From the inception of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in 1969 as the first bi-state regional environmental agency in the country, to the present, Saving Lake Tahoe: An Environmental History of a National Treasure sheds light on the agency’s history. Through extensive research, author Michael J. Makley confronts decades of controversy between TRPA, state and government officials, environmentalists, developers, casino owners, a variety of local agencies, and individual citizens concerning the health and welfare of the Lake Tahoe Basin.
TRPA is constantly thrown into a perpetual fire storm, the central gravity of Makley’s book. For every action taken by TRPA, a reaction follows, often with a lawsuit. Controversies abound on the question of building or not building, preserving or not preserving, while casinos fight to expand, developers to develop, homeowners to build piers and boat ramps, and environmentalists to purchase environmentally sensitive properties. A variety of agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, League to Save Lake Tahoe, Sierra Club, Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, and Tahoe Environmental Research Center — voice their opinions and concerns while Nevada and California have their own disputes, the feds often intervening to settle them.
Makley begins his book with a brief history of logging and fishing in the Basin, which leads into the beginnings of development, and then primarily focuses on the TRPA. He does stray from TRPA’s history toward the end when he brings to light the positive influences of entrepreneur William Hewlett and the environmental destruction by Squaw Valley’s Alex Cushing. A pivotal event occurred in the late 1990s concerning Cave Rock, pitting the climbing community against the Washoe Tribe, which argued against the destruction caused to the sacred rock by climbers. In the end, the Forest Service banned climbing, and in 2009, 17 years after the dispute began, the anchors were removed from the rock. The annual Lake Tahoe Summit, first held at Incline Village in 1997 with President Clinton, was another defining moment in the lake’s history. Politicians gathered together from both states and ended up providing millions of dollars toward the lake’s preservation.
In the conclusion of Makley’s book, he provides updates on current developments such as South Shore’s Edgewood Golf Course, North Shore’s Boulder Bay project, and Homewood Mountain Resort’s redevelopment prospects, and returns to TRPA once again, this time with a final hopeful note: “Despite its ongoing struggles and many breakdowns, TRPA has had successes. In particular by codifying science, it has slowed the deterioration of the lake’s transparency.”
TRPA’s cycle of controversy has been occurring since the Nixon administration and still continues today. But without this watchdog agency’s work, what would the Lake Tahoe Basin look like? A Miami shoreline? It’s possible, which gives us pause to consider the decades of hard work accomplished by so many agencies, politicians, and citizens.
Saving Lake Tahoe, An Environmental History of a National Treasure is available at the Bookshelf in the Westgate Shopping Center in Truckee, 11429 Donner Pass Rd. Suite 2, and on Amazon.
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