South Lake Tahoe, CA- The City of South Lake Tahoe is working to make the Lake Tahoe Airport safer for pilots via a proactive Tree Management Program. Starting in the fall of 2019 and in partnership with the Lake Valley Fire Protection District and the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team, workers will begin phased tree work on 46 acres of airport property.

The City owns and operates the airport. One facet of doing that is getting rid of
obstructions in and around the airport to make it safer for aircraft coming in and out.
“Lake Tahoe has an abundance of trees, including Jeffrey Pines, Ponderosa Pines, and
Sugar Pines,” said Mark Gibbs, Lake Tahoe Airport Manager. “Some of those trees can
cause problems to aircraft. Our goal is to remove as few trees as possible and to make
the airport as safe as possible.”

In compliance with all Federal, State and Local timber harvest permit requirements, the
Tree Management Program will ensure safety by using a slowly phased elimination of
trees that are obstructions or could be problematic in the future. All of this is to protect
departure and approach paths to the airport and insure safe transit from the South
Shore of Lake Tahoe. Once the trees are removed, the airport will use the services of a
professional forester to institute a comprehensive vegetative maintenance plan to
prevent future trees from growing into protected airspace.

A public workshop has been tentatively scheduled for March 2019 to get input on the
Vegetative Management Plan.

“The airport is more than just private air travel,” says Gibbs. “The airport is a critical
piece of the city’s emergency plan, especially when talking about wildfires.
The Lake Tahoe Airport serves as the City of South Lake Tahoe’s Emergency
Operations Center and the coordination point for City response efforts. It proved critical
during the 2007 Angora Fire. The airport served as a heli-base for 13 firefighting
helicopters and staging center for fire-fighting equipment.

“The airport staff wants to ensure the airport can continue to be used as base of
operations in the event of wildfire in the basin,” Gibbs said. “Our goal is to protect forest
resources, property and most importantly lives.”

. Airport staff is also working with several community partners to continue making the
airport more resilient to wild fires, including the Lake Valley Fire Protection District which
is treating almost 40 acres.

“We have a lot of partners in this process, which is great. But what we need now is
public input,” said Gibbs.

For public input or more informaiton, please contact Airport Manager Mark Gibbs, A.A.E.
at (530) 542-6182 or via email at mgibbs@cityofslt.us