January 2020 Conservancy Newsletter

The California Department of General Services (DGS) has released its Request for Qualifications for affordable housing developers for a potential project near the South Lake Tahoe “Y.” Based on a collaborative effort to address housing affordability at Tahoe, the Conservancy is partnering with the DGS and the Department of Housing and Community Development to explore opportunities to provide housing on multiple sites in South Lake Tahoe. You can find the RFQ on the DGS website.

Last fall, the Tahoe Prosperity Center (TPC) released the South Shore Housing Assessment, which found that homes, both rental and ownership, are becoming less affordable for local South Lake Tahoe residents. TPC found that only 21 percent of Tahoe residents can afford the median house price. Following a series of community meetings and online surveys, TPC and its regional partners, including the Conservancy, will roll out a Housing Action Plan to address housing affordability in March 2020. Check out the housing assessment and learn more.

Tamara Wallace, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council Member for the City of South Lake Tahoe (City), has joined the Conservancy Board. Wallace will represent the City, taking over for Brooke Laine, who departs her role as the Conservancy’s Board Chair. Voters elected Wallace to the South Lake Tahoe City Council in 2018. 

An eight-member Board of Directors governs the Conservancy, including the State Secretary for Natural Resources, (or designee); the State Director of Finance (or designee); one public member appointed by the State Senate; one public member appointed by the State Assembly; one appointed representative each from El Dorado County, Placer County, and the City of South Lake Tahoe; and one ex officio, non-voting member representing the United States Secretary of Agriculture. View all the Board members. 

Jessica Wackenhut Lomeli joined the Conservancy staff in January. Jessica most recently worked for a national nonprofit, Local Initiatives Support Corporation in Los Angeles, focused on community development. Her passions are focused on developing locally driven strategies to comprehensively address neighborhood revitalization. Jessica is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies and Latin American & Latino Studies and a Master of Planning degree from the University of Southern California. She will lead the Conservancy’s Tahoe Livable Communities Program and will partner with Strategic Growth Council.

Milan Yeates has accepted the position as the Conservancy’s Forest Management Coordinator. In his new role, Milan will work extensively with the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (TFFT) to coordinate forest management efforts. He will also play a key role in implementing the strategies in the Lake Tahoe Basin Forest Action Plan. Milan has been a part of the Conservancy’s forestry team for over 15 years and brings a wealth of history and knowledge. Milan was a founding member of TFFT, and he has managed the Conservancy’s largest forest health and fuels reduction grant.

Erin Ernst has accepted the position of the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) Coordinator. The TCSI partners aim to speed up forest landscape restoration throughout 2.4 million acres of the central Sierra Nevada. Erin joined the Conservancy staff in 2019 as the Forest Planning Management Specialist. Before that, she led ecological monitoring at the University of California, Davis, working on the USDA Forest Service (USFS) Central Sierra Province. Previously, Erin worked for six years as a forester for the USFS at the Tahoe and Lassen National Forests.