INTRO: INTRO
Hey everyone, Ezra David Romero here. This is our last episode of TahoeLand. I know, it’s really sad. But this season has come to an end. And to celebrate this ending we held a podcast taping in South Lake. This is a shorter version of that 90 minute event.
We invited listeners to join us at a resort called Edgewood Tahoe. There were these floor to ceiling windows and you could see this huge panorama of the lake from the audience. And I was told a few times flocks of birds flew behind me as the sun set over the mountains.
This live version of TahoeLand is a little different and a little longer than our other episodes. You’ll hear from scientists, city leaders and a story or two from locals who feel they’ve been left out of the climate conversation. I hope you enjoy it.
[TahoeLand Intro Montage, theme song plays in background]
Dan: These aren't just theories anymore.
Stacy: I don't want the snow to go away.
Geoff: Yes Tahoe will change.
MaryEllen: I kind of feel like that dangered Pika.
Don: Tahoe doesn't control climate change. It's a victim of it.
Ezra: From Capital Public Radio this is TahoeLand.
Laurel: It always snowed by the third weekend in September but that doesn't happen anymore.
McClintock: I want to see our forest restored so that Tahoe doesn't burn the way paradise did.
Maddie: Chasing the snow is a huge part.
Devin: It's about the lake. That's why everyone's here.
Jesse: There are a lot of green lakes there aren't very many blue ones.
[music continues]
Ezra: Welcome to TahoeLand.
[Music comes to end, you hear live audience applause]
Ezra: Hey everybody I'm Ezra David Romero. I just want to say thank you so much for letting me be part of your community. Getting locals discount sometimes, over a beer. Things like that. Before we begin I just want you to take a look out behind us. It's the lake. That's why we're all here. Our team began this journey a year ago. We had this one big question we wanted to answer because climate change is affecting everything in Tahoe. Casinos, bears, wildfire, your communities, your homes, the shrubs outside of your houses, and that one big question is will the Tahoe we know, that we love, that we breathe in, that exists here be here in a generation or two?
We were surprised by all the science happening that was going on everything from Geoff Shladow at UC Davis to DRI to all these places. Even the most basic optimistic projections for Tahoe are a different place. More rain instead of snow. More tourists, more cars, more bear-human encounters. Everything we've laid out in the podcast. And so tonight we're going to talk to some more experts about that and all the other episodes we looked at this dire situation. And we're gonna talk about the solutions that are out there. We're also gonna hear from a Native American woman and some youth. Two populations that are often overlooked in this climate change debate. But first, I want you to hear from the godfather of Lake Tahoe clarity. He has been here for 61 years studying the lake clarity here. And that's Dr. Charles Goldman with UC Davis. And here he is. He's gonna tell us a poem about Lake Tahoe.
[Audience applause]
Charles Goldman: The name of the poem is I dream and dream of Tahoe and it pretty well expresses how I feel and how I feel so many of us feel about the lake.
I dream a dream of Tahoe, from wherever I may go. I dream and dream of Tahoe in sunshine or in snow. I see it's Cobalt waters in the Alpine afterglow and I'll return the Tahoe from wherever I may go. Yes I'll return to Tahoe despite where winds may blow where pine and Aspen forests take many years to grow. The air is clear and brilliant. Where Sierra meets the sky it fills me with the sadness when I must say goodbye. But if we keep its blueness this lake will never die and the children of our children will never need to cry. Thank you.
[Audience applause]
Ezra: And at some point Dr. Goldman passed the baton onto someone else with as much zeal for the lake as he does. This guy's from Australia, has a great accent. I'm talking about Geoff Shladow. He's the director of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center with UC Davis. Thanks for joining me Geoff.
Geoff: It's a pleasure as always Ezra.
Ezra: So Geoff we started off this podcast with this sort of dark dismal scene of what Lake Tahoe looks like when you come over Echo pass. The year was 2099 and I came and put my feet in the water. Let's hear a little bit of that and let's hear what you had to say.
Ezra: “I finally plop my feet in the water. It's not that icy, alpine, cold I remember. It's really warm. Cigarette butts, bottle caps and even a bag of chips are floating in the waves. When I was a kid the lake was so clear you could see every grain of sand. But now between the trash and the weeds it's so murky I can't even see my toes. This hasn't stopped people from filling every inch of the beach with towels and fold up chairs. There are so many boats, jet skiers, and paddle boarders competing for just a spot on the water. It's like the busiest Fourth of July ever. Everything's changed. Even the color of the lake. It's almost lost all of its cobalt blue hue. It's turning green.”
Ezra: So Geoff we heard so many responses about this on Twitter, Instagram, e-mails, all these places, and they weren't all in agreement. Some thought it was too dire. Some thought, oh that's not really going to happen. But other people said, hey these things are already going on. When you come over Echo Pass sometimes it's already smoky, sometimes there's already trash in water, there's already micro plastics in the water. When you close your eyes what does the future look like to you?
Geoff: Well that's certainly one future. And it's, it, it could happen. And it's not just the view of a pessimist it's it's what science is telling us. That's what models are predicting based on carbon emissions. But but the fact that we have these dire predictions and visions is good. So we know how bad it could be. And I think that's a very powerful weapon for us to use if we don't want that to be the future. Then there are some things we can do locally. There are things that need to be done globally but we're armed with with knowing what we don't want.
Ezra: And we based a lot of this off on this draft Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment. That is a mouthful. And I think what surprised me was that even in the most optimistic view, if the whole world stops polluting the way they are today Tahoe will still be affected. Talk to me of this range of possibilities.
Geoff: Yeah well the warming part of it is is here to stay for a long time. So no we we we may not be a great ski destination in 50 years. There is going to be a lot more rain. The screams are going to be running much sooner. But the things that I think people value about Tahoe, its iconic appearance, its blue water that doesn't have to go with it. I mean that's that's where the options are. In my humble opinion.
Ezra: We talk about that blue pristine and clear water. You know the last big moment of the scene we say it could turn green and you and I have had many conversations about this, but could that really happen? And if it does, is it like an ecological disaster.
Geoff: Yeah. Yeah it is.
Ezra: So yes.
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: In the interest of time, yes, it could. And what happens with lakes is that often they change very quickly. It's not going. The progression to 2099 isn't going to be a little bit of the same every year.
Ezra: So it's not this incremental change.
Geoff: No, it's suddenly there's going to be a 30 year drought. There's going to be a term that was popularized this morning in the I read the IPCC report these heatwaves in the ocean. We've had heat waves at Tahoe, heat waves in the water, not the air, and they're going to become more common and warmer and so species of algae that we've sort of haven't really experienced in the middle of the lake could be there. But we know that now.
Ezra: So millions and millions millions of dollars have been spent on keeping Lake Tahoe clear on wildfire prevention. And all these things in the lake. But how is climate change affecting this process. Is the needle moving on these projects.
Geoff: A lot of them were were designed for a different set of conditions. I mean there were a lot of the capital investments were made 20 years ago and there were conditions that engineers designed for a certain amount of rain in an hour. We're going to get an excess of that amount of rain we believe in the future. We're going to have this rain falling on what snow we have. So suddenly all these projects may not be the perfect projects or no longer optimal. And so that's that's going to require reinvestment, that's going to require possibly different approaches.
Ezra: Do you think Tahoe will be able to adapt?
Geoff: Well I mean look at the audience. This is an incredibly adaptable audience. I don't think these people are here tonight because they want to see this go away. And I think that's what it's going to take. We talk about resilience of the of the environment and resiliance of projects but I think it's it's human resilience that is a large part of it with people to say no, we've we've had enough or we're going to do more or we're going to change our personal habits and how we get to work things like that. Which isn't going to stop climate change globally. But if you think about every community doing that, that will make a difference.
Ezra: So we're going to talk to you a little bit later and another panel. But it seems like everyone and everything that's adapting here. Whether it's a casino which we found out there working together, or it's people working around the lake around Lake Lake water clarity issues. Any last thoughts.
Geoff: Yeah we did put the fear of something into them. Certainly that wasn't the intention, but the fact that we did is in some ways producing some good consequences people are realizing. You talk about 2099. It's not going to happen in 2099. It's happening today. It's happening next year. So, and everybody in this room and everybody in the Tahoe Basin knows that. So that's, to me that's a reason to be optimistic.
Ezra: Well thank you Geoff for sharing your knowledge with us and taking us down the TERC boat and all these things. We'll hear more from you later. And now we're going to hear from someone who's both a researcher and a member of the Native American community in Tahoe.
[music transitions]
Helen: Me’angawa mibi’i. Dawatla’ume’ degum di’a le’i. P’awalu ditde’i le’i. Wa’ Washiw ‘itde shemu ke’i. Wading dibugayayi ‘ash gadamalbaga ‘angawi.
Welcome everybody to Washoe territory. This is the ancestral homeland of the Washoe people. My name's Helen Fillmore. I'm part of the Washoe Tribe and I recently graduated with my master's degree in hydrology from the University of Nevada -- Reno. I currently work there as a researcher for the Native Waters on Arid Lands climate resiliency project. This summer I had a chance to work in the Tahoe basin and it really was a dream come true for me. I turned 28 in August and I joked that this summer was my 20th year of research experience here because you see I was one of those schoolchildren who met Dr. Charles Goldman on a field trip when I was eight years old. We rode the infamous John Le Conte research boat out until what felt like the middle of the lake. We watched the secchi disc disappear into the clear blue water. He and the other researchers onboard talked about their observations. They talked about the declining clarity of the water and the changes to the microorganism populations. This was our science lesson for that week. Prior to the field trip we were learning from our elders about the creation of the lake, according to our legends. We were learning about the changes that they observed in their lifetimes and our responsibility to the area. As Washoe people we don't see our sense of self as being separate from these lands.
When I introduced myself in our language I said, “P’awalu ditde’i le’i” “P’awalu” refers to the area east of Tahoe. “ditde’i le’i” is directly translated as, “the land, I am.” This is how I was taught to describe where I grew up. In this way we not identify ourselves as being from somewhere. We identify ourselves as being of a place we know that our health and our well-being is inextricably linked to the health and well-being of this lake and the ecosystems that surround it.
As a researcher I build upon the observations in the works of others with the hope of solving problems that haven't been solved yet. As Washoe people our observations of degradation and declining Lake clarity. Didn’t start in the 1960s when Dr. Goldman started his observations. Our observations of this area started back when our elders were just children back in the early nineteen hundreds who also heard stories from their parents and grandparents about what life was like at the lake. Back in the eighteen hundreds. We also learned from the legends that had been passed down for thousands of years. When I think about the projected conditions of this lake in the face of climate change it's important to also think about the past, about the magnitude and severity of the losses that my elders have had to endure in their lifetimes, and my heart breaks for them.
Declining clarity is only a symptom of a much larger issue. And while we're all working to restore the surrounding ecosystems to healthy conditions and planning for the future I think we're gravely short sighted in our efforts. With so many resources going to the protection of the lake, our elders ask, why aren't we doing more? It's because we have a disconnect. We have a lack of continuity of experiences in this Basin. We heard about a potential condition in 2099 that condition described to us sounds horrible. 2019 is that current condition of what our elders experience the degradation that they experienced is already happening, the degradation I guess that they couldn't fathom is already our current condition. We evaluate loss on the scale of our own personal experiences and we plan for climate change in the context of our own lifetimes. And this isn't good enough. This is where we have a lot to learn from the original people of this land.
Washoe people have existed in one of the most variable climates in the world for thousands of years. We know hot summers and cold cold winters. We know droughts and we know snow. Inherent in our language and culture the lessons and the teachings of how to care for this place for this lake and for the people who depend on it. We know resilience in the face of climate change. Right now young people around the world are organizing and are pleading with all of us to take action against climate change because to them taking action isn't about making sacrifices. Taking action is about providing hope for our future generations. Thank you.
[Music Transitions]
Ezra: To continue this discussion here are four experts with focuses on different issues that impact Tahoe. Devin Middlebrook he's a sustainability tourism coordinator with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and he's on the South Lake Tahoe City Council. Stephanie Coppeto she's a forest wildlife biologist with the Tahoe basin management unit. Helen Fillmore she's an off reservation councilman for the Washoe Tribal Council and a faculty researcher for the University of Nevada Reno. She studies Native Americans in the basin. And Chris Anthony, he's the Cal Fire division chief for the Tahoe area.
Let's start with you Devin. So you e-mail me saying there are some good things that have happened and don't focus just on the bad. There's been some good. What. What is that good.
Devin: Yeah. So taking a very narrow time view as compared to Helen. Really it was about 20 years ago in 1997 when the partners came together and saw that lake clarity wasn't getting better, our forests were getting more overloaded with timber and fire risk was growing. Our aging infrastructure that was built in the 50s and 60s, the rundown motels weren't being improved, weren't being remodeled and it was really this tipping point where we had to do something drastic to save the lake. And that's when then-President Bill Clinton came to Tahoe for the first ever environmental summit. And from there a great partnership of over 50 organizations and agencies many of the people you talked to in making this podcast came together and said, we're gonna protect Tahoe. We're going to preserve it. And here's our goal. And since then over the last 20 years that partnership has invested over two billion dollars in the restoration of Lake Tahoe's environment was restoring the past damages to the land. And we've achieved things like slowing the loss of clarity. We've treated hundreds of thousands of acres of forest forest for for wildfire. We've built hundreds of miles of bike trails. So those are just some of the things that this partnership over the last 20 years has come together and done.
Ezra: The other part of your job is working in South Lake Tahoe as a city council member that just happened less than a year ago. So we go to this dire place and in the episode we drive into South Lake Tahoe. What. Where is where our cities and communities sort of in this in this perspective.
Devin: Yeah I really think we are and hopefully in the driver's seat of our future and our destiny and it's up to us today as you said the 2019 the changes we've already seen and already seeing are going to continue. So we know that that's happening and this is really our call to action and it is up to our local communities the city of South Lake Tahoe the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency everyone here today in the audience listening at home on this podcast to do those small actions work towards being better for the environment and really push for that.
Ezra: You came in on a platform of climate change. What are you doing now with with this role. How are you following that up.
Devin: Yeah. So one of the really big things that I'm pushing for as a council member is reducing our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions reducing our carbon footprint really trying to push and going carbon neutral as a city. The city of South Lake Tahoe is currently installing solar panels at our airport that will offset the energy usage there. We also have a commitment to go 100 percent renewable electricity by 2032 and that's just part of the equation. But we're reducing our emissions and then on the other side we're working to make sure we're more resilient something Chris Anthony we'll talk about, and making sure we're prepared for wildfire, making sure we're prepared for disasters.
Ezra: Helen pointed to this disconnect. Are all those things enough? When this, when your global greenhouse gas emissions and all this is happening locally.
Devin: I was actually really profoundly touched by her words. They really struck with me and you know maybe everything we're doing isn't enough but if we don't do it someone else isn't going to do it. The next town over is not going to do it. So by doing it here we are leading and showing an example that Lake Tahoe can be a global leader towards climate change, towards sustainability and hopefully prove a case that if we can do it everyone can do it. And we'll do it.
Ezra: Helen you pointed to that disconnect in the end. What were you alluding to what. Give me some more depth to that.
Helen: One of the things that is really important to me is reconnecting my community back into the basin. It is really hard to access this area, it's really hard to access our traditional territories and practice our traditional practices that have been really important to the health of this space and for thousands of years. And so reconnecting ourselves as Washoe people into the basin, reconnecting our language, our cultural practices to the area, is something that I think is profoundly important to the over all health and that we can all learn from. We can all learn about how we are inextricably linked to our environment. 20 years ago when you would say that people would think that's hippie that's not necessary. But now we're looking at catastrophic events due to our lack of protection, our lack of understanding how connected we are to our environment and recognizing that we do have a responsibility to the places that we come from, to take care of it. It will also take care of us in the future as well.
Ezra: Speaking of the environment we had an episode all about bears and it was my favorite episode in my least favorite episode favorite because I love bears. Least favorite because the future under climate change for bears is isn't good. You know it's like they may suffer at the hands of climate change. Stephanie Coppeto you are a person who loves bears you work with you work in managing them. What's going on in their management moving forward. We talked about how there's not this consensus around trash and what are the next steps.
Stephanie: Our agencies and the Forest Service is really emphasizing trying to take the stress off the bears that comes from humans being in bear country and the primary way we can do that we're doing it now and we're moving forward is by trying to use methods to deter bears from accessing human foods and human sources of food and garbage. And so the Forest Service has been working diligently to make sure all of our campsites are equipped with bear boxes that safely store scented items and food. We're making sure that we implement forest closure order so that if people don't follow the rules to store their food in their garbage properly they can be cited. There's some enforcement. We're also working diligently with our staff and our campground host to educate both ourselves working in bear country and the public. As we've mentioned already we have to take care of our land and wildlife and natural resources that depend on this land. And part of that is by educating the people that live here and the many people that come to visit here.
Ezra: Chris, you are looking at Wildfire. Is Tahoe fire ready?
Chris: A fire could have a major impact on the Lake Tahoe basin. And what I've been seeing is that these fires whether they come out of the larger landscape you know the forested area into communities or whether they start in a community and then travel out into a forested area. The way that we need to look at protecting not only our communities but are our landscapes such as our forests. The two are completely intertwined. You can't you can't just work in one and ignore the other. We've done a lot of work in the wildland urban interface among all the agencies. But now it's time to expand that and look at the larger landscape in general because right now what we're seeing is not going to be resilient to the changes that we already have here today and for what's projected to come.
Ezra: Yeah, we talk about these large scale things you want to do in our fire episode. We have you all here because these different areas, because you're interconnected right you're all dealing with these human impacts. How can you move forward outside of your little boundaries of what you're doing together. Any of you can answer.
Devin: I think it's about events like this and this TahoeLand podcast and bringing people together and having these conversations and not sitting at your desk and typing away on the computer but actually getting out and having the conversations and listening to the words. Again, listening to Helen's words earlier, that profoundly touched me and I'm already trying to think about how that affects how I look at Tahoe. And I wouldn't have had that if I hadn't been at this event. So breaking down those barriers and having those conversations and talking to one another in this digital age is definitely a way forward and stepping forward towards that.
Chris: And I think we're there in some respects in terms of the interagency collaboration that occurs not only among the public entities but the nonprofit groups other private stakeholders obviously the Washoe tribe. I think we all understand what the issues are and what's what's important is that, you know, we identify those issues and make progress on them. And Helen actually, what what she said actually profoundly hit me as well in terms of thinking about in some cases we already are in that worst case scenario and and thinking about you know the urgency of the situation ahead of us. It's this isn't something that we need to tackle 10 or 20 or 30 years down the road. This is an issue that we need to really diligently address today.
Ezra: Helen how do we incorporate all how do we incorporate the Native American perspective into fires and the Bears and the city's. Like what's your vision?
Helen: As Washoe people for thousands of years. We've taken care of each other. We've taken care of other families. We made sure that everybody was provided for and we're willing to work together. And so I think that no matter who we are and what we're doing, we've got to look at the table and see who's missing and try to fill that space.
Ezra: And Bears.
Stephanie: We’re still identifying new groups that we can work with locally and more broadly across the Sierra region to try and figure out what's working. What's working to help people take these measures individually and be proactive and not be lazy in bear country. What's working as a manager what's working as a state agency and so I really see collaboration is key.
Ezra: Last question for all of you which we got over and over and over on social media. Derek Pate said he's from Sacramento says Have you come across any proposals at one time to make Lake Tahoe a national park. It seems like an obvious choice because it's unique, natural wonder.
Devin: I think the real reason people ask about a national park is because they think it is a solution to the threat of loving Tahoe to death. And I don't think becoming a national park would necessarily just instantly solve those problems. I think the tools and strategies and collaboration we have today offer the same path forward that a theoretical National Park could.
Ezra: Any other thoughts from you.
Stephanie: I think in terms of bears the parks that I'm aware of in this area really do have a great policy they have that benefit of having one rule whereas in the basin we do struggle with multiple ordinances that aren't blanket. That said, and as Devin's pointing out we're moving there. We're doing a lot that we can to try and have consistency across this area.
Ezra: Fire?
Chris: I would say that a lot of the challenges that you see here you also see in national parks as well. And the only difference is obviously that the federal government owns I think about 78 percent of the land base in Tahoe. What we have maybe a national park doesn't as we have leverage among a lot of different agencies to be able to address some of these issues that we're facing.
Ezra: Helen, last thoughts?
Helen: I think that the idea of it being a national park is something that could have been approached in the early nineteen hundred, 1950s when those efforts were being made. But I think that you know I don't want to discount the opportunities for collaboration that we have by having so many different agencies and partners, landowners, whatever it is.
Ezra: To clear the area it was talked about to become a national park and it was deemed too far gone to be one. So thank you all for your insights and being part of this conversation. It's really great to hear all of your thoughts.
[Music transition begins]
Ezra: And now we're going to hear from two young climate activists from Truckee.
[Music comes up and ends]
Evan Anderson: Hi everyone My name is Evan Anderson.
Ben Anderson: And I'm Ben Anderson.
Evan Anderson: We're 16 year old student athletes and passionate environmental advocates in Truckee.
Ben Anderson: Last week we organized the Climate Strike in our hometown of Truckee, California in conjunction with a global climate strike demanding action be taken at the U.N. Climate Summit. We were overwhelmed with the amount of support in our community and how many people went out showing their support.
Evan Anderson: Since we can remember our mother has taught us to sacrifice convenience for sustainability whether it be picking up litter a few extra steps away or asking a stranger to turn off their idling car. Mother Nature has always come first. We are also avid Nordic skiers where we have seen the firsthand effects of climate change on a local level. In February our cross-country ski team went on a memorable ski after school. We ascended a steep hill approaching a jaw dropping view of Donner Lake admiring the snow capped evergreens adorning the landscape while the sun was setting ahead. We floated, or for some of us tumbled our way down the powdered hillside. We had laughs and a whole lot of fun. This scenery, the nippy cold, the smiles on their faces. This is the reason why we are here. You see this wonderful memory could be one of the last of its kind in the ten years we've lived here. We have experienced severe drought followed by an unmanageable amount of precipitation and it's not only snow sport athletes in the Tahoe region that are affected disadvantaged citizens and sensitive wildlife are hit hardest by climate change often struggling without a voice.
Ben Anderson: First our environmental awareness came to our personal lives. We are vegan, low waste, and low energy consumers. We joined, we joined our high school's environmental club where we advocate for the environment while educating students through fashion called trashion.
Evan Anderson: And to any young people listening. Please join your local action clubs.
Ben Anderson: We then took our frustration and hopes to the big league.
Evan Anderson: This summer we went to Washington D.C. in partnership with the Citizens Climate Lobby to meet with the offices of three congresspeople including that of our Congressperson Tom McClintock and two senators to push Capitol Hill to sponsor the energy innovation and carbon dividend act. We were surprised at how receptive they were to our proposals and learned a lot about the process of lobbying in the U.S. government.
Ben Anderson: Along the way we have faced many challenges. The biggest being that we can't vote, but we choose to do everything in our power to show that we're serious about combating the climate crisis. Which is why we vote with our voice, our social media, and our dollar. I encourage every single teen and adult for that matter to do everything possible for environmental good in the world. Such as calling your elected representatives in support of climate resolutions and limiting your consumption of animal products. Everything from lifestyle changes to corporate and governmental endeavors all contribute to what our future looks like including our need to hold our elected officials accountable in the Tahoe region especially because there's so much at risk in this beautiful place. We also find ourselves jumping the hurdle of how we as youth are viewed. Teens are traditionally seen as the lazy ones who are living life as it comes. But now we not only need to be seen as the ones who will fix the climate crisis but the ones who are, because there is no time to wait for a college degree while the world around us is falling to pieces. In the words of Greta Tuneberg, the 16 year old Swedish climate hero inspiring youth around the world to speak out. We are doing this to wake up the adults up. We told her I'm doing this for you to put your differences aside and start acting as you would in a crisis. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.
Evan Anderson: Take a look behind us. When we're older, what is Tahoe going to look like? Is it going to be green and eutrophic, is the land going to be burnt in the resort's abandoned? How many species will survive? The decisions we make today will determine the lives of everyone and everything tomorrow. We need education, belief in science, and most importantly action in the future. Ben and I plan to continue our sustainability journey into our studies and professional careers combating climate change, the biggest issue our generation is facing and we hope to make a long lasting impact on the well-being of our planet. Thank you.
Ben Anderson: Thank you.
[Audience applause, then music transitions]
Ezra: So they are not the only young people in the audience. We have 15 or so students from Truckee that are making a podcast about Tahoe, inspired by TahoeLand. But just take a look, take a look around you. Look at this crowd. It's mixed age, mixed race. This is how Tahoe is going to transform in the future. This is how Tahoe is going to move forward with solutions. People like you in this room. And that's what this panel is all about. It's all about solutions. It's all about the future of Tahoe. It's all about equity, the lake, science.
Dr. Darcy Goodman Collins. She's a CEO of the League to Save Lake Tahoe. They do the Keep Tahoe Blue stickers which I've seen all over the world. Bill Martinez he's the executive director of the Family Resource Center in South Lake Tahoe. He works with a lot of Tahoe's low income people, people who work in resorts, who work in construction people who, he called it one day to me poverty with a view. People who live here and struggle. And then Geoff Schladow's back with us. He's the director of UC Davis his Tahoe Environmental Research Center. And he likes shrimp.
[audience laughs]
Ezra: So Darcy you left and you came back right and now you're holding this baton of Keep Tahoe Blue. What is this about for you? Why did you come back? Why'd you come home?
Darcy: That is a great question. I am lucky enough to have been born and raised in Lake Tahoe. So I have a deep connection not unlike a lot of people who have their own connection whether you visited Tahoe once or whether you come here frequently. Everyone who comes to Tahoe loves it and everyone wants to keep it blue. So I had a passion because I was born here and I wanted to do something to keep Tahoe blue. So I worked as an intern when I was in high school that. The speech from the boys from Truckee was really compelling for me because I remember when I was that age and I wanted to do a lot to come back and keep Tahoe blue and I had the opportunity to do it in a in a unique role but everyone has an opportunity to do something to keep Tahoe blue. Like I said, whether it's from changing your daily behaviors, from educating visitors, or to having a more deeper engagement with our citizen science programs, advocating for good policy. There's a lot we can do to make sure that we protect this beautiful lake.
Ezra: So one solution that's already in the lake are these trillions of shrimp right that we talk about an episode two of the podcasts that I had no idea were here and I've been coming here five times a year since I was two, but Geoff. Have you eaten any of them before?
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: Um, no.
Ezra: I have. They're gross.
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: Yeah. I haven't.
Ezra: So tell me about this shrimp problem. Ok, right? They're in there, they're eating the native Daphnia and the good critters that keep the lake clean. Moving forward what's the plan?
Geoff: So this is an example of a new solution potentially with which I trying to seize it commercially viable these shrimp actually have to have a commercial value. They’re full of omega 3s that we take in our evening pills possibly. So if we could make them more palatable we would all be let's say.
Ezra: So, you're going to brand Lake Tahoe shrimp. Omega 3s.
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: Yeah well.
Ezra: I'm going to go to GMC and find them. Ezra special. Great. One thing we haven't talked about is transportation. Right there's this huge glaring gap about transportation issues in Tahoe. It's very linked to climate change. Can you explain that link to me?
Geoff: Well one of the linkages to transportation is that it's one of the contributors to pollution into the lake. Something like 70 percent of the nitrogen nitrogen is a nutrient for algal growth comes from automobile emissions.
Darcy: When you talk about people coming to Tahoe I think you probably rarely talk to people who say they're not coming up here without their cars and our locals rarely get around without their cars. So one of the biggest things that we the League to Save Lake Tahoe have been trying to do is shift that paradigm and shift that conversation from a it's a community that has to be car centric to we have options we'd love to use them. And we did that through piloting a couple of different opportunities. We brought bike share up a couple of years ago and that expanded into electric scooters share. And really the point was just to show if there is an attractive fun option people will get out of their cars, and they did.
Ezra: But there's still no lake wide system movement towards this.
Darcy: Correct. There is as of right now no way to get around Lake Tahoe in a bus or without your car. You have to take your car, ride your bike.
Ezra: So all those particles that go on the road they get into the lake, make Geoff's life harder cleaning the lake but also there's also this hidden world when it comes to transportation and equity in Tahoe that has a direct link to climate change. Bill you work with a lot of these people. That need this transportation.
Bill: Yes.
Ezra: What's going on there.
Bill: Not a lot. Unfortunately this summer and as we have every summer for a number of years we run a program for school age children and we take field trips every week and we like to get out to different parts of the lake and visit. And this summer we tried to take a bus to Emerald Bay so we could walk the kids down to the lake shore and hang out for the day and have and see things that they normally don't experience here in Lake Tahoe because they can't get to those places. I contacted the transportation the bus service and there's not a bus. There's no way to get there unless you drive. So it is it is very difficult. You know I work with a lot of families and children in this global climate changing is really adding extra stressors to the lives of the folks who are living in this environment because they can't rely on the seasons. They can't rely that a job is going to start that the ski season is going to start on a particular month or even week. They can't rely on when the summer season is going to start. So on those shoulder seasons as a tourism industry calls them people are really trying to figure out what to do and how to how to fend for themselves how to put food on the table how to make sure their children are being taken care of. So those are the unintended consequences of some of these global climate changing issues that are affecting this community and it's causing people to leave our community because of the inability to have steady employment.
Ezra: Yeah, we met Laura in the episode all about this.
Bill: Yes.
Ezra: How real is her reality. Her reality was that her husband couldn't have done a job for six weeks because he lost his job and was working at multiple jobs just to make it right.
Bill: Correct.
Ezra: How prevalent is that reality is that everyone's reality here?
Bill: In the lower income community of the South Lake Tahoe area. There are numerous families that are relying on two three jobs to make ends meet because of the high cost of living in this area. Like we said earlier poverty with a view. It is a beautiful place to be I've lived in this community for 30 years and I've enjoyed every minute of it but it is difficult and it's becoming more and more difficult for our lower income community members to be able to live and thrive in this community.
Ezra: So these are big issues that are going to take a lot of collaboration to move forward. Is there hope for Tahoe moving forward. You work in the most extreme predicting the grim future. That's why these people are here. Do you have hope?
Geoff: I was born in the driest continent on earth. And look where I am today.
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: So yeah I have a lot of hope for Tahoe because Winston Churchill said you can always count on Americans to do the right things, after they've tried everything else
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: ...and I think. I think we will get there hopefully soon enough.
Ezra: What about you Bill with this can the communities you work for is. Is there a resolution.
Bill: Well I think we're working towards some of those resolutions. And yes it is still a viable community and our immigrant community that comes and travels here and chooses to live in this community is pleased with the beauty and the nature and the natural environment and giving that aspect to their children to be able to live and to learn about this high mountain environment and the beautiful blue lake. So much different from where they've traveled from to live here. So yes I think we can make it better.
Ezra: And, Darcy you kind of deal in hope where you hand these stickers that are supposed to be hopeful and there's tons of them that are like that now. What's your answer?
Darcy: Well over the course of our branding of Keep Tahoe Blue we've given out over two million stickers. So that means there's two million people out there who love Tahoe it's kind of known as the Keep Tahoe Blue sticker is kind of known as the I Love Tahoe. If that many people love Tahoe. That's a great baseline. A story that I like to tell a lot about not having hope and then regaining it all in one day is something that I experience every year at our Fifth of July cleanups. We show up in the mornings we have hundreds of volunteers thousands of volunteers that come out to clean up our beaches after the Fourth of July and we show up and it sometimes looks like the apocalypse chairs are left. Trash is everywhere. People are having a great time. They're loving Tahoe, but were they loving it to death. Perhaps. So you get there and you're very disappointed in how people are treating in the end and enjoying Tahoe. But by the end of the two three hour beach cleanup we have hundreds of volunteers have come from all over not just our locals, not just our regional community members, but we've had people that have come back from Ohio routinely and they are there because they love Tahoe. They're excited. They clean that beach up in less than we allow for three hours and sometimes it's less than 20 minutes and it's pristine. So you do realize that there is this potential to protect Lake Tahoe and that's a good example of on a micro scale how we can extend that love and make sure that we all can have a good impact.
Ezra: And I think for myself if I can answer the same question I sort of feel hopeful even though I have heard all the dismal stuff that you have told me Geoff. About Tahoe that's going to happen in my childhood dreams are going to go down the drain. But I think this podcast is sort of the sentiment of that like there is this work being done there just culminating thought and it's you all. So let's hear some of your questions.
Charlotte: Hi my name is Charlotte Ward and I live in South Lake Tahoe. Originally from Seattle. My question is, I'm curious what the impact of boating is on the lake? In terms of clarity.
Geoff: Generally I know a lot of people don't like to hear this. The overall impact of boats on the water quality the clarity the fuels in the lake it's pretty minimal. If that was the only problem we'd have, that would be great.
[Audience laughs]
Geoff: So it's you know some people don't like boats like noise. Other people love boats. They love the noise they make.
[Audience laughs]
Lenny: My name is Lenny Schwartz and I'm from South Lake Tahoe. I've been here 42 years. A lot of other resort communities have free public transportation. They run on a very timely manner. You can walk, get on the bus, go wherever you're going to go. Know you're going to be able to come back. Will we ever see that in Tahoe?
Darcy: The good news is that other communities have done it. So that means we can do it. And so again I think the starting point is changing the conversation from people in Tahoe will not get out of their cars and then figuring out a way to offer these reliable frequent services that it's harder to use your car than to not. And it has to be coordinated not just with these opportunities but also making it harder to utilize cars or to get places with your car. So that includes a parking management strategy, that includes maybe opportunities such as if you're in a bus you get to ride in the bus lane and you're passing all of the cars that are sitting idle hopefully with their engines off but aren't going anywhere. So if there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of things that we can start implementing and it will waive the League to Save Lake Tahoe will continue to work on trying piloting these solutions and having conversations with other communities that have done that and we have a lot of momentum now for better for worse our traffic has been horrible lately. So I think it's an opportunity to get the conversation going take take that bad opportunity and turn it into something with momentum.
Luke: I am Luke Jensen, I live in Incline Village. It was mentioned a couple of times that all of the Tahoe local communities endeavors to reverse the declining clarity of the lake might not be enough. As you know climate change is a global phenomenon. I'm just curious and even though you speculated a couple of times how big of a difference can the Tahoe locals in this community make by itself.
Darcy: We're going to keep seeing the impacts here in Tahoe even if we are able to stop the continued growth of the climate crisis. We're going to see those impacts and temperature rising for a long time. So we need to be able to do things here in Tahoe that help to make the lake resilient and that includes restoring our natural filtration systems like our marshes our Meadows our streams decreasing the pollutants that are going into Tahoe, educating the community so that we can lessen the impacts. There's things everyone can do on a daily basis whether it's just changing your behavior or participating in more extensive community engagement or citizen science programs. But that could only help the lake for so long before it reaches a tipping point. So it's an issue that you can address locally but it has to be addressed globally. If Tahoe is going to remain. If we're going to keep Tahoe blue for generations.
Ezra: Geoff?
Geoff: Yeah. And everything Darcy said, but as well as that everybody, the whole world knows about Lake Tahoe. And what's done in Tahoe, the successes we have are exported that they're translated elsewhere. So what starts off as as local initiatives and local successes are mimicked all across Nevada, California, the US and the world. So I think that's the hope is not wait for the world to to cure the climate crisis. It's to start here and lead the way.
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Ezra: Thank you all for your time and being part of this panel.
Darcy: Thank you Ezra.
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So this is the end of Tahoeland… and I’m left with this little feeling that even as the climate crisis gets more urgent, Tahoe might be alright. And that’s because it’s a place that so many people love and have poured millions, if not billions of dollars into to preserve. That’s definitely not the case in every place under threat because of warming temperatures.
But that’s why we feel the story of Tahoe matters around the world. There just might be enough people who care about Tahoe for it to make it.
[music continues]
So, season 3 right? If you have any ideas send me an email. It’s [email protected] or tweet me @ezraromero.
Ezra: TahoeLand is edited by Nick Miller. Sally Schilling is our podcast producer.
Our digital editor is Chris Hagan. Emily Zentner is TahoeLand's Data Reporter. Kasey Sycamore is collecting your questions about Tahoe and answering them.
Our Web site is built by Renee Thompson, Veronica Nagy, and Katie Kidwell.
Linnea Edmeier is the Executive Editor, Joe Barr is our Chief Content Officer, and our Associate Producer is Gabriela Fernandez.
Our music is by artist CharlestheFirst, he's from Tahoe.
And I want to give a big thank you to Edgewood Tahoe for all your help in helping this event happen.
To make sure you don't miss any episodes, subscribe on Apple podcast or wherever you listen. Check out our Website. Capradio.org/Tahoeland for videos, photos, additional stories, and more.
I'm Ezra David Romero. Thanks for listening to TahoeLand, from Capital Public Radio.
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