While the Tahoe Basin remains a significant area for wildlife, its fragile habitat areas have been adversely altered by human activity. Habitat and animal travel routes have been reduced, fragmented and degraded by urbanization. Even in areas of less intensive development, the natural landscape has been significantly modified by residential subdivisions and the construction of roads and houses. Resource management practices varying from clear-cutting to aggressive fire suppression have also had profound effects.

To address these situations, the Conservancy has established a wildlife enhancement program, with projects carried out either by the Conservancy itself or through grants to other public agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, and the City of South Lake Tahoe.

The program has three major objectives. First, to preserve, through acquisition, a wide variety of habitat types, plus the corridors animals need to they can move from one area to another.

A second objective is to upgrade existing habitat by such methods as using prescribed fire to restore habitat diversity by creating a mosaic of vegetation types and ages, and enhancing meadow habitat for deer and other animals and birds by restoring diverted natural water sources and removing invading lodgepole pine. Other approaches are to restore stream channels and build resting pools, create habitat "edges" and revegetate eroded areas, even to purposely leave snags and downed logs for creatures that depend on them for perches, nesting or cover.

Recognizing that the long-term success of the program depends on public understanding and support, the Conservancy has set interpretation as a third objective. To foster better awareness of Tahoe's wildlife resources, such things as informational signing, shelter displays, self-guided nature trails and wildlife viewing platforms are made an integral part of projects and of the wildlife program as a whole.

Since its inception, the Conservancy has authorized the expenditure of $4.9 million for 26 wildlife projects. These projects include the restoration of over 1,340 acres of critical habitat in the Cold Creek, General Creek, Washoe Meadows, and Meeks Creek areas of El Dorado County, and in the Upper Ward Creek, Blackwood Creek, and Carnelian Canyon areas in Placer County.

Conservancy-funded projects will also result in the restoration of 15.5 miles of stream habitat in Cold, Taylor, Ward, Angora, General, and Blackwood Creeks, and in the Upper Truckee River. Two artificial reefs were installed at the southern end of Lake Tahoe and one of these has recently been enlarged. Bald eagle perches are being installed in tree tops near Taylor Creek, the peregrine falcon is being reintroduced, and osprey nesting platforms have been build on the tops of trees near Baldwin and Kiva beaches. More than 158 acres of forest, meadow, and stream habitat - all key parcels needed to keep travel corridors open for deer -- have been preserved through acquisition of parcels by the Conservancy in the Upper Ward Creek, Cascade Creek and Carnelian Canyon areas.