo, TRPA aquatic resources program manager. “Fortunately, we collaborate with many public and private partner organizations like Elk Point Country Club to implement the best emerging technologies to protect the lake.”
The addition of the bubble curtain at Elk Point is an example of the technology’s multiple uses to protect and restore Lake Tahoe. The jointly funded bubble curtain is a way to protect collaborative investments in past successful AIS treatments.
“Our three years of experience with the bubble curtain pilot program in the Tahoe Keys have proven this innovative technology is an important ingredient in tackling the most dire ecological threat to Lake Tahoe,” said Jesse Patterson, chief strategy officer for the League to Save Lake Tahoe. “We’re proud to build on that success by working with the folks at Elk Point, TRPA and the Tahoe Fund to put aquatic invasive species in check and Keep Tahoe Blue.”
The multi-agency Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species action agenda calls for continuation of the comprehensive watercraft inspection program to protect the lakes of the region from new AIS, and a control program to tackle invasives that were introduced before watercraft inspections began in 2008. Since the start of mandatory inspections at Tahoe, no new AIS have been detected in the basin.
The Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Program is implemented by 40 public and private partner organizations, including federal, state, and local jurisdictions, research partners, public utility districts, and private marinas. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Tahoe Resource Conservation District lead the program in collaboration with the public and private partners. The program’s mission is to prevent, detect, and control aquatic invasive species in the Region so that future generations can enjoy Lake Tahoe. For additional information, contact Jeff Cowen, TRPA Public Information Officer, at 775-589-5278.