Keep Tahoe Blue to host 25th annual volunteer restoration event on National Public Lands Day Saturday, Sept. 24
Each year since 1997, the League to Save Lake Tahoe has rallied volunteers to revitalize forests, meadows, marshes and streams damaged by natural disasters, development from decades past, and agriculture.
Healing lands impacted by wildfire is the focus of this year’s event.
Now in its 25th year, Tahoe Forest Stewardship Days (TFSD) events have empowered thousands of volunteers to restore important but fragile ecosystems across the Lake Tahoe Basin. These efforts protect Lake Tahoe’s beauty, as well as its famed water quality and clarity by restoring the environment’s natural functions.
The 2022 edition of TFSD is an opportunity to celebrate what’s been accomplished and embrace the work that still needs to be done to Keep Tahoe Blue. National Public Lands Day sets the perfect stage – it’s an occasion to think about the joy we get from our public open spaces, and to commit ourselves to protecting them for the future.
Over 100 volunteers, along with staff from the League to Save Lake Tahoe, USDA Forest Service – Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, and Great Basin Institute will work on four volunteer stewardship projects simultaneously, with a focus on seeding trees in dozer lines left over from the 2021 Caldor Fire.
The firebreaks created last summer to fight the devastating wildfire helped protect the community, but they also damaged soils, vegetation and wildlife habitat, and left areas prone to erosion that can damage the Lake’s water quality. Participants will collect and plant native seeds to restore the forests impacted by dozer lines.
Volunteer groups working at other sites will maintain popular multi-use trails to prevent habitat degradation; protect aspens and meadows from climate change impacts; and remove litter from a popular recreation site.
The restoration projects will take place from 8:30am to noon with a volunteer celebration occurring afterwards from noon to 2:30pm.
Volunteers are still being sought! If you are interested in lending your hand to better the earth this Saturday, please visit https://www.keeptahoeblue.org/25th-annual-tahoe-forest-stewardship-day/ for sign up details.