Labor Day: South Lake Tahoe tourism downs as wildfire escalates

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

South Lake Tahoe tourism this tourism season has downgraded as the California wildfire escalates.

The Lake Tahoe area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is usually a year-round recreational paradise offering beaches, water sports, hiking, ski resorts and golfing.

South Lake Tahoe, at the lake’s southern end, bustles with outdoor activities, and with casinos available in bordering Stateline, Nevada.

On weekends, the city’s population can easily triple and on holiday weekends, like the upcoming Labor Day weekend, up to 100,000 people will visit for fun and sun. But South Lake Tahoe City Mayor Tamara Wallace said they’ve been telling people for days to stay away because of poor air from wildfires.

Lake Tahoe City Mayor Tamara Wallace said that she thought the Caldor Fire would stay farther away. Fires in the past did not spread so rapidly near the tourist city.

She also said that it is just yet another example of how wildfires have changed over the years. She gathered treasures passed from her deceased parent and her husband’s while they prepared to leave.

The last two wildfires that ripped through populated areas near Lake Tahoe were the Angora Fire that destroyed more than 200 homes in 2007 and the Gondola Fire in 2002 that ignited near a chairlift at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Since then, the dead trees have accumulated and the region has coped with serious droughts, Wallace said.

The climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive, scientists say.

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