What is it?
The League to Save Lake Tahoe is a proud member of a new type of environmental conservation and restoration organization – the California Landscape Stewardship Network.
CLSN is a “network of networks,” bringing together 29 organizations and groups from across California, representing federal, state and local agencies, non-profits, academic institutions and private land managers. All members share a commitment to advancing restoration projects on a landscape-scale to maximize environmental and recreational benefits. The Lake Tahoe West Restoration Partnership is an excellent example of a project CLSN, and the League, supports. Read more on that effort below.
Importantly, the CLSN approach is not just innovative, it’s pragmatic. The environment has both ecological and human elements that deserve equal attention. Like the League to Save Lake Tahoe, CLSN understands that there must be a balance between enjoyment of nature today and its preservation for future generations.
Read the white paper explaining the CLSN approach – “Shifting the Regulatory Paradigm Toward Bold Immediate Action for a Resilient California.”
An environmental “network of networks”
Our largest and most pressing challenges – such as climate change, the need for clean air and water, and rapidly changing population dynamics – are happening at a pace and scale that necessitate collaboration between many partners and across boundaries, property lines and jurisdictions.
The California Landscape Stewardship Network was designed to overcome these challenges.
Here in Tahoe, dozens of public and private entities control sensitive tracts of forest, streams, wetlands and shoreline, each with particular rules and regulations. CLSN is helping those entities work together to expedite important restoration projects that will help Tahoe be resilient in the face of the climate crisis and prevent catastrophic wildfire.
Cutting Green Tape Initiative
CLSN has been invited by California Department of Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot to help find solutions to “Cut Green Tape.” Frequently, landscape-scale restoration projects are hampered by complicated, resource-intensive and time-consuming application, review and permitting requirements – akin to bureaucratic red tape. Those hurdles can delay if not stop environmental projects in their tracks.
League CEO Darcie Goodman Collins sits on a steering committee of CLSN members working closely with Secretary Crowfoot and his staff to come up with novel, bold solutions to increase the pace and scale of restoration projects across the state. In November of 2020, the committee released 14 succinct and actionable policy recommendations to expedite good environmental restoration projects. Read the report here.
Visit the California Landscape Stewardship Network homepage to learn more. Check out a profile of the organization in Bay Nature.
Lake Tahoe West Restoration Partnership
Lake Tahoe West is a landscape-scale forest health project encompassing 59,000 acres that spans multiple jurisdictions on the California side of the Tahoe Basin. The project includes forest management and restoration activities that will prevent catastrophic wildfire and reduce fine sediment pollution that threatens the Lake’s clarity.
This collaborative effort is led by the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU), California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA). The project will restore forests, meadows, streams, and wildlife habitat across a broad swath of the Tahoe Basin’s west shore. This project applies forest management activities comprehensively across the entire landscape, as opposed to a series of less efficient individual projects.
The Lake Tahoe West project team is currently conducting the environmental analysis for the project. The draft environmental documents are expected to be completed and released publicly in 2022.
