After 18 years heading up Lake Tahoe’s controversial leading environmental nonprofit, Rochelle Nason resigned as the executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe last week.
Nason, who joined the League as an attorney in 1992, will stay on as the organization’s ‘senior advisor’ until her replacement is chosen. Carl Young, the organization’s longtime program director, will serve as interim executive director. Young conducted meteorological research across the United States before joining the League and has a background in air and water quality analysis.
The news of the league’s change in leadership was released by an Oakland-based ‘public affairs and crisis management agency’ last Wednesday, with the press release expressly noting that ‘this statement will serve as the League’s full comment on this story.’
Nason cited her permanent move to Berkeley as a reason for her resignation.
Nason had become a polarizing figure at Lake Tahoe for her organization’s frequent legal battles and most recently for her comments defending a wealthy lakefront homeowner who holds a large League fundraiser each year but was found to have illegally extended a pier on her property.
In April, South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Tom Davis publicly called for the resignation of Nason, citing the League’s growth into a ‘surrogate government’ that uses litigation to achieve its goals.
But the League noted that Nason’s accomplishments at the organization include growing it from a one-person outfit to an influential environmental group currently staffed by 10 employees. During her tenure, the league worked to establish and maintain urban boundaries for Tahoe communities, helped attract hundreds of millions of dollars in Environmental Improvement Program funds, and championed a ban on two-stroke motors on Lake Tahoe.
Nason’s resignation is effective in October.
Editor’s Note: To read more about the background of the League’s often controversial environmental tactics at the lake, go online and read a piece we published earlier this year entitled “RIP TRPA?”
