Following on the successful 72-mile clean-up of Lake Tahoe in 2022, the dive team that coordinated the effort is expanding its underwater clean-up plans in 2023. The nonprofit Clean Up The Lake will return to Lake Tahoe and nearby Fallen Leaf Lake, and has plans to clean up Echo Lake, Boca and Stampede Reservoirs in Truckee, and four different lakes in Mono County and the Mammoth Lakes Basin.
The team plans to revisit 40 dive sites around Lake Tahoe this year. Three separate Tahoe-based projects will take place focused on deep dive litter accumulation studies at 35 and 70 feet and looking into “terrain traps,” or how the lake’s bathymetry, wind, currents and recreation affect litter accumulation trends throughout Lake Tahoe, according to a press release.
This year, Clean Up the Lake will also complete the circumnavigated clean-up of Fallen Leaf Lake that started in 2022 and produced some of the highest underwater litter totals in the Tahoe Basin. The organization will also launch pilot research on Boca and Stampede Reservoirs in Truckee and Echo Lake near South Lake Tahoe. The team will also be implementing an extensive invasive species surveillance program. | cleanupthelake.org
