State Parks: Washoe Meadow sustains minimal damage

By Kathryn Reed

Furor by neighbors over what appeared to be a tree removal process gone awry led California State Parks and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency officials to survey the area last week.

Officials from both agencies toured Washoe Meadow State Park to look for any long-lasting damage created by the contractor who was doing over the snow tree removal.

“What they saw is none of the ruts caused by the contractor’s activity would deliver sediment to the stream,” Tamara Sasaki, senior environmental scientist with State Parks, told Lake Tahoe News on Dec. 21. “Agency representatives observed ruts in three locations and areas where the equipment operated without any impact to soil or vegetation. They saw little soil compaction, which was a good thing.”

Some ruts were found in non-sensitive areas outside the meadow and wetlands, Sasaki said. The state will restore that 200-foot stretch after the snow melts.

TRPA and State Parks officials plan to revisit the area once the snow is gone from the South Shore park to “reassess the impacted area.”

“Then State Parks will do any remediation or anything that needs to be taken care of in 2011,” Sasaki said.