In a history-making summit on the shores of the majestic alpine lake, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore listened as community leaders called for halting ruinous impacts on Lake Tahoe's natural resources and funding programs to clean up its polluted air, protect its imperiled water quality, and restore its ailing forests.

Governor Pete Wilson, right, and Nevada Governor Bob Miller show off their state's Lake Tahoe license plates after signing an environmental agreement at South Lake Tahoe.

"I got the message," the president told a 500-member audience at Incline Village, Nev., July 26, as he concluded the Presidential Summit.

He said the solutions to Lake Tahoe's problems are largely up to the communities of the Lake Tahoe Basin and praised the extraordinary partnership of business, environmental, and local government leaders who turned years of conflict into collaboration.

"We will work with you, we will support you, but you, the states, the tribes, the local citizens, you will lead the way," he said.

Environmental Improvement Plan

Preceding the presidential visit, Governor Pete Wilson and Nevada Governor Bob Miller signed an agreement at Lake Tahoe July 22 reaffirming their states' commitment to the compact that created the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in 1969, which put the brakes on development and instituted strict environmental controls in the 200,000-acre basin.

Atop a Heavenly Ski Resort run overlooking the lake, Wilson and Miller endorsed the TRPA's proposed Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), a 10-year $906 million road map for attaining thresholds of water and air quality, soil conservation, vegetation, wildlife and fisheries, scenic resources, community design, recreation, and noise control. The agreement calls for a local, state, and federal partnership to develop and implement the plan.

"If we are determined to have the water blue, forest green, and the air clear, it will require the kind of careful planning and thoughtful management reflected in this document," Wilson said."

The EIP, still in draft, envisions commitments of nearly $300 million from the federal government, $275 million from California, $82 million from Nevada, $100 million from local sources, and $152 million from private sources. California's total funding commitment is contingent on full participation of the other partners, Wilson said.

Not for 30 years, since Governors Ronald Reagan of California and Paul Laxalt of Nevada met at Lake Tahoe in 1967, had the governors of the states that share Lake Tahoe met on its shores.

Secretary for Resources Doug Wheeler, right, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, center, and Nevada Senator Harry Reid, left, meet for the Presidential Forum on Forest Ecosystem Restoration, Recreation, and Tourism, at Incline Village.

A Model for the West

Four days after the governors' meeting, Clinton signed an executive order committing the federal government to spend about $50 million over the next two years for environmental improvements and creating a Tahoe Federal Interagency Partnership of top federal officials to coordinate and oversee the programs.

The president also promised to return 350 acres to the Washoe Indians for their use and provide them land for a cultural center and lakefront access.

During the weeks preceeding the summit, presidential Cabinet members and other top officials presided over a series of public workshops at Lake Tahoe that explored the state of the ecosystem and the challenges of reconciling resource preservation and heavy public use of a world-class tourist destination. Three workshops conducted by presidential Cabinet members focused on improving air and water quality and reducing forest fuels and motor vehicle pollution.

"What we are doing is historic and ... has relevance for all the American West," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who co-chaired with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman a workshop June 30 at Incline Village on the troubled condition of the national forest that rings the basin and the impacts of tourism and recreation upon the ecosystem.

"The cooperative way in which Lake Tahoe communities are working together is a showcase for innovative, collaborative approaches to restoring large-scale ecosystems," Babbitt said.

California's Secretary for Resources Doug Wheeler said the extensive environmental improvement needed at Lake Tahoe will require the full partnership of local, state, and federal agencies.

"We have consensus and we have a plan," Wheeler said.

Economy and Environment

Vice President Gore conducts a pre-summit workshop.

At Lake Tahoe, the environment and economy go hand in hand.

Local businessman Mark Lucksinger, speaking to Vice President Gore at a pre-summit forum July 25 in the forest at South Lake Tahoe, said the years of conflict between industry and environment "didn't do anything to clean up the lake.

"Now we're committed to getting the job done," Lucksinger said. "We need a healthy lake for a healthy economy and visa versa."

South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tom Davis said business and environmental interests realize "they're not going away and we're not going away."

Exploring the Issues

Environmental problems at Lake Tahoe are highly visible to the more than 58,000 residents and 3.5 million annual visitors.

"We are a rural community with urban problems," Kathy Farrell of the Tahoe-Douglas Chamber of Commerce said.

Erosion from several decades of development and air pollution from motor vehicles are reducing the clarity of the famed crystal water at least a foot a year, decreasing visibility from 100 to about 70 feet in 30 years.

Air pollution from cars and buses affects trees, soil, and water and is the major source of nitrogen that stimulates growth of algae.

Traffic clogs the roads and dirties the air, but proposals for mass transit systems or limiting vehicle access are only in talking stages.

About one-third of the trees in the over-stocked forest are dead or dying, the legacy of a century of fire suppression and a 6-year drought that worsened a bark beetle infestation.

"I saw a forest that looked to be in serious trouble with vast areas that were distressed, and that worries me," said Glickman, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 77 percent of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Local and state governments manage 7 percent of the land and 16 percent is privately owned.

Reducing Forest Fuels

The community workshops reflected a desire to restore the forest ecosystem as closely as possible to pre-European settlement conditions, but opinions differed about whether controlled burning or salvage logging is best for reducing catastrophic fire risk.

"We must master the art of introducing fire to the ecosystem," said Steve Chilton, chief of environmental compliance for the TRPA.

Sue Husari, assistant director of fire and aviation management for the Forest Service, said prescribed fire cleans out fuels on 200 acres a year, but is needed on 8,000 to 10,000 acres. The Forest Service has cut and cleared dead and dying trees from 7,000 acres around the lake in the last six years and plans to treat another 9,000 acres.

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore greet a crowd at Lake Tahoe following the historic Presidential Summit.

In 1995, nearly two dozen local, state, and federal agencies launched Tahoe Regreen, a multi-agency program that encourages landowners to rid their property of dead and dying trees. The program is in its third year and has removed 400 tons of fire fuels.

But experts acknowledge that use of fire must be carefully balanced with air quality, so smoke is allowed only sparingly.

Logging is the more widely used method of thinning forests, but raises the hackles of environmentalists who see it as a way to obtain cheap timber.

Dan Tomascheski, vice president of resources for Sierra Pacific Industries, called for more aggressive logging to restore forest health.

"All we're doing is picking around the edges," Tomascheski said. "Unless we get rolling, we're going to have huge catastrophic fires. We're going to have one in the basin someday."

Rochelle Nason, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, said cutting trees is fine to achieve defensible space around structures, but prescribed burning to eliminate excess vegetation is cheaper and more effective.

"We need not destroy the forest to save it," she said.

Babbitt and Glickman voiced support for using both tools -- logging and prescribed fire -- to reduce fire hazards and promote forest health.