02.02.01 - Restore Native Vegetation and Forest Communities

This action priority focuses on protecting native vegetation and restoring resilience to forest ecosystems.

Sugar pine and white bark pine are species of ecological importance in Lake Tahoe’s forest ecosystem which are under threat due to white pine blister rust and bark beetles.

Conifer encroachment threatens native aspen stands which are important native species for diversity and wildlife habitat. Although conifer trees are a natural part of aspen ecosystems, without disturbances like fire, these conifer trees grow so numerous that they outcompete aspen for light, growing space, and nutrients.

Tahoe Yellow Cress (TYC, Rorippa subumbellata) has been listed as endangered in both California and Nevada since 1982.  It is a small native plant that grows on the shoreline of Lake Tahoe and nowhere else in the world. In 1999, a multi-agency and private interest group task force was formed to develop and implement a conservation strategy to promote the recovery and conservation of TYC. The conservation strategy provides an adaptive management framework and options for avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating impacts to TYC and its habitat on public and private lands.

This Action Priority includes:

• Protection and restoration of native forest species and forest restoration after a disturbance (i.e. reforestation/replanting after a fire).
• Aspen stand restoration.
• Sugar Pine tree restoration.
• Restoring Tahoe Yellow Cress and Implementing the Tahoe Yellow Cress Conservation Strategy.

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