Earth Day in South Lake Tahoe

Earth Day will be happening at Bijou Park on April 25th, 2015.  For more information about this year's event visit http://www.southtahoeearthday.org/ Below, find my video of last year's event.


Featured presenters last year included:

• Fernando Carillo - California Conservation Corps
• Victoria Ortiz - California Tahoe Conservancy
• Allison Toy - UC Davis Tahoe Education and Research Center
• Aaron Hussman - League to Save Lake Tahoe 
• Catherine Cecchi - Clean Tahoe Program
• George Gusses  - US Forest Service: Lake Tahoe Basin
• Tucker Cheverria - Cub Scout Den 592
• Frank Papandrea - Vail Resorts Echo Program
• Tuji Silch - El Dorado county Vector Control
• Tess Braun - Alpine Watershed Group
• Matt Craig - Tahoe Maritime Museum
• Diana Lazano - South Tahoe Public Library
• Patrick Elliot - Tot to Tot recycled children's wear
• Janet - Lake Tahoe Master Gardener Program 
• Eva Schneider - H2O Products 
• Emily Abernathy - SOS Outreach

Sierra Drifters at Earth Day

Also see my video of the Sierra Drifters at Earth Day on Tahoe Onstage's YouTube channel.

My gallery of pictures Earth Day 2014:

Bonsai Beach Reunion: following up on last year's graffiti cleanup

I went out to Bonsai Beach on May 18th, 2014 to finish the graffiti restoration and beach cleanup job we started at our Bonsai Rock Graffiti Cleanup last November and check up on the progress of the site over the winter.    So Much of the time here in Lake Tahoe when I cover things here on my channel about the environment, you guys never find out how it was resolved or whether it was even resolved at all.  Also,  I'm going to be catching up with some of the people from the original Bonsai Beach graffiti restoration.

Dylan Eichenberg, event organizer:

Hey you guys, I'm +Dylan Eichenberg  and I helped coordinate the first graffiti cleanup last November and since then it's been a lot of progress.  The +Tahoe Regional Planning Agency  actually recognized me with a Lake Spirit Award  and, I mean, I think it recognized everyone who was part of this for helping keep Lake Tahoe clean and beautiful, improving the quality of what we already have.

Also, my good friend Sam Rossi and I, we wrote a grant for Boreal's #ProtectYourPlayground grant program, thanks to Sam who discovered it, and we actually wound up recieving over $1000 that we're going to put towards graffiti supplies to clean up the rest of this beach.  We're out here today scoping out how things look and it looks a whole lot better than it did last time out here in November and we think that over the winter the graffiti deteriorated a lot more.  So we're working on catching where the new graffiti is if there's any or what spots we still need to hit up.  

See the full Bonsai Beach cleanup gallery on Google+ 

We're going to be back here in October.  I want to get a huge group of people. I know we're going to have media attention and we're going to have a lot of organizations involved in this process.  So, by October, I hope to see everybody out here.  You know, our goal is to leave this beach immaculate.  There have been over 50 graffiti tags but our goal is to annihilate all of it, and with this grant that really made that possible for us.  We're going to be able to buy more graffiti cleanup supplies than I ever thought possible.  So, I want to send a thank-you to Boreal ski resort  who sponsored us for this.  It's been a real good ride, there's a lot of people involved and I'm hoping to keep on growing that effort.

Cody Liberman of People-of-Tahoe:

My name is Cody Liberman and I'm with People of Tahoe, and we're here at Bonsai Beach doing a little catch-up on what we've done in the last 6 months.  Man, it's great to come out here and see all the familiar faces and see all of the hard work that we've done.  Things are just working out great, you know.  A lot of stuff that was here beforehand is now gone.  The trash is just down to its minimum.  Spirits are so high and the morale is just, you know, everyone is happy to see that we've been doing something productive and it's coming along.

Much of last year's worst graffiti has been entirely eliminated.

Like I said before, it's been, probably, about six months since we've been here and we've been reaching out everywhere else we can and trying to help the lake out any way we can with the pipelines and the environmental studies.  Anything we can.  You know, we're a local clothing company and we've been trying to reach out and be as local as we can.  Anybody who has any suggestions or knows anywhere that needs help -- we're there, any time at any point if you just let us know.  Man, it's great to be back and thanks to everyone who did come out.

Martin Gollery, Photographer: 

High Morale: Dylan Eichenberg plays ukulele while Martin Gollery sings along.

Hi, I'm +Martin Gollery,  and I was one of the original people to work here at Bonsai Rock.  In the meantime, I have published a number of photos in Tahoe Quarterly about the fall cleanup.  And so we're out here today cleaning up some more and we will be out here in October as well.

[Jack Durst] So, tell me how much it's different...

[Martin] It's considerably different.  There's a number of tags that we weren't able to get to because of lack of people and supplies So we did a lot in the fall and we did a lot more but there's still a lot to be done.

More things you can do to help protect the #LakeTahoe Environment

Click here for the Bonsai Rock scenic gallery if your browser does not support embedded Google+ posts.

Let me just say that there's been huge progress in making and maintaining our environmental gains here in Lake Tahoe, and I want to let all you guys know that keeping Tahoe blue is something that all of you can do.  Come out, later this fall we'll be having a much bigger Bonsai Beach cleanup and getting Bonsai Beach totally pristine.  

You can go to the 5th of July cleanup in Marla Bay and help clean up the fireworks debris after 4th of July.  It's a real easy one-day project.  If you're a Tahoe local you can become a Pipe Keeper: pick a pipe and monitor the effluent coming out of it.  All of these things are available so you can you can do your part to help keep Tahoe blue.  Or, if you're not a local and you just want to give to the cause you can visit KeepTahoeBlue.org and give to the League to Save Lake Tahoe and we'll see so much more environmental progress here in Lake Tahoe. 

Bonsai Rock Graffiti Cleanup

Bonsai rock is one of Lake Tahoe's most famous photography sites Full cleanup gallery  

Famous Lake Tahoe photography site Bonsai Rock got tagged with about 50 sprayed on graffiti over Labor Day weekend 2013.  I went out to a graffiti cleanup event at Bonsai beach organized by Dylan Eichenberg and People of Tahoe, Inc.




As Dylan Eichenberg said: "I've been helping to organize this graffiti cleanup effort.  I first saw the pictures two weeks ago, and I came down to the beach because a good friend of mine, Cody Lieberman with People of Tahoe company organized the first graffiti beach cleanup.  We decided that day that we couldn't really do as much as we wanted to, so we decided that we really needed to take some action and get the community together to clean up this unique area.

So, what we did is that first we talked to the state parks, the League to Save Lake Tahoe, the US Forest service, the TRPA, and a bunch of important organizations at Lake Tahoe that deal with environmental cleanup; and we decided that, you know, this is something that we could totally take on. We're trying to get as much of this graffitti as possible.  They've tagged over 50 rocks out there.  You may have seen the pictures on Facebook, and they don't even come close to what's out there.  So, it's gonna take a lot of us and we're gonna get it, hopefully, pretty much done today.  State parks won't be able to get it until July so what we're doing here is really gonna make a big difference."

We worked hard scrubbing all day with wire brushes, blowtorches, and graffiti remover.  The rock I was scrubbing was so thick with paint there were archeological layers: scrape off the silver and there's black underneath, scrape off the black and there's blue and gold underneath... Despite two people scrubbing, I never did get all the way down to bedrock on the rock pictured above.  Luckily most of the rocks weren't as heavily covered as this one as you can see:

Photos from the Adopt Bonsai Beach group
Graffiti before	After cleanup

Regarding the cleanup product, Cody Liberman, co-owner of People of Tahoe said: 

"The product we've been using out here is this product called Motsenbocker's Lift Off.  It's actually an environmentally friendly based cleanup.  It's a solution that breaks down spraypaint as well as cleaning it up, but it's still environmentally friendly.  You know, it doesn't polute the lake, it's not harmfull, and so far it's been the only solution.  We've tried many things, we've done scrub brushed, we've taken torches to try to change the effect of the paint and nothing has worked as well.  

So, we're out here, we've got a bunch of people we've gathered up.  The pictures have gone viral, and, like I've said you can see behind us that we're cleaning up, and it's everywhere.  

And I'm with People of Tahoe.  I'm the owner, I'm the co-owner and we've contributed a bunch of stuff.  You know,we've brought a bunch of stuff and we've reached out to Meeks Hardware in South Lake Tahoe and they've donated all kinds of Motsenbocker product that's cleaning up for us.  Truckee hardware as well as Incline has donated Motsenbocker as well as buckets and brushes.  We actually had a local Safeway that's donated some food out here for us.  And, y'know, we've reached out and tried hard and we've spent some money on the company, with the company money and it's worked out.  We're just reaching out and trying to get a good cause going."

The graffiti has been particularly rough on local photography tourisim.  "Bonsai beach is one of the main places that photographers come to Lake Tahoe to make their images." said North Tahoe area photographer Martin Gollery   "This is a well known and famous and well loves area for Lake Tahoe area photographers, and this is one of the places where we bring people when other photographers come from elsewhere to visit Lake Tahoe and want to see a special location.  And so, for us as photographers, this has been a real travesty because it spoils our images and it spoils what we want to show to people that visit."

My Message to Potential Taggers:

And finally, a message for those of you who are aspiring graffiti artists.  Though it is terrible to do graffitti on nature, there is a place for graffiti in society and if you are a grafitti artist in the Lake Tahoe area there is a great non-profit called Sphere of Influence.  (Contact them on facebook) Sphere of Influence can find you legit places to put up your art where you can do graffiti and get away with it and know that your art is going to be standing for years and years with nobody scrubbing it off.  So, PLEASE, graffiti artists, don't tag on nature.  Perfect your art on plywood at home and then call Sphere of Influence and they will give you a lightbox to decorate the way you want. It's really cool.

By the way,  We really do have a good street art scene in South Lake Tahoe.  Don't let the Bonsai rock graffiti fool you, graffiti can be right in the right places. Check out my interactive walking tour of South Lake Tahoe Street Art to see some of the legit art you can see there.

Tahoe Expo brings Sustainable Geotourisim to Lake Tahoe

The 3rd Annual Tahoe Expo from Sustainable Tahoe is a Basin-wide geotourisim event in Lake Tahoe where the participant can explore many different tracks of sustainable tourism around the Lake Tahoe basin.


Among many other offerings this year's event featured a wild mustang tour of western Nevada, ultimately leading to the place where the Donner party camped before they attempted to cross the sierra.

 It also featured Stand-Up Paddle Yoga, an electric bike tour of the water quality hazards posed by unprotected drain pipes into Lake Tahoe, and a demonstration of Native American music and spirituality.

Tahoe Summit 2013: Governor Brian Sandoval on SB 229 and the Tahoe Fire Compact

Thank you.  Good morning everyone, it's always a pleasure to follow congressman Amodei and the Vice president and you might have seen that I brought up a little prop with me but it's unfortunate that the vice president had to leave for that very important board meeting because I had something for him.  My mom has recently moved back to Nevada and we were going through her things and we discovered something that I thought I would present him with today but this is his inaugural poster from the first election and I thought he would enjoy and appreciate that but I hope we can get it to him...

Thank you, Senator, he does look young in that picture.  [laughter] I wanted to present it to him because, as was mentioned, I had the privilege of serving on the TRPA 17 years ago and I had the opportunity and the privilege of attending that first summit and I know that I mentioned this last night at dinner, but I know that the vice president didn't remember me meeting him but I certainly remembered meeting him, and he's got just a tremendous, tremendous legacy.  And I think that it's really important that we pause for a moment and remember what it meant for he and President Clinton to come here that day so that we could all be here 17 years later.

You know, we gathered here today, and we've heard a lot of adjectives, but to recommit to a generational promise to preserve and protect one of the Earth's finest treasures.  Senator Reid, I want to thank you for your leadership through the years, senator Feinstein for your sponsorship of that very important federal legislation; Governor Brown, it's such a privilidge to be with you here today and a lot of folks don't know this but it also was mentioned that we had signed that legislation, or I had signed that legislation a few short months ago.  What I will recall more important than signing that bill was the opportunity to travel to Sacramento and meet with the governor and discuss these very important issues as I mentioned to him last night and even today: you know Paul Laxalt is one of my mentors and I believe that it's an absolute responsibility on my part to continue that legacy that he and President Reagan started, and I see it continuing now between governor Brown and myself.



It's fun for me to have this event here at Sand Harbor.  I mean, we all have our Sand Harbor stories and though I wasn't cleaning toilets or picking up trash or whatever but I was here 40 years ago playing out on the rocks and swimming out on the beach, and it's truely one of the gifts that we have in the state of Nevada to have this.  We've got some of our state parks folks who preserve it so well... If you would just raise your hand and be acknowledged for what you do.

When you think about it, this park here gets 1 million visitors per year and it is the most visited state park in the state of Nevada.  I think it's also important, and I know it's been mentioned today, that we acknowledge our native americans.  This is their ancestral home and it's a privilidge and honor to be in your presence as well.

[applause]

Now, I was looking at some of the program materials and this year's theme is "a clear lake legacy: preserving Tahoe and the environment for future generations" and I think that's obviously why we're all here.  We understand what we have, but also what it's going to mean that our children and our grandchildren and the generations to come can share this and enjoy it just like we have.  The regional plan update was mentioned and it was adopted by the TRPA and I think the members of the TRPA deserve a big hand because it took a lot of courage to adopt that.

[applause]

And that's a combination of the TRPA staff, the governing board, the environmental community, members of the business community, local residents and representatives... It truely was, and it's going to be an overused word today, this collaboration, this teamwork to get things done, so, as the Vice President said, this will be a model not only for our two states but our nation and the world.  Mr Ambassador it's such a pleasure that you're hear today and I hope that someday I have the opportunity to visit your great country and see that lake as well.

Now, I don't think that it's appropriate for me to go on.  We have that American Fire that's going on today and I see the firefighters here and the leaders of the firefighter community; and just think about it: as we sit here on this beach in this great sand and wonderfull backdrop, there are those firefighters, hundereds if not thousands of them, fighting that fire a short distance from here to help preserve what we have.  Please thank them for their courage.

[applause]

Now just a short few words talking about Nevada's comittment, as we've mentioned senate bill 229 and why it was a priority.  Economic, healthy communities provide a healthy foundation for continued environmental gains at Lake Tahoe.  The EIP program continues to be our shared roadmap to the restoration of the Lake Tahoe basin watershed.  We're using the newest and best practices, the latest available science.  The state of Nevada continues to honor our comittment to this great lake and to prioritize: funding for forest restoration, water clarity improvements, stream restoration, recreation enhancements, and invasive species management.  I'm also pleased to report, and Leo Drozdoff, I wanted to acknowledge him today for his leadership in what happens here in our great state, but the Nevada jurisdictions will likely meet their 5 year milestones in polutant reductions and are well on their way to meeting or exceeding all the other milestones, and that's due to your leadership and that of many others.  Thank you Leo.

[applause]

It was also mentioned about the stream zone environments, I know that they are some of the greatest contributors to the lake, and we are working on the third at Incline Creek, the two creeks there are the largest contributors to fine sediments; and I want to thank all of our partners in this great work: the Nevada tahoe conservation district, IVGID, Washow County, the Glenbrook community, and the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Beaureau of reclamation - another fine example of this teamwork to get things done up here.

I mentioned about the wildfires, Governor Brown and I immediately before we met today signed an agreement to continue, a proclamation that recomfirms the bi-state effort that began with the California-Nevada Tahoe basin fire commission created after the Angora fire.  Today's proclamation displays the continued cooperative work by our two states to protect people, property, and natural resources of the basin through fuel treatment projects, defensible space inspections, and agressive public education campaigns.  Governor Brown, thank you for your teamwork.

[applause]

So, in closing, it's a privilidge and an honor to be here today.  There are so many people responsible for all of us being here on this stage and I look out and I see everyone in the audience and I'm so proud of our Nevada legislators that I see out here and how we were able to work together.  The Nevada Secretary of State is here and I know that he sits on the TRPA and has a great comittment to Lake Tahoe.  Our federal representatives, the state representatives who work here, those representatives from California, I could go on and on, our county comissioners, our city council people, everyone is here and I know that when it comes to Nevada you have our future comittment to do whatever it takes to continue to preserve the greatest place on Earth, Lake Tahoe.  Thank you.

Tahoe Summit 2013 - Harry Reid introduces Al Gore

You've been welcomed, I welcome you again.  Especially I want to acknowledge Dianne Feinstein, who has been a partner in this operation since she came to the senate.  Dianne Feinstein has had a love affiar with this great lake since she was a child.  Her visits here those many years ago recognized the quality of this natural resource, the beauty of nature.  I acknowledge governor Brown and governor Sandoval and I've said this before and I'll say it again: they've set an example with this beautiful part of the world in acknowledging that a progressive governor and a conservative governor can work together for the good of the people of their states.  So, thank you very much, governors.


We didn't get a confirmation of this until the last minute, but I'm so thankful and we're all fortunate to have with us today the Russian ambassador to the United States, ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and I'm sorry because we didn't know he was coming but I would like somebody to escort the ambassador up here... [applause] I've had the good fortune and I appreciate very much the many courtesies he's extended to me.  He's always available, always returns his phone calls, even though sometimes the subject of the conversation isn't the most pleasant.  We work together and I have great admiration for him because he and I do our best working for the betterment of our two sovereign nations.  Thank you very much for being the first Russian ambassador ever to see Lake Tahoe.

You see, one reason that he's interested in this beautiful lake is that in his country, they have the other lake.  There are only two alpine glacial lakes in the world, Lake Tahoe and Lake Baikal.  Now, I told him today that he is not to boast about the size of Lake Baikal. [laughter] We love this lake that we share with California.  It is a beauty of nature.  Lake Baikal is interesting: it's 400 miles long and 50 miles wide, and that lake has more than 20% of all the fresh water in the world in that one lake.  They have freshwater seals and all kinds of unusual animals.


 Now, we have done some really good things: we have now the Tahoe-Baikal institute that has been going on for a significant number of years. [applause] It's a program of cultural and environmental exchanges between students and academics.  It's a wonderfull organization.  I've been to Lake Baikal: it is stunning, and if Mark Twain could've seen that he would've said the same thing about Lake Baikal that he said about Lake Tahoe "the fairest place in all the earth."  and I'm confident that these two places, Lake Baikal and Lake Tahoe are two of the fairest places in all the earth.  We should all be proud that we have done so much to preserve both these lakes.  We can criticize the former Soviet Union and russia all we want, but we should acknowledge that they have done a great job of protecting that great lake.

See more pictures of Sand Harbor on Google+ 

So, let's talk a little bit about really how this summit came about, how the first one came about.  I was a junior senator and I had been coming to the lake for a long time.  I was elected to my first statewide office in 1970 and everyone complained about Lake Tahoe.  The quality of the lake wasn't what it used to be, and so I was up here and the press said "What are you going to do about it?"  and what I wanted to say was "How the hell am I supposed to know?  I don't know." but, what I did say is this: "I think the only thing left is a presidential summit."  Now, folks, I'd never been to a presidential summit, I frankly didn't know they existed.  [laughter]

But I called my friend Al Gore.  Al Gore and I have known each other since 1982.  If there were ever two non-blood brothers in the world it's him and I.  I just think so much of him because he's been so good to me and I've tried to reciprocate.  And I said, "Mr. Vice President, here's what we have, and what I've asked for is a presidential summit.  Will you help me?"  and he said "Yes."   Now, as I look back at how I felt about this 16 years ago, I knew this basin was at risk: I knew that algae was growing, I knew that lake temperatures had increased, but I thought 'well, maybe we'll have a good photo op.' but that isn't how it worked.

Gore and Clinton, they weren't going to settle for a photo-op.  They had four cabinet officers come here, not only for a visit but to do hearings with the people here.  Environmentalists, developers, state and local government and more than 50 organizations participated.  It was really something.  Now I can look back, and, actually, we spent two days that first summit, it wasn't something that was good for our states from a public relations perspective for one day, not just for our nation, but it was an international event for two days, and people focused on this great part of nature that was being hurt.  And, it was a wonderfull event.  And we finished this event with speeches that were given, but as soon as we finished it, there was a presidential executive order designating this lake as a national priority; and that's the main reason that we've been able to spend here since that time $1.8 billion dollars.  Pretty good, huh?


I had the good fortune about a month ago to go to the renaming of the Environmental Protection Agency complex in Washington, DC, Named after President Clinton; and that speech he gave was a typical Clinton speech. He pretended it was unprepared, but it was prepared.  [laughter] and he started by saying (and this is paraphrasing but pretty close to every word) he said "I'm gonna lay out the things that we've done for the environment during my 8 years as president..." and he said "We've done a lot, but I want everyone here to understand that everything I'm going to talk about could never have happened without Al Gore."  and he said "Al Gore was the quarterback of the things I'm going to talk about."

Well, I have already told you how I feel about this good man.  He has been a member of the congress of the United States, where we first met, a United States senator, Vice President of the United States, ran for president twice (I supported him both times) but the most significant thing he has done was to alert the world to what's happening to our world. He's been tireless.  He devotes the vast majority of his time to explaining to the world, not just the United States, the world, what's happening to this world.  Now, when the history books are written about this era and other eras; when they're written about this era they're going to talk about the most important messenger that has existed for saving this Earth: it's my pleasure to introduce Al Gore.

Tahoe Summit 2013 - Dianne Feinstein on the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act

Well, in 1997 it was the worst, and lake clarity actually dropped something like 22 feet the week after this.  Thanks to Jeff Schladow's latest paper that's been put put, since '97 we have gained 11 feet in lake clarity.  [applause] And, when we began our bills, I really didn't know what was going to work and what wasn't.  So we tried to combine a number of different things and be very prudent, and lake clarity is more or less a guide.  It goes up, and it goes down, but the trend line has to be that the clarity improves because then we know that the things we are doing have achieved a benefit.


I also want to express to you that this partnership is multidimensional: it is not JUST the federal government.  It is the federal government, it is each state putting in funds.  We had $1.69 billion spent (that's an awful lot of money) in the last 10 years and the important thing is to see if that $1.69 billion dollars is working.  The federal share was $554 million, the California share was $647 million (Thank you, Jerry, Thank you John), the Nevada share was $110 million plus $200 million from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.  Local governments put in $73 million dollars for this program, and the private sector $312 million dollars.  So, what that demonstrates is that everyone is working together to put funds in to what must be a very practical and doable program. I did this last year and I'm going to do it again because it's important that you know where your tax dollars have gone.

We have treated 54,444 acres of hazardous fuels, and I cannot tell you how important that is.  Forest fire is something that I know something about, and I travel the California side of the lake and it needs a lot of help.  The fire ladders are all over the place with non-native species that are intensely flammable.  The forest fire that is burning 30 miles over these hills to the west, the winds are westerly and we have a big fire and we have lightning strikes and it starts big fires and it destroys property, it destroys trees, and everything goes into the lake, and decades of work is gone.

We have added 15,800 acres for wildlife habitat.  We have added 2,579 feet of public access to shoreline.  We have created 136 miles of bike and pedestrian routes. And we have inspected, as was just said, and decontaminated thousands of watercraft.

When we began this effort there was no hazardous fuels mitigation.  There was no interaction between the states and the federal government as there is today.  So, the risk of wildfire is tremendous.  I remember it was my birthday a couple of years back, and in Northern California on that day there were 2,200 lightning strikes that started 900 wildfires.  That could be any day, any time, right here.  So, getting property owners to clear around their buildings  is important.  Getting hazardous fuels out of the area is important.  And, I think, paying attention to good fire safe practices is important.  I shudder to think of what that day will be like, but I also know that one day, is is coming.  It has happened here before, and it can happen here again, and we must do everything we can to minimize it.

Who knew, that there was something called a Quagga Mussel and it was at Lake Mead and they reporduce a million eggs for a million Quaggas a year?  And I have a pipe in my office from lake Mead and in 6 months it was entirely filled with quagga mussel shells.  We have to keep the quagga out.  Miss Marchetta was talking about every boat that goes into this lake gets inspected and there's a reason: the Asian clam.  The Tahoe Fund now is going to be doing 5 and a half acres of laying rubber down in Emerald Bay because the Asian clam has drifted to that beautiful bay and we cannot lose it.  So that's an important project and I say to the Tahoe Fund "Thank You, very, very much."

Well, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, myself, and the other senator for Nevada have put together a second bill now, which we are in the process of introducing.  It's $415 million in federal dollars over 10 years: it continues the hazardous fuels reduction with $135 million, it's $113 million for storm water management and watershed restoration, it's $80 million for projects to improve forest health, air and water quality, and fish and wildlife habitat, and it's $30 million to battle invasive species.  This is up $10 million because we think it's really necessary.  We cannot let these creatures get control of this lake.  [applause]  and the bill also invests $30 million in something called the Tahoe Basin Science Program, and this will allow us to direct funds to the most worthy projects that are effective in both monitoring and producing good environmental effects.

With Harry Reid's support, and I mean he's the powerful majority leader of the United States Senate, you can be sure - Right Harry? - Yes. [audience laughs] that the bill will pass the Senate.  We will need help in the House.  The House is not known for doing constructive projects right now.  And so now we need your help to go out there and say "Look, we've done this for 10 years and it's worked." Water clarity is showing us that it has worked. We must continue, and this bill continues the work for all.  And so, I hope, ladies and gentlemen, that this work will go on, that we will see Tahoe improve, and that we will save what is only one of two alpine clear lakes in the world.  The other one, as the leader said, is in Russia, and the ambassador was just telling me that lake has enough clear water in it to be drinking water for 20% of the people in the world.  So it's a huge clear lake and we have the second clear lake and we must keep it that way.  So, thank you, it's been a great 20 years, and now we have to keep going!