November 2024 Conservancy Newsletter

Public Comment Period Opens for Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan

An updated Draft Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is now available for public comment. The CWPP is a strategic plan developed to reduce wildfire risks and protect lives, homes, and natural resources. Communities around the Basin have shaped the CWPP through last year’s public meetings and survey and are now invited to provide feedback during the public comment period, which runs from November 18 through December 20, 2024.

The CWPP prioritizes fuels reduction, wildfire preparedness, and strategies to reduce structural ignitability, and also helps create grant opportunities for fire districts, enabling them to fund critical wildfire risk reduction projects.

What’s new? The Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team launched the Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan landing page on ArcGIS Hub, featuring interactive StoryMaps that allow users to explore the CWPP through dynamic maps, graphics, and other resources. The 2025 update also features an advanced tool that uses data and scientific modeling to identify and prioritize the areas that would yield the greatest benefits, ultimately reducing risk to communities and optimizing ecological outcomes. While protecting people and communities are the primary factors for prioritization, identified treatment areas may offer co-benefits for other critical objectives, such as recreation, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water quality, and cultural and scientific values throughout the Basin.

To review and submit your comment:

1. Visit the Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan resource hub
2. Review the CWPP draft and corresponding StoryMaps
3. Share your feedback by emailing cneuffer@tahoercd.org

In 2022, the Conservancy awarded a California Department of Conservation Regional Forest and Fire Capacity grant to the Tahoe Resource Conservation District in coordination with the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team to complete this update of the Basin’s CWPP.

Prescribe Fire Season Returns

The return of cooler temperatures and precipitation make ideal conditions for the Conservancy and our Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team partners to conduct prescribed fire operations. Prescribed fires, including pile burns, are a vital forest management tool. Land managers use prescribed fire to help protect communities by removing fuels that can feed unwanted wildland fires. In the months ahead, the Conservancy expects to burn piles on Conservancy land in Kings Beach, Carnelian Bay, and our Dollar property on the north shore, Tahoe Pines on the west shore, and in the North Upper Truckee neighborhood in El Dorado County.

To find more information about prescribed fire projects near you, view the prescribed fire map with project details at Tahoe Living With Fire. To be added to the prescribed fire notification list, email the USDA Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. 

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor and celebrate the rich history, culture, and achievements of Native American tribes. At Lake Tahoe, we celebrate the accomplishments of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California as they continue to expand their environmental protection and restoration efforts within their homelands.

As we noted in the opening of our strategic plan, the Conservancy has a special commitment to working with the Washoe Tribe. Our land acknowledgement, which you can find on the home page of the Conservancy website—and which was provided by the Tribe—represents our understanding of the responsibility we have as we work in the Tribe’s homelands.

Learn more the Native American Heritage Month logo provided by the Conservancy’s parent agency, the California Natural Resources Agency.

Sugar Pine Village Opens to Residents

On October 17, residents began moving into the first 68 units of Sugar Pine Village, the largest affordable housing project in the history of South Lake Tahoe. Eventually growing into a 248-unit community, the project is placing affordable housing for Tahoe families and workers on developable state land originally provided by the Conservancy.

“Today we advance our strategy of transforming underutilized state properties into thriving affordable living communities for Californians. Sugar Pine Village opens the door to more affordable living in South Lake Tahoe, creating hundreds of new homes,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “I congratulate and extend my thanks to Related California and the Saint Joseph Community Land Trust, as well as the state agencies who led the way by quickly transforming this state property into a place where many families can call home.”

Visit the California Department of Housing and Community Development website to learn more.

Meet the Conservancy: Maiya Greenwood

Next up in our “Meet the Conservancy” video series: Maiya Greenwood (and costar Mattole). Maiya is the California Tahoe Conservancy’s Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative Coordinator. Watch the video to learn more about Maiya’s work on TCSI with state, federal, and nonprofit partners. (Also, who’s a good dog? Mattole’s a good dog.)