By admin 
With its crystal-clear waters and soaring pine forests, Lake Tahoe is a beloved destination for Californians, Nevadans, and tourists from around the world.
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It’s also a fragile ecosystem that faces threats from climate change, invasive species and changes in weather patterns, according to Jeff Cowen, a spokesperson for the agency responsible for regional planning and environmental protection in the Tahoe area.
Restoration and conservation efforts have been achieved through careful coordination by federal, state and local officials who recognized the need for environmental improvements — and the money to fund them, Cowen said.
The event comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is poised to roll back federal environmental policies that protect national lands around the country, including Tahoe.
Sweeping U.S. Forest Service cuts have already brought layoffs and hiring restrictions. And In 2025, the Secretary of Agriculture proposed rescinding a rule that protects portions of national forests from development, including 45,000 acres in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
Against that backdrop, state and local officials will gather Wednesday for the 30th annual Tahoe Summit.
“We are facing, really, the most radical retrenchment against the efforts to protect our planet, our environment, that the country’s ever seen,” California Sen. Adam Schiff told Cap Radio, after hosting last year’s summit.
The annual event brings stakeholders together to discuss the most pressing issues facing the lake and its surrounding forest. And despite discord with the Trump administration’s policies, officials from the state are quick to emphasize the importance, and success, of bipartisan collaboration.
“In the last two years, we have not seen or experienced a large, a significant reduction in funding that’s coming to the basin, and that is pretty much 100 percent because of the bipartisan, two-house, bicameral support that Lake Tahoe has had by our federal delegation for 30 years,” said Cowen, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency spokesperson.
A plan to secure funding
This year, conversation at the summit will include a bill that would allow the U.S. Forest Service to use an already-existing pot of money to pay for land management and environmental protection, Cowen said.
The Santini-Burton Modernization Act amends a 1980 law that allows the Forest Service to purchase environmentally sensitive land in the Tahoe Basin. More than 16,000 acres of land were acquired after the law’s passage, according to a fact sheet from the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program.
But as fewer qualifying parcels remain available, Tahoe officials say that freeing up the funds would allow them to support environmental projects that benefit the land already owned by the government.
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The bill was cosponsored by Nevada Sen. Jackie Rosen, who is hosting this year’s summit. Both California senators also cosponsored the bill , as did Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
“Through bipartisan, bi-state collaboration — and with the support of federal funding — we have improved water clarity, prevented invasive species from entering the lake, and made surrounding forests healthier and safer,” she said, of previous environmental projects.
“I’ll continue pushing for the federal resources needed to support our efforts,” said Rosen, in a statement.
About $531 million was available for Santini-Burton projects as of March 2025, show.
A companion bill was sponsored by Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Rocklin, and cosponsored by Nevada Reps. Dina Titus and Susie Lee.
The Senate held a hearing on the bill in February, but it has not advanced since. The House bill has not received a hearing.
The price of Tahoe
Many of Tahoe’s conservation activities are carried out through the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program, a decades-old partnership that brings together 80 partners to fund and carry out conservation projects, according to a report by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The program has completed more than 900 projects since 1997, the group said.
Environmental repair comes at a cost. The Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program has invested more than $2.6 billion in capital projects, research, and monitoring at the lake since 1997, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Attending the Summit
The 2026 Tahoe Summit is scheduled for Wednesday at Sand Harbor State Park in Nevada. In-person tickets are sold out, but the event’s livestream will be open to all.
The program will include a keynote address by professional rock climber Tommy Caldwell.
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