Pack it up, Tahoe tells Bay Area tourists
Residents up in arms over trash-spewing, virus-flouting visitors
LAKE TAHOE >> For a resort community used to roadside placards touting outdoor adventures and drop-in dining, the signs took a stern tone Sunday morning along the highway next to Kings Beach.
“Be kind. Be smart. Be respectful.” “Don’t trash our future. Pack your trash.” “If you don’t pick up your trash, you are the real trash.” Tahoe, an increasingly vocal group of locals say, is tapped out — by packed beaches, lax adherence to health safety measures, and overflowing trash cans and refuse scattered along once-pristine strands and trails. With the added worry of coronavirus transmission from residents fleeing stay-at-home orders, some took to the streets Sunday.
“It’s been like the Fourth of July every day for months,” said Lisa Besio, 38, a Kings Beach resident who carried a homemade sign taped to an old rake reading “Tahoe’s Full. Stay Out.”
Tensions have flared in the tourist community, usually a laid-back, protest-free zone
where locals prefer to embrace solitude and outdoor sports. The resort region largely reopened in June, and in recent weeks has seen an influx of visitors — many cooped up for months and ready to let loose.
The demonstrations emerged from a social media campaign by local environmental groups and frustrated year-round residents.
“The lake has taken a huge hit this year and the level of disrespect from tourists is through the roof,” read a Facebook post from local musician Josh Lease, who helped kick-start the campaign. “‘Pack it in pack it out’ is not a hard thing to do and our own health and safety is our first priority.”
Trash has been a concern for two years, with dirty diapers, empty beer cases, stray picnic plates and glasses, leftover barbecue pans, pizza boxes and any number of overstuffed plastic bags sometimes dirtying one of the state’s most beautiful natural locales. Left-behind garbage can attract bears if not secured properly.
Local businesses have been frustrated, too, with what some see as an unprecedented eruption of vacation folly and bad behavior.
Steve Teshara, CEO of the Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, said the rush of visitors is welcomed by businesses, but the stress of health precautions, limited service space and lower sales have pushed some businesses to cut operations. Workers are spending extra time cleaning up outside messes.
Highways, beaches and parking lots around the lake have been jammed since June, bringing revenue but also unwanted public urination and the trash emergency.
“(Visitors) expect that some woodland fairies come out at night and pick up all the trash,” Teshara said. “The fairies don’t come out at night to pick up trash.”
Cynthia and Bob Faure, who live in the Central Valley town of Ripon, bought a cabin in South Lake Tahoe four years ago and visit at least twice a month.
When restrictions loosened up in early June, the “crazy” flood of visitors arrived, said Cynthia Faure, a retired educator who said she had never seen the area so busy. And they haven’t been clean — Faure and her neighbors have an almost daily chore to clean litter from their front yards.
“They leave trash right in our front yard,” she said. “They drop it out of their cars and leave.”
But the lure of stunning beaches, rare mountain lake vistas, buzzing vacation shops, diversions and casinos has pulled Bay Area residents back again and again. Sometimes, the escape is just for a day.
Gabriel Jaquez, 39, drove from Tracy for a day trip with his wife, three sons and their extended family on Saturday morning. By late afternoon, Jaquez was flipping carne asada, peppers and onions on a propane grill set along the shoreline in Regan Beach.
It was the family’s first trip to Tahoe, and the first break since the pandemic hit. “I like it,” he said, and pointed to his wife staring out over the water. “She likes it, too.”
The family brought their own garbage bags, and Jaquez instructed his three teenage sons to clean up. “It starts at home,” he said.
The crowds also have brought a heightened fear of the spread of the coronavirus to local communities and their health care system. The region has seen its caseload creep up and an infection rate that threatens to put local communities on a state watchlist for deeper restrictions.
El Dorado County saw cases start to grow in June and peak in July. Placer County has seen a similar trend, with cases rising though June and spiking in late July and early August.
Cristian Guillen brought his family up from San Leandro on Saturday. In the evening, the group strolled Heavenly Village, Guillen wearing a Spiderman-themed mask, his wife and two young children also covered. But many other visitors seemed to consider masks optional, despite county health guidelines.
“Seeing so many people without masks is a little disappointing,” said Guillen, 40, who works for a nonprofit in San Jose. His message to his children all day: “Don’t touch.”
For locals, the stakes are higher. And with Bay Area schools going to online learning, Lake Tahoe residents worry that the summer vacation season may stretch into the fall.
Kari Michael, a local school administrator and lifelong resident, came out to a roundabout at Kings Beach at 9 a.m. to wave signs made by her young children.
The crowds of virus-flouting visitors, leaving behind trash, has become overwhelming, she said.
“People want to be here. We’re not against tourists,” Michael said. “They’re just in vacation mode. We’re in survival mode.”