Upper Truckee River users fail to practice ‘leave no trace’
By Austin Fay
On a four-hour hike from Lake Tahoe Golf Course to where the Upper Truckee River ducks under Highway 50, Lake Tahoe News spotted three Coors Light cans, 10 empty bottles, two red plastic cups, one-and-a-half pairs of shoes, a black overturned grill, 14 golf balls outside the course, as well as a cigarette box and other micro-trash along the sweeping riverbanks.
A sort of tree-house platform was also found built into an overhanging tree midway through the Upper Truckee’s journey around the east side of the airport on California Tahoe Conservancy land.
Weaving and meandering through lush meadows, with quaking aspens and willows drooping and sliding into the chilly winding waters, the Upper Truckee River eventually empties into Lake Tahoe.
Steve Ashcraft of South Tahoe checks out the treehouse on the Upper Truckee River's edge. Photos/Austin Fay
Beyond being an eyesore, garbage can also end up in the lake. With much of the river being a wildlife corridor, what humans leave behind is never good for animals.
In addition to the walking, bicycling and hiking trails that stretch through the river’s floodplain, kayaking, rafting or just floating makes the river a popular recreation destination.
Much of the trash was found at the river entrance near the intersection of Elks Club Road and Highway 50.
Since May 3, the Tahoe Flea Market has been every Sunday in the parking lot near the most popular entrance point to the river for recreationists. According to Bruce Eisner, acquisitions manager for the California Tahoe Conservancy, the flea market’s participants are responsible for the condition of the parking lot.
Many locals don’t want to see the natural beauty of the land depreciated. Steve Ashcraft, a 31-year South Tahoe resident, walks his dogs up and down the Upper Truckee River several times a week and values the shared land and its single-track trails.
“I see a couple soda cans here, some clothes there, a raft here and that’s with light usage (of the river). How bad is it going be on a long 4th of July weekend?” Ashcraft wonders. “It’s just an ongoing thing.”
Ashcraft also has a problem with CTC’s way of doing things.
“I’m just surprised with the millions and millions they budget for realigning the river and all those cans and bottles are sent out into the lake,” he said.
Of the 63 tributaries of Lake Tahoe, the Upper Truckee River watershed makes up 18 percent of the total watershed drainage into the lake.
Danny Cohen, a one-year South Lake Tahoe resident looking a little sunburned as he took his cooler and rafts out of the river Wednesday night, has floated a section of the river at least 20 times in the last 30 days.
“For the most part it’s pretty clean right now, but the river’s been flowing pretty strong,” Cohen said. He and the three friends he was with reported seeing a few golf balls and a stranded paddle during their float.
“Compared to the rest of California, it’s not that much trash,” said Joy Eichnerlynch, a four-year South Lake Tahoe resident.
Eichnerlynch was out for a sunset stroll with her husband, Walter, and their two wet dogs, Jesse and Gregor, on June 30. They live near F Street and think the litter is worse there than the Upper Truckee because of a nearby sledding hill.
The “Stewardship” of shared land is our responsibility. We are citizens. Good citizens take responsibility for their actions. My parents had us take a bag on every hike. We picked up other people’s trash along the way. My Father used this as a teaching tool to show us, how not to be. It is a given, some people are not going to take the care of their shared surroundings. It is also a given that others expect government entities (city, county, state, federal) to pick up, repair, replace….at our expense (we all pay taxes)…you get the picture. We need an attitude adjustment….we are all responsible for this beautiful land of OURS. I still “hike with a bag”, won’t you join me and be part of the solution.
You think its bad now? Just wait until thousands more people are funneled down there on a designated bike trail called the greenway. The agencies better put trash cans all over because its going to get much worse. People will be trampling / rafting throughout this meadow and the millions of dollars of supposed restoration. Man made stream banks will be disturbed and possibly destroyed. Those river realignment projects are not going to solve any trash problem. In fact, I don’t believe they are going to solve any problem, just siphon money away from real water quality projects like road treatment. Sunset ranch used to escort you out of there at gunpoint. Sure there were some horse trails, but who cares, there’s more damage from humans there now and funneling thousand s of recreationalists through sensitive areas does not make sense when talking about conservation. That meadow has been there for as long as we can tell. Leave it alone all you channel alignment people. It’s functioning, it floods, it has lush vegetation, great fisheries, incredible wildlife and native mussels everywhere. To move the river is the real crime, not some trash left by some idiot tourist.
What about all the trees the CITY removed along the riverbank. How about restoring some of those?
LOCAL THOSE WERE Jenkins TREES,HE NEVER PLANNED ON REPLANTING THOSE.
ED COOK GOT THE GOOD PULP TO TAKE TO THE MILL,AND THE CITY GOT THE 200.000 BILL FROM THE T.R.P.A ,I THINK.
H, all the wood was left to be cut into rounds, split and given to the seniors in our town
That’s what happened?
I cleared 100 cords out there years ago..
The bid was low,was like 1000 for 100 cords,that’s when cord-wood were going for 95 of lodge pole,85 for pine.
Now days people don’t call it wood cutting ,they call energy companies.
What was the final bill to the t.r.p.a. ?
I will try and find out and it was fine by the TRPA to the City and the City paid to have the work done. It all had to be done by hand with no heavy equipment as it was a SEZ.
I will try and find out and it was fine by the TRPA to the City and the City paid to have the work done. It all had to be done by hand with no heavy equipment as it was a SEZ.
I think it was a $500,000 fine and instead of money, the city spent $500,000 tearing out some asphalt at the airport and restoring it to natural dirt. This was for cutting the 350 trees at the north end of the airport without permits, and on a holiday weekend(memorial day) and while the airport manager was out of town(to try and cover his butt) Does anyone remember when busted, the city put up that fence around the north end of the airport and even had city police patrol out there to try and keep locals away, because the locals reported the cutting. Our tax dollars spent on keeping us off trails and the river. What a city council! Anyone know who was on the city council then? Some are still there.
Tyler the reason they are moving the river is to return it to a more natural sineous course which will reduce the amount of sediment that ends up in the lake (look at aerial photos of where the Upper Truckee empties into the lake and note the large sediment plume extending into the lake), because the river was straightened for the airport and keys. No it will not solve the trash problem and it isn’t intended too, also I hate to be the one to tell you this but the tourists are not the only ones who leave trash behind, there are plenty of locals who are guilty as well.
The aerial photograph being used in the documents regarding the restoration of the Upper Truckee River was taken in 1997 after the flood. Certainly not the two year flood cycle, or the ten–25, 50 100 year cycle? How many other half-truths are we being fed?
I am all for trying to restore the clarity of The Lake, but given there are so many environmental factors contributing to the loss of clarity that I am having a difficult time understanding why trying to restore wetlands on a 1.5 mile stretch of the river is the priority. Not to mention the 5 million plus dollars it is going to cost–no government project ever came in on budget–that may be more effective elsewhere. The airport and loss of the trees that were “inadvertently” cut down seems to be much more likely to have an impact on lake clarity.