California Tahoe Conservancy: Progress Report - Environmentally Sensitive Lands

Since urbanization at Tahoe began accelerating in the 1960s, large areas have been subdivided and thousands of individual lots have been sold.

Many of the areas contain steep, highly erodible slopes which, if built upon, would contribute significant amounts of nutrient-rich sediment to the runoff flowing into the lake. Other areas contain disturbed lands that are already seriously eroding. Still others are in marsh, meadow and riparian areas which should be preserved to help absorb algae-stimulating nutrients and settle out sediment before runoff reaches the lake.

Valuable remnants Tahoe's once large expanses of environmentally sensitive lands do remain, however.

These still undeveloped properties range in size from small lots of less than a quarter of an acre to parcels hundreds of acres in size. The vast majority, however, are individually-owned one quarter to one-third acre lots scattered in checkerboard fashion throughout existing developed residential areas. Most are located no more than two miles from the shore of the lake.

One of the Conservancy's highest priorities has been to acquire these remaining undeveloped environmentally sensitive properties, parcel-by-parcel, to prevent further disturbance and, if necessary, to restore them. Cumulatively, these activities will help prevent further soil erosion, and by reducing the sediment load will preserve the effectiveness of the basin's many small watersheds in absorbing and filtering runoff.

When the Conservancy began its acquisition program in 1985,it identified between 6,000 and 7,000 undeveloped parcels as environmentally sensitive, out of a total of 15,000 privately-owned undeveloped parcels on the California side of the basin.

Since then, the Conservancy has undertaken a comprehensive acquisition program to acquire as many of these parcels as possible, on a willing-seller basis.

As part of this program, the Conservancy is cooperating with the U.S. Forest Service and other public agencies to assist them, through grants or land exchanges, in also acquiring environmentally sensitive lands.

The Conservancy's program is one of the largest acquisition efforts involving small individually owned subdivided lots ever undertaken for environmental protection purposes by the State of California. Moreover, it is unique in attempting to reclaim environmentally sensitive lands in already developed areas.

While the program's major thrust is to acquire, protect, and if necessary restore as much environmentally sensitive land as possible, to help protect the clarity of Tahoe's waters, a further value has been to provide an equitable alternative to owners of such lands who have been prevented by land use regulations from developing their property as they might have desired.

From 1985 to the present, the Conservancy has authorized the expenditure, either directly or through grants, of more than $69.4 million for the acquisition of more than 4,950 parcels totalling about 5,950 acres.

The vast majority of the Conservancy's acquisitions under this program involve small subdivided parcels in areas such as Tahoe Paradise, Mountain View Estates, BIjou Park, and Montgomery Estates in El Dorado County, and Tahoe Woodlands, Tahoe Pines, Woodvista and Brockway Vista in Placer County. Significant resource lands involving larger acreages have also been acquired in the Upper Griff Creek, Ward Peak, Twin Peaks, Carnelian Creek, Dollar Creek, Cascade Creek, and Upper Truckee River Marsh areas.