UC Davis "State of the Lake Report 2010" - Lake Tahoe - Climate Change hits Tahoe

[Gopher]

Global Warming is certainly effecting Lake Tahoe. UC Davis was kind enough to bring us their "State of the Lake Report 2010". These guys have been studying Tahoe for a long time and this report is beautiful because it can be read and understood by both the layman and the over educated scientist. If you're a Tahoe-head, you definitely need to read this report. It's an easy read. Even if you're not, it's a very interesting information. If you've never seen Tahoe in person or in photos, it's a pretty incredible place on Earth and extremely unique. Here's a few highlights from the report:

#1 - The nightly minimum temperatures recorded at Tahoe City have increased by more than 4 degrees F since 1910 from 28F to just over 32F.

#2 - Days when air temperatures averaged below freezing have generally decreased by 30 days per year since 1910.

#3 - Since 1910, the percent of precipitation that fell in the form of snow decreased from 52 percent to 34 percent.

#4 - Peak snow melt averages 2 1/2 weeks earlier than in the early 1960s.

....and yes, I did write an article about the effects of Global Warming on Lake Tahoe which can be found at http://www.unofficialsquaw.com/index...me/4/5955.html if you so desire.

I'd also love to hear what you guys have learned, observed, heard about Lake Tahoe as it relates to Global Warming. I'm curious what you guys are doing personally in your lives to help minimize your impact.

[Powdurr]

Not exactly related to "global warming", but its also important to note that the lake clarity has been degrading quickly since they started keeping record of it however many years ago.

I think the lake loses about 1 foot of clarity per year.

I noticed a huge difference in clarity just between this fall and last. Also, when I was out swimming on a stormy day, it was absolutely disgusting how much trash I swam through. Literally felt like I was swimming in venice beach

I was driving out of Tahoe yesterday on my way to the Bay, and the weather was so warm, it felt appropriate to be listening to Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime". Where's the snow!?(I guess its coming tomorrow).

[Gopher]

Clarity is also important in Tahoe. If you read the UC Davis report they confront Lake Clarity in there. The clarity is actually not decline at a linear rate as originally expected when they started measuring clarity in 1968. There are some great graphs with good explanations in the report: http://terc.ucdavis.edu/stateofthela..._Chapter11.pdf

[Vets]

I have been scuba diving in Lake Tahoe for over 20 years and have noticed a steady decline in the visibility or clarity.
I usually go on clean up dives once a year and am always surprised by the amount and types of trash found in Lake Tahoe.

During the Lake Tahoe winters I find it to be very rare and surprising to experience a sustained cold spell.

[land]

keep tahoe clear?

If the lake clarity issue is purely related to trash input, then that is really sad, as that is a much more easily eliminated problem than global climate change. Don't throw trash into lakes, douchebags!

[slim]

Caulk parties.

[stuckathuntermtn]

What am I doing to lower my impact?

I save my farts in an old coffee can. When the can is full, I bury it. The real culprit is methane.

[Patches]

Thanks for this, Gopher. Good post.

My grandfather used to run cattle in what is now Desolation Wilderness. He said winter in South Lake used to be cold, with a couple feet of snow on the ground all winter every year. No more.

[montanaskier]

global warming is a myth

[pogs4ever]

build a wall, keep the bay area people out.

[geomorph]

keep tahoe clear?

If the lake clarity issue is purely related to trash input, then that is really sad, as that is a much more easily eliminated problem than global climate change. Don't throw trash into lakes, douchebags!

Not trash, nutrients that lead to algae growth (I think, not an expert on Tahoe, but judging by the first few graphs of that report for total N and total P inputs into the lake). Still, a very preventable problem, and one that is much easier to deal with than global climate change. Stop fertilizing your lawn and control erosion of soils into the lake.

[pruitt]

You can laugh or call me crazy but I still don't buy it.

It is still a relatively short sample period to try and draw a climate change conclusion. And more importantly what is causing the increased temps. Natural fluctuations or some man caused changes.

Water clarity/pollution is a much bigger concern of mine and something that we could actually do something about. And also something that we can easily connect to dumb humans doing dumb stuff.

[SchralphMacchio]

Thanks for posting this Gopher, will definitely have a read later this weekend.

Not trash, nutrients that lead to algae growth (I think, not an expert on Tahoe, but judging by the first few graphs of that report for total N and total P inputs into the lake). Still, a very preventable problem, and one that is much easier to deal with than global climate change. Stop fertilizing your lawn and control erosion of soils into the lake.

I believe these are part of the equation ...

conversion of Tahoe Keys from marsh to development
conflicting fire and erosion management practices
overall increase of development (asphalt and concrete), which increases surface runoff of organic materials (and trash) into the lake


As far as the climate thing, well, energy use is the biggest single contributor to greenhouse gases. Livestock is behind that, then transportation. Turn off your lights, weatherseal your house, eat less factory farmed meat, carpool and bike more often.

Do all of the above and we will still be facing some serious adaptation issues in Tahoe and the Bay Area thanks to the time constant of the problem. Imagine driving a car where you steer 25 years before the car actually turns, and the gas pedal's acceleration effects slowly compound over decades and decades. Turn off the machine now and we still speed up for the next 50-100 years to come. As a result of the climate conditions described in the report, whether or not you agree on the scientific consensus of their cause, we will be facing some serious flood & fire management issues in Tahoe and the rest of the state, not to mention California's greater challenges of water quality & supply and agricultural production.

Best thing to do is to prepare your resource management practices and habitation choices for real adaptation - while mitigating further positive (mathematically speaking) input to the system.

[Patches]

IMHO one of the biggest things you can do is heat your tahoe house with local wood... renewable, free, and its going to get heaped into piles and burned anyway. Two birds with one stone and all that.

[Gopher]

Schralp, I definitely agree with you on your suggestions for reducing our impact. I think that properly weathering your house is huge. It is scary to think that even if we stopped all of our bad practices right now, it will still take a century for the damage we've already put in play to slow down and cease.

And for those that don't believe in Global Warming, I think you can jump on board with all of these practices because who the hell wants more pollution in the air? It might be fun for you to disagree with it, but you're kinda demented if you're stoked on more crap in the air and in your lungs. Either way we are clearly having an impact on Earth and we owe it ourselves to minimize our impact.

[Phineas]

A whole bunch of governor’s on the east coast are starting to back away from RGGI standards that a bipartisan group of them put in place in 2005. The whole economy argument.... Really sux cause the cap and trade was just a Band-Aid in my opinion but now that may get ripped off.

RGGI is a regional initiative by states and provinces in the Northeastern United States region to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The RGGI is designing a cap and trade program for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Ten states currently participate in the initiative. Pennsylvania, which is a major coal producer and manufacturing state, only participates as an observer.

[DasBlunt]

You can laugh or call me crazy but I still don't buy it.

It is still a relatively short sample period to try and draw a climate change conclusion. And more importantly what is causing the increased temps. Natural fluctuations or some man caused changes.

Water clarity/pollution is a much bigger concern of mine and something that we could actually do something about. And also something that we can easily connect to dumb humans doing dumb stuff.

You cannot even form correct sentences....who would listen to you anyways? The Sarah Palin crowd?

Except for your last sentence, learn grammar then come back and try to prove a point.

[MTT]

Not trash, nutrients that lead to algae growth (I think, not an expert on Tahoe, but judging by the first few graphs of that report for total N and total P inputs into the lake). Still, a very preventable problem, and one that is much easier to deal with than global climate change. Stop fertilizing your lawn and control erosion of soils into the lake.

remember when there was not even any moss on the rocks. Times have changed.

This started with the Golf Course in Kings beach, Incline and Then South Lake. They all have big creeks that meander through the course and feed into the Lake. They changed how they manage the grass but the Damage was done.

The biggest culprit is Development. The lake is surrounded by the best filter on the planet (Granite Sand) However when you build massive homes with 5,000++ Square foot Roofs and surround them with Roads and parking lots?? kind of hard for a filter to do its job when covered.

Global warming YES SIR The Lake was a glacier app 5,000? Years ago so yea it’s getting warmer and has been for the past 40,000 years.

People and development are probably accelerating this but if there were NO People west of the Sierra it would still be getting warmer. (Until it starts getting colder again)

The BIG NEWS! They have started cloud seeding again for this winter (Stopped in the late 70's) will be interested to see how that affects snow pack this winter. We had some HELLA Storms in the late 60's resulting from seeding

[SnowbirdDevotee]

the "researchers" are like the high priests of days of old. They just want a job, and the end result if that they will take your job and your money. You may think they guys are the good guys, they are not, they are the bad guys.

re: fertilizer and runoff pollution. Don't even give a rats ass about the fertilizer in your lawn. These guys are planting millions of acres of corn for useless and energy wasting ethanol that gets less miles per gallon than good old oil.

And its' so funny, California has not even had any global warming.
http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/RS_California.htm

Sure there has been global warming, just like there was in 1930's, remember the dust bowl? It is very likely that the pacific decadal oscillation is switching right now and the 30 year cycle will mean lower temperatures again. Your "friends" are thieves!

Love An Oilman today!

[SchralphMacchio]

the lake is surrounded by the best filter on the planet (Granite Sand)

MTT, hard surfaces definitely create storm runoffs that disrupt natural percolation ... but my understanding that as far as the stuff that causes moss and algae it's the marshes and plant matter that do the real filtering. Wetlands hold back flood water and absorb nutrient matter to clean the water, and ground cover holds sediments in place. Hence all the major creek tributaries at the south end of the lake that have been the heart of the controversies ... Tahoe Keys, Cold Creek, Upper Truckee, Taylor Creek etc.

nonsensical blahblah

Really? god damn, I never knew spring harvesting of all that Tahoe CORN was destroying the fucking lake!!! I am going to tuck my tail between my legs and walk away now.

Please go away until you learn the words Lahontan Watershed and Truckee River and their meaning.

[bodywhomper]

nay sayers are teh phunni

[MTT]

MTT, hard surfaces definitely create storm runoffs that disrupt natural percolation ... but my understanding that as far as the stuff that causes moss and algae it's the marshes and plant matter that do the real filtering. Wetlands hold back flood water and absorb nutrient matter to clean the water, and ground cover holds sediments in place. Hence all the major creek tributaries at the south end of the lake that have been the heart of the controversies ... Tahoe Keys, Cold Creek, Upper Truckee, Taylor Creek etc.


Really? god damn, I never knew spring harvesting of all that Tahoe CORN was destroying the fucking lake!!! I am going to tuck my tail between my legs and walk away now.

Please go away until you learn the words Lahontan Watershed and Truckee River and their meaning.

Start looking at old pictures of the Lake 1870's till 1920's They clear cut most of the trees around the lake had heavy industrial in and around the lake in a few spots. That did not wreck it? Its the development. And that is just not going to change. So the icky answer is the Lake is going to lose its clarity. We can mitigate it but ? I would like to see us limit the size of non commercial buildings. The Lake Surrounded by huge billionaires homes is just wrong of every level. But the mighty dollar always wins

Incline is the poster child for how to fuck up a pretty place with money

The rising lake temperature also seems to be a cause if not a factor to accelerate an existing problem, but realistically we cannot do anything about that.

I lived in a Lake Shore Home in Incline in the Early 1970’s it was huge @ app 3,000Sq Ft.

But we had a gravel Driveway and the houses on either side were good 200 yards apart.

Lot sizes were 1 acre + Now Days??

[Hugh Conway]

I am going to tuck my tail between my legs and walk away now.

Yes, anthropogenic global warming is probably real.

Seriously, you can't see the hilariously ironic nature of this thread though? Weekend commuters talking about how horrible it is? A tourism dependent economy that'd be gutted by pollution regulations? shit TGR and UnoS wouldn't exist without cheap energy.

It's just a greenwashing bandwagon that destroys the legitimacy of the cause.

[DasBlunt]

Hugh, the only cause is to create severe cutbacks in Oil consumption.

Global warming is how MTT described it (warming in ice age terms).

We (world bank countries) are trying to engineer a change in mentality about "climate change" to stem a world war III scenario over the massively declining world wide oil reserves. I would not want to face China and Russia over the rest of the oil, if the truth was really understood.

[SchralphMacchio]

Start looking at old pictures of the Lake 1870's till 1920's

I agree with you completely, and reading more about the issue it's clear to me that the sediment loading is the primary cause for loss of clarity. I was adding more context about the nutrient issues ... warming lake temps look to compound the issues as well.



Hugh most people won't see it that way but you've hit the nail on the head. I bet that there is no locally sustaining economy that can support a resident population in the lake of more than a very small size. The development has met the needs of the tourist population while degrading the very thing that has attracted them in the first place. There needs to be a different model that preserves the quality of the basin's most valuable asset (and other sustaining ecology as a whole), and withholds more economic gains within the basin without turning all the profits back over to outside investment capital. It's not a model that's created purely by environmental regulation or by unchecked development ... and it will continue to be challenged by adaptation to climate conditions. It's going to take a lot of smart people who care a lot about the lake ... and probably also agree that expansion is done within the lake basin.