Obama visit coincides with crunch time for Tahoe funding
Invasive species, like the clams that were suffocated by mats at Emerald Bay, were not an issue 20 years ago. Photo/LTN file
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
A visit by President Bill Clinton in 1997 is credited with pushing Lake Tahoe onto the national stage.
That visit, part of the first Tahoe Summit, rallied disparate interests from California and Nevada around the idea of Lake Tahoe as a singular political issue that crossed state lines and federal agencies.
When President Obama visits today he’ll see progress on water clarity and political unity that can be traced back to the original summit.
And there’s a chance that 20 years from today people will look back at Obama’s visit as another turning point in the lake’s perception on the national political stage. That’s because it coincides with crunch-time for reauthorization of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act. The reauthorization, which has been floating around Congress in some form since 2009, would authorize $415 million in federal spending at Lake Tahoe.
It also calls for future presidents to aggregate federal spending on Lake Tahoe into a single line item in the executive budget. The change would mean that during future budget-making processes the President would see Lake Tahoe as a singular cause, similar to Florida’s Everglades, the Great Lakes or Long Island Sound.
I regret to tell you self absorbed folks that outside of the immediate area nobody knows about the g-d Tahoe and they definitely don’t know of the pathetic slogan “keep tahoe blue” or its famed? clarity. Wake up and smell the milfoil before it’s too late and the nation wastes billions more dollars in a losing fight with mother nature.
Really? I am sorry to tell you people from all over the world know about Lake Tahoe and it’s issues with Lake Clarity and the impacts of climate change. You really like to see your non-sense on this site everyday. Yes the trees at the bottom of Fallen Leaf Lake are a quagmire, but it doesn’t make you right. Just a loud mouth.
John F Kennedy, his brother Bobby and their friend Frank(Sinatra) chased Marilyn Monroe around the Cal Neva Club in the early 60’s. Racing back and forth across the Lake, it is a 10 minute trip from Villa Harrah to CalNeva.
Mark Twain knew all about Tahoe as did Heney Kaiser, you need to read a history book!
Bigfishy1 you are quite the scientist. When the facts
disprove your Nobel prize size intellect {not} you dismiss it as a quagmire. Brilliant. Ad hominem attacks are just your style.
Were the thousands of feet of ice covering the Lake Tahoe basin ten thousands years ago also a quagmire?
Was Half Dome cleaved by Paul Bunyan as he created Yosemite Valley?
I Love people who dismiss scientific facts.
Mark Twain said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
BF1, what facts were incorrect? You and Alice in Wonderland are related, are you not? Maybe I saw you at open mike night at our local comedy club.