Thank you to all who attended the Aquatic invasive Species (AIS) meeting, in person and via Zoom, last Tuesday. We had a great turnout, fortifying our collective interest in taking care of the lake!
For all interested, here is the recording of the meeting and Q & A that followed: FLL AIS Presentation and Q & A.
The password to access the recording is Passcode: 3&kb!gyJ
Opportunities for education and training were discussed at this meeting. Specific training for our community will be announced by the FLCC in spring 2027. If a training can be arranged for later this summer, this, too, will be announced as soon as possible.
In the interim, Tahoe Keepers is a great resource for a free, self-certification education program for non-motorized watercraft users — kayakers, paddle boarders, and anyone who fishes, floats, or plays in a body of water within the Tahoe Basin — to learn how to Clean, Drain, and Dry their gear. The goal is to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species into Lily Lake and Fallen Leaf from anywhere, including Lake Tahoe. You can access the official training and registration at Tahoe Keepers. www.tahoekeepers.org
For those interested in learning more and exploring training for Keep Tahoe Blue’s Eyes on the Lake citizens science volunteer program, to learn how to identify and report aquatic invasive species, please visit https://www.keeptahoeblue.org/join-us/eyes-on-the-lake/#eol
To be very clear, Fallen Leaf Lake is presently AIS-free. In ongoing efforts to keep things this way, particularly with the increase in hand-launch able watercraft and related shoreline activity we see all around the lake, we are pleased to announce that, through a generous donation, Keep Tahoe Blue has confirmed it will permanently place two CD3 compressed air hand-launched watercraft, inflatables, gear, and water toy stations at the north end of Fallen Leaf – one at the campground access to Rocky Beach and one at the campground Day Use parking area. These are notably the most heavily trafficked access points and therefore will receive these solar-powered “cleaning” devices first. While not hot wash stations, which is what we have at the FLL Marina, these CD3 units are deemed to be very effective for “cleaning” hand-launched watercraft.
In ongoing discussions, prior to last week’s meeting and during the in-person community meeting, we discussed in detail the concern about hand-launched water toys and craft at the myriad otherlocations around Fallen Leaf and at Lily Lake. Efforts to improve reach, educate, and to direct users of these bodies of water to clean, drain, and dry their “toys” are ongoing and ever-increasing, as you will learn in the recording provided. In its efforts to educate visitors to the Tahoe Basin, TRPA is launching a significant social media campaign and will be broadcasting to larger regional media markets the importance of preventing the transport of AIS into the Lake Tahoe Basin, and from one body of water to another within the Lake Tahoe Basin (such as Fallen Leaf and Echo Lakes.) We at Fallen Leaf hope this does not lead to an increase in traffic and usage at FLL, further impacting our infrastructure and quality of quiet enjoyment, and TRPA notes it is sensitive to our concerns and has attempted to manage that aspect quietly and carefully.
If you have ideas for ways to communicate, educate, and share the importance of preventing the transport of AIS from Lake Tahoe or any other body of water into Fallen Leaf and Lily Lake via hand-launched watercraft and/or life jackets, water shoes, scuba gear, buckets/pails, inner tubes/floaties, etc, please share them to: ais@trpa.gov
Thank you for helping to protect Fallen Leaf,
Ruth Rich
President
Fallen Leaf Conservation Coalition