Congressmen urge support for Lake Tahoe money

Reps. Jim Gibbons and John Ensign of Nevada and John Doolittle and Wally Herger of California requested $5.7 million to buy up private lands and finance efforts to reduce catastrophic fire threats in the Tahoe Basin.

"While we recognize that funding is limited for the full range of worthwhile projects under consideration.... we would ask you to lend some consideration to Lake Tahoe's needs," they said in a letter to Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio.

Regula is the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on the interior, with jurisdiction over the budgets of the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.

The House earlier this year approved an interior spending bill that included $2 million to finance projects intended to reduce fuel loads that could lead to catastrophic fires around Lake Tahoe.

The House bill also includes $700,000 to help prevent soil erosion around the lake.

The Senate, which is considering its version of the bill this week, is proposing $3 million for land purchases at Lake Tahoe. But the Senate proposal currently includes no money for the other Tahoe projects.

Regula will be among leaders of a House-Senate conference committee that will work out any differences between the two bills.

The lawmakers noted that during President Clinton's environmental summit at Lake Tahoe in July 1997, "concerns about the massive soil erosion from catastrophic fire and existing development were ranked as the top threats to preserving the lake's pristine water quality and clarity.

"The funding provided in the House appropriations bill for these projects enjoys popular community support within the Lake Tahoe Basin and would provide us with a solid foundation on which to being addressing these pressing problems."

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