Multiple state and federal agencies will work together beginning Friday to implement boat inspections at all of Lake Tahoe’s public and some private boat launch points.
It’s the first in a series of a $1.3 million effort to keep invasive aquatic species, like zebra and quagga mussels, out of Lake Tahoe.

“Detection is the main key here, if they get here there is nothing that can be done,” said Dennis Zabaglo, watercraft program manager for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Today, the TRPA Advisory Planning Commission will consider making boat inspections mandatory before a craft can be launched into the lake. If the APC passes this measure, the TRPA Governing Board will consider it at its May 28 meeting.

Even though the boat inspections would not be mandatory until after that meeting, and after Memorial Day Weekend, Zabaglo said it was important to get some kind of monitoring system in place.

“We have to try to do something, even if it’s voluntary,” Zabaglo.

While a working group, including the Nevada Department of Wildlife and California Department of Fish and Game, have been working on the project, TRPA has taken the lead in creating a plan for the inspections while the Tahoe Resource Conservation District has implemented the plan by hiring 13 inspectors.

The inspectors will be stationed at public and some private launch points on the lake and will ask boaters questions about their recent boating habits to determine if further inspection is needed.

“We’ll be asking questions like ‘where has your boat been?’ or ‘how long has it been out of the water?’” said Nicole Cartwright, a conservation planner for the invasive species program for the TRCD. “We’ll also be educating them about the risks.”
While the inspectors will have no enforcement capabilities, they hope to keep the lake safe from aquatic species, Cartwright said.

“Most boaters are friendly people and realize it’s not us being (harsh),” she said. “We’re just trying to educate them.”

The TRCD has hired its inspectors for the season, but is also looking for volunteers to help educate the public, said Jenny Francis, a TRCD program manager.

Community members interested in becoming a volunteer or learning more about the inspections can attend a training session Friday morning.

At 9 a.m. at the TRPA offices at 128 Market St. in Stateline, Nev., speakers from the California Fish and Game, NDOW and other agencies will educate attendees about invasive species.

“We need as many people helping out as we can get,” Francis said. “This is a grassroots effort to keep the lake clean. We have to have everyone’s buy in for this to happen.”