Trampled by Trash

BY PRIYA HUTNER

Sledding at Spooner Summit. | League to Save Lake Tahoe

On a recent cross-country ski at Prosser Reservoir, a popular area for recreating, a friend and I found ourselves at the top of the hill overlooking the frozen reservoir. The ground was littered with tiny pieces of plastic wrappers blowing around the area that would eventually blow into the reservoir and surrounding creeks. We picked up as much as we could, stuffing it into our pockets. A few days later on a trip to Coldstream Canyon, another popular spot where people snowshoe and cross-country ski, the area was also littered with plastic wrappers and bits of plastic from kid’s snow toys. Litter is a problem that exists yearround, but winter brings a different challenge. During the winter months, there is no place to dispose of trash because service to most parks and trailheads is shuttered or limited. The trash is left behind by people looking for a place to enjoy playing in the snow, including tubing with the family. Unfortunately, the sheer number of visitors in the Tahoe Sierra during the winter is fraught with challenges, trash and parking issues among them. Areas around the region from Donner Summit to Tahoe Meadows to Spooner Summit suffer from overcrowding, cars parked illegally along roadways and trash left behind by a day of snowplay.

The two most highly trafficked sled areas in the Tahoe Basin are Spooner Summit near the intersection of Highways 28 and 50 and Tahoe Meadows along Highway 431 (Mt. Rose Highway). Tahoe Fund, along with League to Save

Lake Tahoe and Take Care Tahoe, created a Slediquette Campaign in 2021 to combat the debris left behind by broken plastic sleds. The campaign urged people to clean up and recycle their broken sleds or snow tubes and not leave any trash behind. Even with messaging the problem of sled trash still exists. “There are a lot of people that come to visit and recreate [to Tahoe]. Sledding confounds us every year. We don’t have the resources to manage it and there are no official designated sled hills,” says Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. A list of 30 local sledding and tubing areas runs in every print edition of Tahoe Weekly and on TheTahoeWeekly.com to provide visitors and locals with information about places in which to enjoy tubing. Of those 30 locations, however, only seven are public Sno-Parks, stretching from Kirkwood to Donner Summit. Only two are in the Tahoe Basin, at Blackwood Canyon on the West Shore and at Taylor Creek on the South Shore. Sno-Parks require a parking permit of $5 per day or $25 for the season. Parking permits, however, are only available for purchase online or at a local vendor. The remaining tubing areas are privately run and require a fee to play in the snow. As well, Sugar Bowl is investing $2 million to build a new tubing area along Sugar Bowl Road to open in the 2022-23 season. Along Mt. Rose Highway, Tahoe Meadows looks like the perfect sledding area but on any given weekend, hundreds of cars park along the side of the road blocking traffic and creating unsafe conditions. In early January, a young child was injured when his sled went into Mt. Rose Highway and he was stuck by a vehicle. Nevada Highway Patrol officers routinely use megaphones to tell people they will be ticketed if they park on the road. Hundreds of tickets have been issued yet the problems remain with parking and litter in the area.

There are no public parking areas available in the winter in the area nor are there any public trash cans or restrooms. Debris from broken plastic sleds are left behind by day visitors to the popular sledding area. The U.S. Forest Service parking areas and restrooms at Tahoe Meadows and the Mt. Rose trailhead that are open in the summer are closed during the winter months. Similarly, there are U.S. Forest Service recreation sites with parking areas spread throughout the Tahoe Sierra around Lake Tahoe and in Truckee, but the majority of these sites are closed in the winter, as Tahoe Weekly identified in our 2021 story “Winter Recreation Access Pushed to Limit.”

California Sno-Parks | ohv.parks.ca.gov League to Save Lake Tahoe | keeptahoeblue.org Take Care Tahoe | takecaretahoe.org/sleds Tahoe Fund | tahoefund.org

PREVIOUS PAGE: Broken sleds at Fallen Leaf Lake. | League to Save Lake Tahoe Sled trash at Tahoe Meadows along Mt. Rose Highway. | Kendra Cromwell THIS PAGE: Dog poop bags at Donner Lake. | Priya Hutner Broken sled trash collected at Fallen Leaf Lake. | League to Save Lake Tahoe Sled corrals at Spooner Summit. | Courtesy Take Care Tahoe Chains collected by Caltrans after a snowstorm. | Courtesy Caltrans Sled trash campaign.| Courtesy Take Care Tahoe OPPOSITE PAGE: Priya Hutner collecting abandoned dog poop bags at Donner Lake. | Priya Hutner Sled corral.| Courtesy Take Care Tahoe CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 Most of these areas were designed and built decades ago when there was little to no demand for winter access. However, as winter demand for access has increased, it’s not as simple as plowing those areas for winter use. Parking lots would have to be rebuilt to accommodate plowing (most are only a 1-inch

overlay over dirt), restrooms would have to rebuilt to provide year-round use in harsh winter conditions and trash services would require increased staffing and maintenance costs. All of these are out of reach due to a lack of federal funding for the six Forest Service districts that serve the Tahoe Sierra. League to Save Lake Tahoe staff and volunteers have also identified several illegal concessionaires along the Mt. Rose Highway and Spooner Summit selling cheap, plastic sleds, snacks wrapped in plastic and drinks in Styrofoam cups, all of which end up as trash left on the ground. Nevada Department of Trans-

portation (NDOT) is investigating the concessionaries, according to Gavin Feiger, the league’s senior land-use policy analyst. California Highway Patrol (CHP) has also reported illegal concessionaries along Old Highway 40 on Donner Summit. Tire chains are also a mounting source of winter trash that is vexing California Department of Transportation. Chains that aren’t installed correctly break and are left behind in roadways, on the side of roads and in parking lots. “It’s a problem when people don’t put on their chains properly. I am sure as we start to see the snow melt, it will definitely unearth some things. I guarantee you, there are loads of chains that are buried along the shoulders,” says Raquel Borrayo, Caltrans District 3 public information officer.

- Officer Carlos Perez

limited or no parking (and park illegally) or sled in areas that are unsafe. The need for parking along Mt. Rose Highway and Spooner Summit aren’t the only places where this is an issue. On any given weekend, the parking lot at Donner Memorial State Park fills up quickly with people looking to cross-country ski, snowshoe or sled in the park. The same

is true for parking at nearby Coldstream Canyon and along Old Highway 40 on Donner Summit. Visitors are looking for places to play in the snow and park illegally along the roadway, leaving behind broken sled pieces and other trash. From the rest areas on Donner Summit to areas around Lake Tahoe, trash and parking from people sledding on the side of roadways are major issues for California Highway Patrol. “People just pull over and decide to sled on the side of the highway. They park anywhere and leave their trash,” says Officer Carlos Perez, CHP public information officer. Although there are signs clearly marked that no snow play is allowed at the rest areas, the officers get called routinely; they clear out the area but an hour later another group gathers to play in the snow. “People pull over and block the road to play in the snow. We go out there and ticket them but a ticket for parking is $35. Some people don’t care and will just pay the ticket,” says Perez, adding that CHP is considering raising the price of parking tickets. According to Perez, CHP has a large area to monitor from Donner Summit and Truckee to the highways encircling Lake Tahoe to Meyers and Echo Summit. Addressing parking, snow play issues and illegal concessionaires requires resources and this often takes away from other important issues that officers may need to address.

Dog poop continues to be another problem in the region with piles and bags of dog poop left at popular snow play areas and on trails. No one wants to ski, snowshoe or sled through a pile of dog poop. It’s also an environmental hazard. Dog waste contains toxins that leach into the waterways and can harm the environment. It’s labeled a non-point source pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency. This places it in the same category as herbicides, insec-

ticides, oil, grease, toxic chemicals and acid drainage from abandoned mines. Most people think of dog poop as no more harmful than bear poop. It’s natural, so just leave it in the woods. But dogs eat a diet of processed food that is not the same; bears eat berries. It is important to pick up dog poop to prevent the toxins from getting into water sources. As well, plastic doggie bags don’t degrade for a long time and when they do, they, too, pollute waterways. Tahoe Fund continues to try to address the issue through public education efforts. “We are hoping to work with public agencies to do an inventory of hot spots and better align with waste stations,” says Berry. Berry says that everyone recognizes the problems yet effecting change has been slow and difficult. Tahoe Fund has organized a consortium of local business associations and chambers, nonprofits, ski resorts and local governments to grapple with the tourism impacts. Tahoe Fund has also tried to encourage visitors to be mindful of trash with billboards placed along roadways leading into the region; Berry admits it’s not enough. Locals have called out stores in the region on social media for selling cheap sleds that break into pieces and end up being left behind, but sustainable alternatives are limited. Raley’s has said that it’s looking for more sustainable sleds to sell, according to Berry. Feiger points out that the League has done some research into sustainable sleds that won’t break apart so easily but has found there are few options available. He suggests Flexible Flyer sleds, which have some good nonplastic options and metal saucers that don’t break apart easily. “Tahoe Blue Crews volunteers pick up trash one to two times per week,” says Feiger, who acknowledges that volunteers have been overwhelmed with the amount of trash; it has been difficult for them to find places to take the bagged trash. “This week we are installing a Dumpster and two Porta-Potties [on Spooner Summit] with additional signage. We’ll

see if people take advantage of the opportunity to properly dispose of their waste or if it creates unintended consequences like illegal dumping or is too expensive to maintain,” says Feiger. The League has been working with NDOT and contracted with Clean Tahoe to pick up trash at least five days per week, once a day in the mornings, which Feiger says has been helping. Tahoe Fund is looking toward the three “Es” as a way to mitigate the issues the region is facing with education, enforcement and engineering (infrastructure). Tahoe Fund has installed five billboards in the region with messages about its dog poop clean-up campaign, Slediquette campaign and litter. Berry acknowledges that messaging alone won’t change behavior, noting that changes in infrastructure are also needed. “Enforcement is a hard one in the winter. Public agencies don’t recognize many sled hills as official sled hills. We are working with dozens of partners in the Basin to research the feasibility of a regional parking-enforcement program that will allow the California and Nevada highway patrols to spend time on more critical issues than parking,” says Berry. “What is needed is bigger design thinking, similar to the East Shore Trail when it comes to infrastructure,” she says. “For Spooner, it could mean redesigning the parking area to either eliminate the area for people to park to sled or redesign it in a way that better manages the flow of people. It can also include more trash cans and litter patrols.” Tahoe Fund is now spearheading an effort to create a regional sustainable tourism plan that will kick off in mid-February. “It’s frustrating to everyone and we need a collective effort,” says Berry. “This is looking at a bigger issue holistically. We have never had a tourism objective clearly identified for the region. This work will do that with a lot of input from the community and ultimately an action plan.” n

A Closer Look at Your Carbon Footprint When You Fly to or From Truckee

F R O M: OAKLAN D, CALIFOR N I A Single Engine: 300 lbs Twin Engine: 928 lbs Large Cabin: 1,253 lbs F R OM: PORTL A ND, OREGO N Single Engine: 855 lbs Twin Engine: 2,648 lbs Large Cabin: 3,577 lbs FROM: DAL L AS, TEXASSingle Engine: 2,587 lbs Twin Engine: 8,011 lbs Large Cabin: 10,821 lbs

: O RANGE CO U NTY, CALIF O Single Engine: 778 lbs F R O M Twin Engine: 2,411 lbs Large Cabin: R N I A 3,257 lbs

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Twin Engine: 3,576 lbs

Large Cabin: 4,830 lbs

The average American’s annual carbon emissions are:

3,351 lbs from air travel

14,727 lbs from home electricity use

from vehicle travel

12,897 lbs from home heating and cooking