But the vacationers who arrived in droves were not the typical Tahoe tourists, observers say. Some seemed unfamiliar with the protocols for the wilderness, which include collecting garbage, protecting pristine natural features such as trees and rocks, and not feeding bears.
After the stay-at-home mandates were relaxed, “we were able to get a significant number of people on the road again,” said Carol Chaplin, president and CEO of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority. In South Lake Tahoe, an area with beaches, campgrounds and casinos, 80% of hotels reported July and August revenues equal to or greater than in 2019, she noted.
Many of the visitors were “day trippers or people traveling en route to other destinations like Oregon,” she said. “People were looking for road trips; they felt more secure in their own little pod in their car.
When visitors come for extended stays, it’s time to point them out that Tahoe is bear country, that you can’t keep food in your car, even in a cooler (bears recognize them), and that you cannot keep the house from the first floor windows open or even leave the sliding doors unlocked. But when people arrive for a brief visit, they form a more relaxed relationship with the wilderness around them, said Ann Bryant, 68, head of the BEAR League in Homewood, Calif., A 24-hour call center. / 24 for bear problems. They can even leave food for a bear for Instagram opportunities. This has ramifications for the next visitor, who can be terrified when the bear returns for more.
Calls to the BEAR League have skyrocketed this summer. “Most people come here with no idea that there are bears,” said Bryant.
A visitor from Georgia, for example, stayed at a hotel near the lake where bears spend their normal nightly rounds. “Every time he saw one he would call 911 like it was a major emergency,” said Bryant. “They threatened to arrest him if he called again.
“Bears don’t hurt people,” she said. “They’ll knock over anything to get out if someone blocks their exit.”
This summer, many drivers came from the San Francisco Bay Area and lacked “good forestry etiquette,” said Bryant. There was a wave of vandalism and rubbish. Ancient trees and rocks were spray painted, sometimes with obscenities. “It got really hostile,” she says. “We were absolutely irritated to see this. I can’t imagine what kind of person would think it’s okay.
The volunteers tried to clean the rocks, “which removes the lichen that has grown on the rocks for a million years,” she said. “History was taken away from them.”
Residents protested with several rallies in August, holding signs reading “tourists are leaving” and “don’t trash Tahoe”. “It’s unfortunate because we love our visitors, and that’s our main source of income,” Chaplin said.
Environmental concerns were echoed by Lisa Herron, 58, a spokesperson for the USDA Forest Service’s Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, under whose jurisdiction most campgrounds and beaches in the region fall under. “We have certainly seen an increase in the number of visits to National Forest Lands over the past summer,” Herron said. “And sometimes with that increase comes additional pressure. In some cases, people leave garbage outside of overflowing containers. This is unacceptable. She keeps a spare trash bag in her backpack and urges visitors to do the same. (The profusion of waste could come from the pandemic, with its increase in single-use plastic and plastic foam for take-out, Chaplin said.)
But the problem is not only that of sanitation. “Once the bears find the source of human food or waste, they come back and look for it,” Herron said. “They are smart enough.”
The risk of bear engagement, coupled with pandemic concerns, has led officials to cancel the Fall Fish Festival, which attracts up to 12,000 people in a single weekend to watch kokanee salmon spawn in Taylor Creek.
Zhee Zhee Aguirre, 48, owner of Spoon restaurant in Tahoe City, Calif., Said she had seen an increase in her business, especially take-out, this summer, which she attributed in part to the fires in forest that swept across northern California.. “With the fires, a lot of people ran away from their homes, going haywire because they were locked up,” she says. She saw bears around her restaurant and a customer said she saw a bear with a disposable mask in its mouth. Customers also cried at the sight of little ones being hit by cars, she said.
In the past, according to Bryant of the BEAR League, there has been an annual average of 50 bears hit by cars; this year she put the number at 100. “And we haven’t even finished yet. Bears will not enter their dens until they are closer to Christmas. While some bears survive the blows, 30 to 40 die in a typical year.
Jon Hunt, 46, lives two hours from Tahoe. He and his wife, Carey Moreno-Hunt, had been discussing buying a condo near the lake for years. Then this year, when all of their vacations and their four children’s athletic programs were canceled, they bought a spot at Kings Beach on the California side of the North Coast. “We didn’t know how long the covid was going to last, so we thought we were going to give it a try,” he said.
Hunt noticed in August that Tahoe was “packed, with people wall to wall – I thought it was a little shocking” – but said the numbers cleared up once school started. And although he has never encountered a bear on previous visits, he has seen three this summer.
He even saw a mama bear easily open the unlocked bear bar on a dumpster and lift the lid while her cub came inside to throw things away. None of the bears responded to the people’s applause and howls, so the humans finally gave up and went to bed. In the morning, “the trash was strewn all over like they were having a little party,” Hunt said.
Relief arrives: The bears, who have been eating vigorously all summer to put in the calories they will need to survive hibernation, will be less noticeable as the weather changes. And maybe visitors will begin to treat Tahoe’s natural beauty with the respect it deserves. “I hope our winter season will be a little milder,” said Chaplin.
Mailman is a writer based in Northern California. Find her on Twitter: @ErikaMailman
