LAKE TAHOE — A group of government agencies collaborated to recently install Lake Tahoe gateway signs along three Nevada highways.

Installed near Daggett Summit on Highway 207, Spooner Summit on Highway 50 and the Mt. Rose Summit on Highway 431, the decorative signs read “Entering the Lake Tahoe Watershed — Help Protect It!”

The signs were installed in July in a project led by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and Nevada Division of State Lands.

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The signs are meant to help remind the millions of people who visit Lake Tahoe each year that they are entering a special place and have a duty to help protect its famously clear waters and environment.

Fourth of July celebrations left thousands of pounds of trash on area beaches for community volunteers to clean up, showing there is still a strong need to remind people of their responsibility to help protect Lake Tahoe and its beaches.

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That same responsibility goes for keeping trash and other pollutants out of stormwater drainage systems and the 63 streams flowing into Lake Tahoe in a watershed that covers 312 square miles.

“Everything drains into the lake. The purpose of these new signs is to bolster environmental stewardship, let all visitors know they are entering a special place, and remind them there’s a responsibility we all share to take care of it,” Julie Regan, chief of external affairs at TRPA, stated. “These signs are one more tool to help instill that awareness.”

Wild West Communications Group in Homewood designed the signs. They were engineered by Lumos and Associates in Stateline and K B Foster Civil Engineering in Truckee. Rapid Construction in Carson City installed them.

The Lake Tahoe Environmental Gateway Signage Project was paid for with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection as well as funding from the Lake Tahoe License Plate Program run by Nevada Division of State Lands.

The agencies are looking to partner with community organizations to adopt the signs and help ensure they remain attractive and in good repair. TRPA is also seeking funding to install more signs on California roadway entrances into the Tahoe Basin.

Tom Lotshaw is Public Information Officer for TRPA. Learn more at trpa.org.