EIP Overview

What is the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program?  

The Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) is an unparalleled partnership working to achieve the environmental goals of the region. Local, state, and federal government agencies, private entities, scientists, and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California have collaborated for more than 20 years to restore the environmental health of Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe is one of the clearest, largest lakes in the world. Few places on earth can rival its breathtaking views. The snowcapped mountain peaks of the Sierra Nevada and Carson ranges ring the lake, defining the Tahoe Basin’s borders. The lake’s spectacularly crystalline waters are the hallmark of its beauty and a key indicator of its health.

Local, state, and national leaders came together in 1997 to declare a state of environmental emergency at Lake Tahoe. Tahoe’s waters were losing their famous clarity at an average rate of nearly a foot per year. Aging urban centers with car-choked streets were pouring pollutants into the lake. The forests were overstocked, unhealthy, and ready to burn.

Then came the first Tahoe Summit and the birth of the Environmental Improvement Program (EIP). Over the last two decades, the EIP has put Lake Tahoe on the map as a global model for landscape-scale collaboration.

“Team Tahoe,” as United States Senator Dianne Feinstein calls the partnership, has made progress. The lake’s clarity loss has stabilized. Mountain streams are clearer. Forest thinning is underway. However, emerging threats from climate change are challenging the partnership in unprecedented ways. The risk of large, catastrophic wildfires remains high. Invasive species dangers loom large. Continued investment is necessary to build on the EIP’s progress and create a more resilient landscape that can withstand future attacks on Tahoe’s ecosystem.

 

EIP Accomplishments

      
EIP 2022 Annual Report (PDF) EIP 2021 Annual Report (PDF) EIP 2020 Annual Report (PDF) EIP 2018 Annual Report (PDF) EIP 2017 Annual Report (PDF)  

 

 

 

EIP 2016 Annual Report (PDF) EIP 2015 Annual Report (PDF) EIP 2014 Annual Report (PDF)    

 

 

     

 

     

EIP Program Documents

EIP Update 2020 (PDF) EIP Restoration In Progress Update through 2018 (PDF) EIP Restoration in Progress Update Four-page Executive Summary (PDF) EIP Restoration in Progress Report: 1997-2007 (PDF) EIP Restoration in Progress: 1997-2007 Four-page Executive Summary (PDF)

 

CITATION

Please use following when citing the EIP Reporting Tool:

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA). Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program Project Tracker. Accessed [date retrieved].