On a sunny spring day, a group of students are gathered along Trout Creek behind Lake Tahoe Community College taking water samples. They’re learning how to test water in the field for indicators like pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen.
The class, taught by the League to Save Lake Tahoe’s Jesse Patterson, is part of LTCC’s environmental technology and sustainability degree program, which strives to prepare its students for careers in environmental work in the Tahoe Basin.
“I think aside from Barton [Health], environmental work is probably the most abundant opportunity we have here for year-round, full-time employment,” said Patterson, who started teaching the class “field monitoring of streams and lakes” four years ago when the degree program was officially established.