Aquatic Invasive Species
Aquatic invasive plants have taken root in shallow waters around Lake Tahoe, threatening the lake’s prized clarity, water quality, ecology, recreation and economy.
Why is Controlling AIS Important?
AIS Program focuses on providing data for the harvesting operations and the long term projects of the AIS Program. It consists of the WQ Manager / AIS Management Coordinator, two AIS Technicians, two AIS Technician Interns and consultants with guidance and oversight from the Board of Directors and Water Quality Committee.
This department is responsible for several multi-year water quality improvement test projects throughout the Key's waterways.
These projects are the Laminar Flow Aeration, the West Channel Laminar Flow Aeration, the West Channel Bubble Curtain / Sea Bin Project, the Boat Backup Station. These projects require daily, weekly, monthly and annual sampling, monitoring, data collection, data analysis and annual reporting.
Around the Country
USGS Map of Aquatic Invasive Plants, 2018
Aquatic invasive plants are a challenge for numerous bodies of water around the country, costing billions of dollars each year, according the the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Click here to see how other areas around the west are handling the challenge.
Around Lake Tahoe
Tahoe Keys Weeds
Aquatic invasive plants affect all marinas and numerous shallow, warm areas around Lake Tahoe and continue to spread, constituting the most immediate threat to Lake Tahoe, according to the University of Nevada, Reno's 2015 Implementation Plan for the Control of Aquatic Invasive Species within Lake Tahoe. Curlyleaf pondweed, able to grow in deeper, colder waters, has begun to spread more rapidly than Eurasian watermilfoil.
In the Tahoe Keys
Tahoe Keys Hydroacoustic scan 8/5/2020
More than 95 percent of the Tahoe Keys' 172-acre lagoons are infested with aquatic invasive plants. Tahoe Keys Property Owners Association has both aggressively managed these plants with available methods and proactively sought long-term solutions to bring the infestation under control once and for all.
Learn More About the TKPOA Projects!
Click button below to learn more about all of the TKPOA Projects!