28th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit

The 28th annual Lake Tahoe Summit was held on August 14th, 2024, at Round Hill Pines in Nevada and hosted by US Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. The theme was "Connecting Tahoe Investing in Transit, Trails and Technology for the Future" and US Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, delivered the keynote, highlighting the Biden-Harris administration's investments in transportation to reduce carbon pollution and make communities more resilient in the face of extreme weather. Members of Lake Tahoe's federal delegation and Chairman Serrel Smokey of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California also spoke at the event. Secretary Buttigieg was a key player in the development, passage, and implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and since the law's passage, his Department of Transportation recently delivered $24 million in funding from their Rebuilding American Infrastructure and Equity (RAISE) grant program to extend the popular Tahoe East Shore Trail. Though this trail is indeed popular, unfortunately it will not decrease the impacts of tourism and transportation in the Tahoe Basin and in fact will only exacerbate the problem as more and more people will drive their bikes to this trail for recreation. What would have been more impactful and potentially reduce traffic problems is a trail between Incline and Kings Beach. While the Sierra Club encourages people to explore, enjoy, and protect Lake Tahoe, the lake in increasingly impacted by overtourism. More parking lots and tourist trails north of Sand Harbor will only worsen lake clarity, increase wildfire impacts to some of the most pristine areas in the Basin, and cause wildfire evacuation nightmare scenarios that are inevitable due to our increasingly warming climate.