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‘Significant decrease’ in trash at Zephyr Shoals, lake-wide following July 4 celebrations
Over 100 volunteers showed up at Zephyr Shoals this morning for the annual post-July 4 cleanup. The increase in volunteers is due entirely to the horrors of last year’s cleanup during which volunteers and the League to Save Lake Tahoe cleaned up over 6,000 pounds of trash alone.
This year though, many volunteers found little to do.
“It’s so much better than last year, we can tell that already,” said the League’s Natural Resources Director Laura Patten. “There is significantly less trash.”
Following last year’s massive increase in trash, a number of agencies joined forces to make sure last year’s mistakes wouldn’t be repeated.
According to Patten, a pilot program called the Tahoe Blue Beach program is a compilation of efforts between the League, the US Forest Service, and the Aramark Corporation.
“We all came together under this ethos of ‘destination stewardship,’” Patten said. “We increased education through signage and infrastructure; this year we added over 40 additional portapotties and trash cans, increased enforcement, and instituted an alcohol ban.”
To make sure beach users adhered to the rules, additional security was hired and people were made to utilize check points where bags and coolers were searched.
Patten said she was at the beach all day on the 4th and saw a “buy-in” from visitors.
“It was really helpful to see people embrace the ethos and want to help,” Patten said. “Last year was a wake up call.”
The call wasn’t only for visitors; Patten said last year also created a call to action for agencies and businesses throughout the region.
“I think it was a call to action from the public and for everyone who works in the Tahoe basin; every county, every agency came together to help.”
While some locals worried that the increase in presence at Zephyr would only serve to push people onto other beaches, Patten said that does not seem to be the case.
While final numbers are not yet available, as of Friday morning the League saw a decrease of trash at all of the public beaches, including Nevada Beach which they were concerned most about.
“We’re seeing an overall decrease in litter weight per person across the six monitored beaches,” Patten said. “That’s really because of the buy in and support from the forest service and agencies making sure what happened last year doesn’t happen again.”
To learn more about the League and their ongoing efforts to protect Tahoe, visit https://keeptahoeblue.org
Final numbers on trash collected will be available Monday.