This piece was published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Around this time each year, people start getting anxious for the first snowfall. There’s a sense of anticipation humming just below the surface of every conversation and every weather report. You may find yourself staring longingly at your skis or board that has sat dormant since last spring. It’s an anxious, excited feeling – a good one. 

But there’s also a different, more foreboding type of anxiousness we all deal with. It starts in early summer and only fades away when the snow falls. 

For part of the year, we wait for snow. For a much longer part of the year, we wait for fire. Fortunately, voting yes on California’s Proposition 4 on your November ballot can ease your wildfire anxiety. 

Over the last few years, the threat of extreme wildfire has exploded, affecting almost every corner of the American West. In California, the eight largest wildfires in state history have all burned since 2018. Tahoe has not been spared. The 2021 Caldor Fire burned almost 10,000 acres inside the Tahoe Basin, forcing the entire South Shore to evacuate.  

Even when the flames don’t reach us, thick, sooty ash and stinging smoke cause the local air quality index to spike. In the worst of those recent fire years, smoke plumes covered every single California county for at least 46 days (1). Scientific research is revealing that Lake Tahoe’s clear waters may be hurt by the changes in light, temperature, and nutrients caused by wildfire and smoke too (2).  

The time to prepare for wildfire is now. The more we do before the next disastrous wildfire hits home, the better protected our community will be and the less it will cost us, the taxpayers, to confront it. That is why it is essential that Californians vote YES on Proposition 4 on the November 5 statewide ballot.  

Prop 4 will make investments now to stave off suffering in the years ahead. This farsighted ballot initiative would fund forest health projects such as wildland fuels management, mechanical thinning, and controlled burning that will help reduce the severity of future wildfires before they explode into disasters that threaten our communities and release toxic smoke into the air we breathe. 

The damages Prop 4 will help us avoid touch our environment, public health, and economy. From 2017 through 2021, the economic losses experienced in California due to wildfires are estimated at $117 billion annually (3). Prop 4 is a smart hedge against a future economic downturn and a good way to mitigate risk. 

Prop 4 will send $50 million to the California Tahoe Conservancy to ramp up its critical forest health projects, like the ones that helped prevent any homes from being lost during the Caldor Fire. YES on 4 also provides more than $25 million to Tahoe watershed improvement projects that protect the Lake’s water clarity and quality, which gives us some of the cleanest, most pure tap water in the country (4). 

Prop 4 also protects natural places across California, including in the Sierra Nevada and Tahoe, that are absorbing the impacts of a changing climate and more unpredictable weather. The funding from Prop 4 safeguards wildlife habitat and restores sensitive ecosystems, like meadows, wetlands, and marshes which act as Lake Tahoe’s natural filtration system when they’re healthy. 

YES on 4 is a shift from disaster response to prevention. By taking proactive steps now to improve the Sierra’s ability to withstand fire, drought, extreme weather, and the other consequences of climate change, our homes and communities will be safer and save more money than if we wait to react to the next disaster. 

The California general election ballot is packed with local, state, and federal races, along with 10 statewide ballot propositions. As you wade through the questions, remember that Prop 4 protects the Sierra Nevada and helps Keep Tahoe Blue for us all to enjoy. Vote YES on 4. 

Darcie Goodman Collins, PhD
CEO, League to Save Lake Tahoe/Keep Tahoe Blue 

1. “Wildfire smoke.” California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. July 2024. oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-human-health/wildfire-smoke

2. “Wildfire smoke impacts lake ecosystems.” Faruggia et al. Global Change Biology. June 2024. doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17367

3. “The Economic, Fiscal, and Environmental Costs of Wildfires in California.” Paci et al. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. June 2023. moore.org/article-detail?newsUrlName=the-economic-fiscal-and-environmental-costs-of-wildfires-in-california

4. “Propositon 4 Fiscal Analysis.” California Legislative Analyst’s Office. 2024. voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/4/analysis.htm