Fire hazard funds OK’d

INCLINE VILLAGE -- More funding to ease fire hazards and keep Lake Tahoe blue was approved Friday as key federal officials and members of Congress joined with former President Bill Clinton at a forum at the mountain lake on the California-Nevada line.

The $45 million announced by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will be used for various environmental restoration projects. That includes work in areas around a Tahoe neighborhood ravaged by a wildfire in June. The Angora fire destroyed 254 homes and burned 3,100 acres.

The funds, generated from sales of public lands in the Las Vegas area, are part of a $1 billion program launched in 1997 with the backing of then-President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore and later solidified through the federal Lake Tahoe Restoration Act.

The $45 million includes $10 million for fire prevention and forest thinning efforts. The rest is earmarked for watershed, recreation and air quality improvements and scientific research.

The annual Tahoe forum often draws attention to threats facing Lake Tahoe's environment, with wildfire topping the list in recent years.

Besides Clinton and Kempthorne, others at the event included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Ensign, R-Nev., Reps. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and John Doolittle, R-Calif., and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Also attending was U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell, who toured the Angora fire zone and reviewed rehabilitation efforts in advance of the forum.

Trees around the lake have grown too crowded, thanks to a century of fire suppression following extensive logging of old-growth, fire-resistant trees. Recent droughts and increasing average temperatures also mean Tahoe's forests are more susceptible to fire and disease.

An initial Forest Service review of the Angora fire found that it burned less intensely in areas where trees had been thinned and debris removed.