By Tobi Tyler

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) is planning to fill in and remove Jennings Pond as part of their Burke Creek/Rabe Meadow "Restoration" Project. This pond is habitat to beavers (a family of four young beavers last spring) and refuge to a myriad species of ducks, who raise their young in the quiet protection of this pond mostly surrounded by willows. Refugia like Jennings pond are rare in the Tahoe Basin. Birds and other wildlife generally have few places in the Basin near Lake Tahoe in which goslings and other young wildlife are safe to mature. In addition to providing multiple comment letters to the LTBMU asking for a thorough environmental analysis via at least an Environmental Assessment instead of the current categorical exclusion, the Tahoe Group has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documentation about the pond and possible removal of beavers since they disappeared during the summer. After numerous months of waiting, we were provided a few pages of correspondence that indicated that flooding of the Tahoe Beach Club is the impetus for potential beaver and pond removal as well as the reason for the restoration project in general. Please urge the LTBMU to NOT fill in Jennings Pond during their 2024 "restoration" project of Rabe Meadow.