Celebrate Earth Week from April 19 – 24 by completing daily challenges and attending these great local events. You’ll get bonus points for biking or taking public transit to and from the events.
Just released this March, the Lake Tahoe Climate Resilience Action Strategy builds on existing Tahoe Basin climate and environmental improvement plans to identify five focus areas. The strategy prioritizes actions being taken to address the expected impacts of climate change at Tahoe, such as aquatic invasive species programs, forest resilience projects, improved transportation systems, and infrastructure improvements to protect vulnerable communities. The strategy will also advance equity, create jobs, and build resilience for the basin’s communities and extraordinary natural resources. We must act now to preserve and protect Lake Tahoe for this and future generations.
Seeing blossoms and sprouts in the midst of a spring snowstorm is yet another of nature’s miracles that makes the arrival of Earth Day in the mountains so fitting. In these moments, Lake Tahoe’s ecosystem puts its flexibility and resilience on full display. At the landscape scale, Tahoe’s resilience and readiness for change is found by scaling up and looking from above at the deep web of related actions that are no less extraordinary.
At the landscape scale, resilience and readiness rely equally on a healthy environment, economy, and communities. This is the triple bottom line mindset behind most sustainability initiatives and the holistic mindset that underpins the recently released Tahoe Climate Resilience Action Strategy. As environmental threats and solutions have evolved over time, Earth Day has also become an opportunity to learn and evaluate what actions are needed most.
Now, more than 50 years after creating the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and celebrating the first Earth Day, we’re taking stock of where we’ve been. As people across the globe began embracing natural resource conservation in the late 1960s, scientists at Tahoe began sounding the alarm that unchecked development and a lack of environmental protections were driving down the lake’s world-famous clarity and threatening environmental quality everywhere. In 1969, the year of the first international Earth Day, the states of California and Nevada created TRPA as the nation’s first bi-state regional environmental planning agency. The agency was charged with conserving open space, managing development, and unifying environmental strategies across the watershed through the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan.
“Save Our Snow” Campaign Raises Awareness About Our Changing Winters
#SaveOurSnow is inspiring people to remove a ton of emissions from the atmosphere each year. The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center has partnered with BrandXR, Palisades Tahoe, and Protect Our Winters to increase public awareness and understanding of the negative effects of climate change to Lake Tahoe’s snowpack and winter tourism industry. Designed to inspire people to take immediate action to reduce their own carbon emissions by one ton per year and prevent the worst scenario from playing out, the campaign includes a carbon reduction calculator, easy actions individuals can take to #SaveOurSnow, and a super-fun, augmented-reality Instagram filter.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their 2022 report, highlighting the urgency with which climate change must be addressed to avoid worsening impacts across the globe. The report contains many recommendations for governments, businesses, and communities like Tahoe to reduce carbon emissions and build climate resilience. The climate plans and projects being implemented at Tahoe directly respond to the recommendations contained in the latest report.
California Releases Updated Climate Adaptation Strategy
Following the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report Governor Newsom launched the state’s Climate Adaptation Strategy outlining the all-hands-on-deck approach to building climate resilience across California. The strategy positions California as an international leader protecting people and natural places from accelerating climate threats.
Nevada outdoor recreation partners gather at Sand Harbor State Park to discuss climate, access, and funding for sustainable recreation projects across the state. Nevada and federal agencies recently signed a shared stewardship agreement, establishing a new partnership focused on outdoor recreation throughout Nevada. The new Nevada Agreement for Recreation Shared Stewardship is a strategic partnership that will serve as a model for multi-agency collaboration to address the multi-faceted challenges facing Nevada’s communities and natural environment, while advancing sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities and a vibrant outdoor economy for the state. Click here to learn more.
