Last week, Tahoe Weekly kicked off a series about how our community has been bombarded by an unprecedented amount of trash this summer. In the first part, “Tahoe’s tourism tipping point,” officials across the Tahoe Sierra cite an increase in visitors to the region and a corresponding increase in trash and other issues due to the pandemic, but they don’t know who these visitors are. There could be more day visitors, more short-term rentals, more long-term rentals or more people using their vacation homes more often. No one knows.
What everyone does agree on is that our infrastructure – our public beaches and parks, our public trails, our neighborhoods – is being taxed by too many people using them at once. Many locals point the finger at visitors for being irresponsible, but the greater blame, they say, is the failure by local officials to address litter problems that have been getting exponentially worse with each passing year from the lack of trash receptables and trash services to the lack of public restrooms and visitor education. And, I agree.
For too long, local officials have not reacted quickly enough to this burgeoning problem. Last week, I called on officials to redirect funds from other projects in the short term to place more trash receptables and more portable toilets at public beaches and parks; even to help fund them in places they are not responsible for. And, to install permanent public restrooms – infrastructure – at our public beaches and parks and in our town centers.
Some of our government agencies have already done so, but more needs to be done. Like many locals, I’ve seen the litter in places I’ve never seen it before. Most days, I park in a public parking lot in Tahoe City and walk to my office. In July, I started to notice trash strewn about – disposable face masks, beer cans, to-go boxes and other items.
At first, I was picking up the trash almost daily. Then, it really start to multiple and started to include human waste from people camping in the public lot. So, in late July I stopped picking up trash to see how long it would sit there. On Aug. 12 it was all still sitting there, so I emailed several local officials to report the issue, but as of press time for this edition, the trash is still there. When I walked through the lot on Aug. 28, a couple of teenagers had piled some of the larger items up and were using it as a bike ramp. I’m disappointed to the say the least.
We are at a tourism tipping point. But, not just of our infrastructure being overtaxed by too many visitors at one time. But, also on the tipping point of losing those visitors permanently. They don’t enjoy visiting beaches and trails with trash, human waste or dog poop bags any more than locals do. Our economy can’t survive without tourism. I agree with many that we are too heavily dependent on tourism but changing that is not something that will happen quickly.
The short-term fix is to allocate more public resources to pick up trash and to preventing it in the first place. We need to educate our visitors on the dangers of trash to wildlife, to streams and rivers, and to Lake Tahoe. We can’t assume that they know that trash is not just unsightly, but also hazardous to our community.
I’m calling on a blitz marketing campaign through print, tv, radio and social media. For public agencies to pay to hire people to walk the beaches to talk to people to educate them. For officials to work with lodging properties and vacation rentals to spread the message, and to talk to locals for fresh, innovative ideas and solutions. This should be the largest marketing, outreach and education campaign we’ve ever seen in the Tahoe Sierra.
In the second part of our series, “Grappling with garbage & grievances,” Priya Hutner talks to locals and officials about the challenges of finding solutions to the region’s litter problems and the complicated and confusing nature of who is responsible for the litter and how to enforce litter laws.
Tim Hauserman, who has also seen litter on our trails, adds his voice to the conversation to talk about trail etiquette and the principles of Leave No Trace for his feature “Take care of Tahoe’s trails.”
I implore everyone – visitors and locals – to help take care of Tahoe.
