Wednesday November 13, 2024
Tahoe Daily Tribune —
Under the gaze of the freshly powdered Mt. Tallac, workers wade through Taylor Creek and Tallac Creek to pull up rebar, sand bags and what appear to be large black tarps.
“We’re excitingly removing the bottom barriers,” aquatic biologist Sarah Muskopf with the USDA Forest Service explains.
The cause for excitement is the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Forest Service’s three year long treatment with these barriers has proved to be successful against the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil and curly-leaf pondweed, starving them of critical sunlight.
A root check this summer revealed the barriers had killed the weeds, but the work doesn’t stop with the celebration. There’s still more work to do in the 2,600 acre site where managers are focused on the wetland portion found near Baldwin Beach. They’re placing attention there for a very important reason.
“These are really the last naturally functioning wetlands that we have in the basin,” Muskopf says, “although more are going to be restored.”