Word is out. President Barack Obama is the keynote speaker at the 20th annual Lake Tahoe Summit. The Aug. 31 event at Harveys Outdoor Arena is the first time a sitting president has visited since 1997. The announcement led to a flurry of excitement and headlines, but what will the visit mean for the region? Political visits often incite criticism for being a photo-op without substance, but the commander-in-chief holds the ability to bring significant action. Statements from the White House say Obama will discuss the global threat of climate change and protecting Lake Tahoe, but full details aren’t known.
We can look in the not-so-distant past for an example of a presidential visit with teeth. In ’97, Bill Clinton came to the inaugural summit, and many believe the 2016 event will be framed in that event’s legacy, which resulted in unprecedented policy and action, along with crucial funding to move forward restoration efforts at a critical time for the lake.
“Whether he brings dollars or not, in speaking at the lake, he will bring an immense focus to the area, with world news coverage and other government agencies paying attention,” said James Baetge, who was executive director at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency when Bill Clinton made his ’97 visit.
Obama will be joined by a high-profile cast of politicians including California Sens. Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Nevada Sen. Harry Reid — not to mention Las Vegas rockers The Killers.
Sen. Reid, who Baetge calls “a gem” for his accomplishments, orchestrated Clinton’s visit in ’97, and now Obama’s. The senator will not be seeking reelection this November and the 75-year-old will be ending a three-decade congressional career at the end of this term.
WATERSHED MOMENT IN THE WATERSHED
“I am writing to request that you convene a federal conference to consider the serious challenges that face Lake Tahoe, Nevada,” ~ Harry Reid in a letter to Bill Clinton, June 1996
In ’97 President Clinton, along with Vice President Al Gore and several high-ranking cabinet members, made impactful pledges and the collaborative outcome is remembered as a positive turning point for the environmental stewardship of the Basin. But prior to the event, the scope of the visit was downplayed.
“We were told by the White House to keep any expectations low on what might be announced [in 1997], but it far exceeded what people thought might happen. There was a lot of actual signing of documents and actual meaning,” said Steve Teshara, now the coordinator of the Lake Tahoe Partnership and executive director of the Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance at the time, as well as an attendee of all 20 summits.
And it couldn’t have come at a more needed time. The lake was losing nearly a foot of clarity from 1968 to 1997, primarily due to visibility-clogging algae growth, fed by sediment runoff. Additionally, the myriad players — a dizzying array of towns, counties, special districts, the U.S. Forest Service, TRPA, the private sector, and other governmental agencies — were seen as somewhat disjointed in how to achieve the shared goals of preservation. “In 1997, the agencies may have shared similar goals but they were more on their own in doing so,” said Tom Lotshaw, TRPA spokesman.
The driving document from the Clinton visit was the Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) that requested an initial $908 million in funding over 10 years. Several years of work went into producing the EIP document prior to the summit, and it placed an emphasis on bringing all the stakeholders together with the unprecedented goal to change the course of the Basin’s health to a sustainable level. The EIP was brought to life in the form of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, which was signed by President Clinton in 2000.
“We said if you give us the money we are pretty sure we can check the loss of clarity in the lake,” said Baetge, who was a main writer of the EIP document, along with Carl Hasty, then program manager of the TRPA. The money came from the federal government, local governments, nonprofits, the private sector and more, and the words became reality. In ’97 the Secchi disk test — the long held measure of lake clarity — was measured at 64 feet, the lowest number on record for Lake Tahoe. Since then, clarity has stabilized and improved, and was measured at 73 feet in 2015.
The EIP continues into today. It initiated more than 400 completed projects with around $1.8 billion invested. Hundreds of projects are currently in progress in all corners of the Basin to improve watershed health, habitat and water quality, forest management, air quality, transportation, recreation, and more.
BACK TO ‘BAMA
Will this visit carry anywhere near the same weight as the actions of 20 years ago? Obama is less than five months from leaving office, but the threats of climate change, wildfire, aquatic invasive species, and more are still relevant concerns.
The Hill, a political newspaper out of Washington D.C., wrote, “The speech is a chance for him to burnish his legacy on the environment and climate change. It’s also an opportunity to counter Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is pledging to roll back Obama’s executive actions on energy and the environment.”
Kristen Orthman, communications director for Sen. Reid, said the arrangement came about last December when Reid invited Obama to the summit to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and the president accepted. Orthman did not specify but said the president — who will be flying into the Reno-Tahoe International Airport — will likely speak on the “importance of the lake and making sure its clarity and beauty are preserved,” as well as other items related to climate change and the environment.
Joanne Marchetta, executive director of the TRPA, believes there is much to celebrate with the return of a sitting president to Lake Tahoe, and hopes the opportunity for continued improvement is realized.
“President Obama’s visit is also the time to redouble our commitment to working together to improve the Lake Tahoe region’s resiliency to a changing climate,” said Marchetta in an email to Moonshine Ink. “We know Tahoe’s climate is changing, and that change is having effects on our lake and our forests and creating new challenges we must recognize and address.”
The visit could tie in with important Tahoe-related legislation. The original Restoration Act expired in 2010 and a current version has been stalled in Congress for six years. Two bills are currently in different stages in Congress that aim to be a continuation of the 2000 Act. The Senate bill, S. 1724, calls for more money and is more closely aligned with the original Restoration Act. It would authorize spending $415 million over 10 years on various Tahoe projects. The House bill, H.R. 3382, authorizes about one-fifth of the money and is more tightly focused on forest fuel reduction and invasive species.
Teshara believes the event could be an opportunity to highlight these bills. He is a supporter of the Senate bill, and hopes it is approved and signed before the president leaves office. “But the number one thing is the visibility that the event will create that can go toward getting the act re-authorized,” Teshara said.”
IMPRESSIVE IMPRESSIONS
Darcie Goodman Collins was an intern for the League to Save Lake Tahoe during the first summit, and is now its executive director. She met President Clinton in ’97 and served on a panel where she spoke to Clinton and Gore about how she grew up in Tahoe and the beauty of the lake. She also recalls the intensity of the arrival of the president and was even called by the secret service for a background check, even though she was just 17.
“It was transformative,” she said. “The whole town was energized.”
Going into this year’s summit, Goodman Collins hopes an effort to rally around climate change is achieved, and that efforts to combat damage to the lake are not slowed.
“Because we don’t have National Park status, it is up to nonprofits like ours and the agencies to protect the investments we have made over the last 20 years and to not backtrack on that progress.”
The Aug. 31 event begins at 1:30 p.m. at Harvey’s Outdoor Arena in South Lake Tahoe. At time of press, tickets were sold out.
