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Article for: The Davis Enterprise
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Leslie Madsen
Contact: Tom Wickersham


CELEBRATED RESEARCHER TO DISCUSS LAKE TAHOE REMEDIATION

Clean, crystal-clear water.

For more than a century, it has made Lake Tahoe famous. However, residents and tourists at Lake Tahoe are recognizing that water clarity is much more difficult to maintain than anyone imagined.

No one understands the issues surrounding the health of Lake Tahoe as well as Dr. Charles Goldman, distinguished professor of limnology in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis and director of the university's Tahoe Research Group. Goldman has been studying the lake and its ecosystem for more than four decades.

As part of Explorit Science Center's Cutting Edge of Science Lecture Series, Goldman will talk about the current health of Lake Tahoe and efforts to conserve it on Tuesday at the Davis Branch Library. The talk, titled "Lake Tahoe: Moving Science to Move Beyond Conflict," will focus on the collaborative nature of ecosystem management.

Goldman and others have found that one important management tool is a simple measurement of lake clarity. This process is simple: a Secchi disk, an 8- or 10-inch-wide white disk, is lowered into the water on a tether. When the disk disappears, it has reached the depth at which the lake's water becomes murky. In the early years of his research, Goldman measured lake clarity at 120 feet, but by the mid-1990s, lake clarity had declined to about 65 feet. Every year, the clarity of Lake Tahoe declines by 1 to 1.5 feet.

The Tahoe Research Group has identified several sources that contribute to the loss of the lake's clarity. Among these are human developments on the shores of the lake as well as residents' and tourists' uses of the lake itself. Pollutants from the air, runoff, and groundwater introduce nutrients into the lake's water. These nutrients encourage the growth of algae, which in turn reduces the clarity of the water and consumes oxygen. Water depleted of oxygen will eventually harm fish and other aquatic animals.

The solution, according to the scientists from the Tahoe Research Group, is to control erosion on the shores of Lake Tahoe, remove exotic weeds and fish, restore wetland habitats, and implement transportation policies that will reduce air pollution.

The Tahoe Research Group, along with its regulatory partners in the restoration of Lake Tahoe, has sought to streamline the conversion of scientific data into management strategies. Thanks to the Tahoe Research Group, stakeholders can draw on four decades of high-quality data. According to Goldman, the data is key not only in producing better strategies, but also in persuading the public that the lake is in need of major environmental remediation.

This research and its management solutions have repercussions far beyond California. Goldman cites similar environmental challenges in the construction of hydroelectric reservoirs in Africa and Central and South America, the Three Gorges project in China, the demise of Russia's Aral Sea, and developments along Lake Baikal's shores in Siberia.

Goldman insists on the urgency of collaborations between scientists, regulatory agencies, and the public worldwide.

"The goal of talented ecologists, limnologists and environmental engineers," he said, "should be to help meet our domestic and growing global challenge for restoration and preservation of natural and altered ecosystems that support our increasingly limited water supplies."

More information on the Tahoe Research Group may be found on the Web at http://trg.ucdavis.edu.

Goldman's talk begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Davis Branch Library at 315 E. 14th Street. Admission is free.  The Cutting Edge of Science Lecture Series is sponsored by Novozymes Biotech and is hosted by the Davis Branch Library.

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Explorit Science Center is at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition is "Earth Elements: Discovering Natural Resources," which continues through Dec. 7. Public hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call Explorit at (530) 756-0191.