On the recordMarch 2, 2011
today I join Senator Feinstein in introducing the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2011 along with Senator Ensign and Senator Boxer. Our bill protects Lake Tahoe by helping federal agencies work more collaboratively with local governments to manage federal lands, preventing catastrophic wildfires, keeping invasive species out of the lake, using sound science to prioritize projects, and leveraging state and local funding. Senator Feinstein has done a lot of work to improve this legislation while maintaining a broad coalition of support and I want to thank her for her good work. Lake Tahoe is a place of incredible beauty. When Mark Twain first saw Lake Tahoe in 1861, he described it as "a noble sheet of blue water lifted 6,300 feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks that towered aloft full three thousand feet higher still!" He went on to proclaim the view in front of him as surely "the fairest picture the whole earth affords." I could not agree more. But for all its beauty, Lake Tahoe Basin is in peril.
