The Conservancy has undertaken a comprehensive program to reduce the sources of soil erosion and the amount of sediment and algae-encouraging nutrients that reach the lake.

This is essential to achieving water quality objectives, for runoff from eroded land is carrying an increased load of sediment and nutrients into the lake, a major factor in the dramatic growth of algae that is robbing Lake Tahoe of its world-famed clarity.

To deal with this massive problem, the Conservancy is implementing a comprehensive program to reduce the sources of soil erosion, stabilize the transport of runoff, and create special basins to filter out sediment and nutrients, restoring natural marshes and meadows for this purpose, also.

The Conservancy is currently working with a number of local governments -- El Dorado County, Placer County, the City of South Lake Tahoe, the South Tahoe Public Utility District, the Tahoe City Public Utility District, and the North Tahoe Public Utility District -- to implement a comprehensive erosion control grants program for the basin. Its purpose is to repair portions of watersheds that are contributing large amounts of sediment to the lake, and to mitigate the unavoidable effects of current and future development in the basin. Local governments play a key role in this effort since they control many of the areas involved and are in a position to design, construct, and manage the projects.

To date, the Conservancy has awarded grants totalling more than $35 million for 71 projects. These will result in the revegetation of about 120 acres of disturbed land and the construction of 82 miles of roadside drainage facilities, 13 miles of rock-lined and vegetated channel protection, and 2.6 miles of retaining walls. Some 360 sediment traps and treatment basins will also be constructed. More than 50 acres of wetland and meadow are being restored as well.