Boaters staying away from Lake Tahoe
By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal
A tough economy is showing itself with decreased boating activity at Lake Tahoe, a report released by Lake Tahoe regulators shows.
Monitoring of boat traffic over the last two years shows the number of vessels using Tahoe dropped by more than 1,200 from 2009 to 2010, a decrease of nearly 8 percent.
Unused buoys signal fewer boaters on Lake Tahoe. Photo/LTN
The recession and high gas prices likely prompted fewer boaters to spend the money to hit the lake, said officials with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
“Definitely it’s the economy and less disposable income,” TRPA spokesman Jeff Cowen said. “There’s less people traveling and fewer people boating.”
While no precise numbers are yet available for this summer, the trend appears to be continuing, Cowen said.
“It’s flat or a little bit less,” than the 2010 boating season, Cowen said.
I find it interesting that the TRPA doesn’t once consider the onerous yet unavoidable regulatory impediments to boating as part of the problem. It is always amazing that the various agencies never see themselves as part of the problem. Just as they don’t see themselves as part of the problem of our infrastructure or real estate blight.
The only thing that I can consider as a regulatory impediment to launching a boat on Lake Tahoe for people are the fees and AIS inspections. Now there are other lakes in the area that don’t have the mandatory inspections, but that will soon change, as the threat of quagga & zebra mussels is literally on the doorstep to the Sierra range.