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The Tahoe Basin was seriously denuded of most of its tree growth in the period from the mid-1850's, when gold and silver were discovered on the Comstock at Virginia City, and about the 1890's. Carson City was a major logging and milling center, as the forests from the Tahoe Basin were converted into mine timbers for the Comstock. The logs were shot down on water flumes constructed on the east face of the Spooner Summit, and a huge sawmill operation stood about where the Wal-Mart now stands along South Carson street. Major slash fires cleared out much of the wood that had not been harvested, yet, left to its own devices, most of the growth around the lake was restored by the early part of the 20th Century. But then the forest biologists made a crucial policy mistake. Rather than maintaining a steady-sustainable harvest, the decision was made to stop ALL harvest, which leads to the uncontrollable burns that break out on dead and diseased understory today. They have their "Primeval" stands, they also have poorly managed forestlands, and surprisingly, a growing pollution problem in the lake itself. The dead and decomposing organic matter from the unharvested trees is raising the nitrate and turbidity levels of the lake, as it leaches off the hillsides. There is a very good and extremely efficient sewage collection system in the Tahoe Basin (or so the propaganda machine of Tahoe Area Residential Property Association would have you believe), so they cannot POSSIBLY be the polluters of the lake. But the pollution is coming from somewhere. If they are so good and efficient with the sewage waste stream, then it has to be coming from the decomposing dead vegetation.

... left to its own devices ...

Reminds me of a special I saw about Mt. St. Helens several years after the eruption. The areas "left to their own devices" had recovered quite nicely, but those that humans had "helped along" showed many problems and much less recovery.

It's nice to see this type of evidence and proof documented. Thanks.

Which of course assumes that a "clean" lake is "natural."

Nutrient levels in the lake probably go in cycles with forest maturity. During the period a few decades after the Comstock (once the miners had left and the mud and ashes had settled), the average vegetation was probably relatively young and the lake unusually clear. Now we see a nitrate release because the forest can't consume it as fast by growth as the fungi produce it feeding on dead vegetation. In the Tahoe basin I am more concerned about the condition of the forest than whether or not tourists want a lake that is clear.

But then the forest biologists made a crucial policy mistake. Rather than maintaining a steady-sustainable harvest, the decision was made to stop ALL harvest, which leads to the uncontrollable burns that break out on dead and diseased understory today.

Sounds like you've read Carry_Okie's book.

I'm in North Carolina, and my property was clear-cut about sixty years ago. It came back just fine, although I am in the process of weeding out the "trash" trees, like Virginia Pines (locally called Jack Pines).

Private stewardship of the forest is a great concept, invented - BTW - not far from where I live by the Biltmore family. It's now called "Pisgah National Forest" AKA "The Cradle of Forestry".