Opinion: Don’t change Washoe Meadows State Park
To the community,
Anyone who values open space and concurs with the wisdom of Native Americans that all living things are interconnected should be appalled by what is happening in Washoe Meadows State Park near South Lake Tahoe. California State Parks Department (CSP) plans to downgrade a portion of Washoe Meadows State Park to State Recreation Area in order to pave the way for golf course development. To my knowledge, never in the history of this state has a state park been downgraded to state recreation status.
The Upper Truckee River Restoration Project is being sold as a package deal, tied to golf course development. The final EIR has been released and CSP has stated that their preferred alternate is “a slightly modified version of Alternative 2”. Under this alternative the boundaries between State Recreation and State Park land will be reconfigured and nine golf holes will be moved to the west side of the Upper Truckee River. This will fragment the park, disturb currently contiguous wildlife corridors, result in the logging of thousands of trees, destroy wildlife habitats, and diminish the park experience as river access will be significantly altered and more of the park will be bordered by the golf course.
It’s not too late to get involved. A public hearing, to approve redrawing the boundaries between State Park and State Recreation Area will be held at 9am Oct. 21 at the Lake Tahoe Golf Course. Please attend and help us preserve Washoe Meadows State Park. If, like me, you can’t attend a 9am meeting on a work day, please write to: California State Park & Recreation Commission, P.O. Box 942896, Sacramento, CA 94296-0001, Attn. Louis Nastro, Assistant to the Commission; or email him at LNastro@parks.ca.gov.
Restore the river and preserve Washoe Meadows State Park.
Sincerely,
Krissi Russell, South Lake Tahoe
In today’s bankrupt government environment, it seems absolutely ludicrous to spend money to move a golf course that has been where it is for decades. The work will disturb the environment in such a destructive way that the project should not be done at all. Spend the money to protect the riverbanks and leave the golf course alone. This is madness.
I realize that the jobs of dozens of bureaucrats making studies, posting websites, holding meetings, printing expensive proposals and shuffling papers like crazy depends on this sort of useless project. But, seriously, the money can’t be better used?
I can’t believe the State Parks spent a slew of money to make a huge stone sign for the park,at this fiscally bad time, but have never placed a single small sign anywhere that directs the public to Washoe Meadows State Park. It is a gem of nature and the idea of breaking up this amazing meadow to hand it to a developer in the hopes that in about 10 years, there MAY be some money from it for the state is ridiculous. The developer gets back every dime of his “investment” before we get a penny. And then he makes more money and we have lost one of the best places in the basin for people of all abilities to hike, bike and horseback ride. This is also happening at a time when the number of golfers is shrinking and the industry is not making money. Many publicly held courses are closing because they can no longer be subsidized. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Redirect the stream to help the lake, keep the golf course where it is today, but leave this amazing place alone!
Don’t redirect the stream! Bad idea…! These projects are a mess.. The water was brown a couple weeks ago because of the lower reach construction. These are not water quality projects… Why on earth are we moving these systems and forcing the stream to stabilize over many years? Stabilize the banks and walk away.. DO NOT move the river… Please go understand prior projects further before we construct more of these failures.
Take a walk into Washoe Meadows State Park, or ride your bike, or take a horse, or in the winter ski or snowshoe. It is a beautiful and unique place. To turn it into a golf course would be a tragedy.
There have been meetings and discussions about this going on for a couple of years now. Mainly the residents of the sorrounding neighborhoods have been attending and trying to stop this thing all along, to no avail. The agencies came into this with their own plan and public opinion made no difference. Your government doesn’t give a rat’s patootie what you want. It will give you what IT wants.
Yes, I wish they would leave it alone. There’s no shortage of golf courses, and the parkland is a terrific place to walk, XC ski, snowshoe, bike, and run the pups. But somebody has another agenda.
Can someone please briefly explain to me what the purpose of moving these rivers are? It seems like so much disturbance with huge cost and controversy…
Jeez dog, are you new? lol I attended several of those meeting with the Forestry dept. and the Meyers Roundtable and of course they have an agenda. All I got out of the meetings was that they were looking for input from the community but the underlying fact was they had their minds made up in advance and they were just looking for justification.
The phrase, “Civil Disobedience” comes to mind. We have tried to protect our precious Washoe Meadows State Park, by attending meetings, writing letters, voicing our concerns to officials. We must not let our park be sold out for a golf course. Let’s be ready to ACT!!!
Correct me if I’m wrong Hillary, but if I kill all the golfers, they’re gonna lock me up and throw away the key…
How about a 60’s style sit out and chain yourself to the dozer. That would bring some attention… Water quality my rear… The system may have some bank erosion and does not flood as much as some would like but tearing it all up and having heavy equipment in sensitive areas for many years will not solve the problem as it will take decades to stabilize and still not be perfect. Nature has its way even though things have been modified by man in the past. Relocating the course and building a new river is to risky. To many “what ifs”. Creating more disturbance to the tone of millions will not solve the problem and could make things worse. I am skeptical of Most these stream projects…
Excellent posts, especially Robot! Aye, laddie. It seems that the meeting on 21 October should be packed with protest and disagreement, en masse.
Conservation Robot – I know you are only kidding but this isn’t about park users against golfers.The real issue is the pro-development stance being taken by public agencies that are supposed to be protecting and preserving the land.