A nearly $2-million grant was recently awarded to the California Tahoe Conservancy for an innovative effort to restore forest and watershed resilience.

The $1.95 million grant was awarded to CTC from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. The money is intended to help the CTC co-manage that restoration effort, named the the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative. The landscape-level initiative aims to restore 2.4 million acres.

“If we have learned nothing else from the recent wildfires in California, increasing our pace and scale of forest management is essential to protecting Tahoe and Central Sierra communities,” Jeff Marsolais, forest supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and ex officio member of the CTC board, said in a press release. “Efforts funded by this grant will advance critical landscape-scale restoration.”

This Proposition 68 grant from the SNC will enable the CTC to provide strategic direction to forest health and watershed restoration across the entire TCSI landscape, which extends from the North Yuba River to the American River watershed, and encompasses the Lake Tahoe Basin, according to the press release. CTC staff also will plan restoration projects, coordinate restoration crews and conduct research to speed up large-scale restoration.

CTC and SNC collaboratively lead the TCSI, along with 12 other partners including three National Forests. The partners have committed to:

restore resilience to the landscape using a science-based approach;

integrate research to guide development of climate and fire-resilient forests and fire-adapted communities;

accelerate planning, permitting, and implementation of high priority projects;

increase the use of resulting biomass and wood products; and

increase and leverage funding for large scale restoration.

At the same meeting, the Conservancy Board approved a $99,100 grant to the Tahoe Resource Conservation District (Tahoe RCD) to address five recently-identified aquatic invasive plant infestations in Lake Tahoe.

The Tahoe RCD will remove infestations at Baldwin Beach, Emerald Bay, General Creek, Camp Richardson, and Timber Cove Marina. Funds for this grant come from the Lake Tahoe Science and Lake Improvement Account, Senate Bill 630.