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Forest Service: Spread the word on Leave No Trace ethics in Lake Tahoe

Claire Cudahy
ccudahy@tahoedailytribune.com
U.S. Forest Service staff came upon this scene at Kiva Beach on Wednesday.
Provided / U.S. Forest Service LTBMU

UPCOMING COMMUNITY CLEANUPS

Tahoe City Cleanup Day WHO: The League to Save Lake Tahoe in partnership with Tahoe City Downtown Association, Tahoe City Public Utility District and Tahoe Truckee Sanitation District. WHAT: Pick up trash along designated routes. Breakfast, lunch and t-shirt included. WHEN: Saturday, June 2 from 8:30 a.m. – noon WHERE: Meet at Commons Beach, Tahoe City Bike Path Cleanup WHO: Clean Tahoe Program in partnership with The League to Save Lake Tahoe, Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition, Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative, Cold Water Brewery, Vail Epic Promise and South Tahoe Refuse. WHAT: Help get the South Shore’s bike paths clean for the summer season. Celebration for volunteers to follow at Cold Water Brewery. WHERE: RSVP at http://www.clean-tahoe.org/bike-path-cleanup and select preferred bike path on South Shore. WHEN: Cleanup from 5 – 6:30 p.m. followed by celebration from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

On Wednesday morning, U.S. Forest Service employees came upon a troubling site at Kiva Beach.

The once pristine beach was littered with plastic bags, beer bottles and cans surrounding the remnants of an illegal campfire.

“Visionaries worked hard to acquire places like Kiva Beach because there weren’t many public access points to Lake Tahoe,” said Jeff Marsolais, forest supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.



“Now, many of us around the Lake Tahoe Basin are working to develop a sustainable recreation strategy. However, in the meantime, we need your help. Please share Leave No Trace ethics and skills with those you come in contact with, around the dinner table and when on vacation.”

In short, pack out what you pack in.



The scene at Kiva Beach is not an uncommon one in Lake Tahoe.

Two weeks ago, volunteers on the South Shore cleaned up nearly 2,500 pounds of trash as part of the Spring Cleanup event put on by Clean Tahoe Program and the city of South Lake Tahoe.

The 300 volunteers collected plastic bottles, food packaging, straws, cigarette butts, clothing, diapers, dog poop bags, car parts, glass bottles and Styrofoam coolers from around the community.

While visitors are often targeted as the culprit for littering — last year’s Fourth of July weekend resulted in almost 1,700 pounds of garbage on Tahoe’s beaches — the Forest Service says it’s important to spread the Leave No Trace principles “within our own communities and neighborhoods.”

“These are your public lands,” said Marsolais. “How you leave them becomes a piece of Lake Tahoe’s incredible story.”


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