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South Lake Tahoe, CA: The Wonder of the Upper Truckee Marsh

August 5th, 2010 categories: Al Tahoe, California Neighborhoods, For Buyers, For Sellers, Highland Woods, Lake Tahoe Beauty, South Lake Tahoe, CA, Tahoe Island Drive, Tahoe Island Park, Tahoe Keys

One of the best "back yards" in South Lake Tahoe!

We've recently spent a good part of three days shooting images in the Upper Truckee Marsh. Here is a true South Lake Tahoe wonder.

The Marsh in it's entirety is some 513 acres of highly disturbed wetland. It is located at the mouth of the two largest watersheds in the Lake Tahoe basin and receives runoff from the largest urbanized area in the basin.

We spent most of our time in that area of the Marsh that is open to the public, and dogs, that flanks the neighborhood of Al Tahoe, which includes a wide sandy beach.

Open and expansive, with white sand galore on a good part of it, the beach where the Upper Truckee Marsh and Lake Tahoe meet seems so private that it suggests a somewhat well kept secret to the public at large. This is a public place to be sure, however; one just needs to know how to get there.

The Upper Truckee Marsh is a wetland area, located where Trout Creek and the Upper Truckee River flow into Lake Tahoe. It is a Wetland Restoration Project managed by The California Tahoe Conservancy.

It is actually enveloped by the Lake and some four different South Lake Tahoe neighborhoods: The Tahoe Keys, Al Tahoe, Highland Woods, and Tahoe Island Drive (translate "it's in your back yard or within short walking distance if you live there").

The Marsh is is vitally important to the health of Lake Tahoe. It is considered an "Ecologically Significant Area" because wetlands of this size are rare in the Sierra.

The Marsh provides important habitat for a relatively high diversity of wildlife such as birds of prey, waterfowl, amphibians, fish and mammals. We saw lots of that while filming, with birds and scampering critters often elusive objects of some of our shots (it's hard to get them to be still… or say "cheese").

Historically, this part of the lake was used for Native American for encampments, log transport and cattle grazing. More recently, in the mid-1950s, the Tahoe Key's development filled in some 500 acres of the original wetland, dredged canals and channelized the Upper Truckee River.

These activities have compromised the environmental integrity of the area and its ability to protect the clarity of the lake and support native plant and wildlife species. Bald eagles, beaver, osprey and many other animals rely on the wetland for food, protection and nesting.

The Marsh offers hiking, wildlife viewing, and is dog-friendly. Dogs must be kept on a leash. There are no designated trails, but narrow trails can be easily found in parts of the wetland and the surrounding forest belt.

Sources: here and here.

Images below are various angles of the Upper Truckee Marsh. There are more coming. I'd like to claim that I shot these, but Maxene, my much than better-half, has a better eye. In the last image of a small part of the beach below, one of the people, wee that it is, is me shooting video from a tripod. I'm not very good at that either… but am learning.

Upper Truckee Marsh, South Lake Tahoe, CA

The image below is the Upper Truckee Marsh from above via Google. The marsh looks brown in the image, but I assure you it is not brown right now, as the images above indicate.

The Tahoe Keys is on the left side of this image, Al Tahoe is upper right, and Highland Woods is lower right.

Upper Truckee Marsh, South Lake Tahoe, CA from above