Siberians visit Tahoe and Carson Valley

Indigenous people from Siberia visited indigenous people from Lake Tahoe, Carson Valley and Woodfords earlier this month as part of program to exchange ideas about the protection of natural resources.

The Buryats, an ethnic group of Mongolian descent, are from the Buryatia Republic located along the eastern shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. During the 8-day visit, the Buryats met with members of the Washoe tribe, went to Lake Tahoe and the Leviathan Mine site.

While at Lake Tahoe, the delegates went to the University of California, Davis, Tahoe Research Group, the U.S. Forest Service and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The delegates were Rimma Baldayeva from Lake Baikal Water Resources Management; Bairma Gineyeva, Buryatia State University president's assistant; Aleksey Gypylov, Committee for Ethnic Relations from the Republic of Buryatia; and Darima Tsybenova, of Chita, Russia. The group's facilitator was Oleg Syshchikov of Moscow.

As part of their visit the group took in the Kokanee Salmon Festival at Taylor Creek on Oct. 8. Gypylov said his group thought Tahoe was the most unique lake in the world and is surrounded by beautiful landscapes.

"Salmon have to live in clean water and that indicates how local people care about the environment," Gypylov said. "We were impressed that there were a lot of children and youth who came to the festival - we thought young people in America were only interested in computers."

Former U.S. Forest Service supervisor and current Tahoe-Baikal Institute member Bill Morgan said the institute was honored to host the Buryat delegates and wishes to continue their collaboration with the Washoe Tribe.

"The Buryat and Washoe cultures have rich histories of stewardship at Lake Baikal and Tahoe, respectively, extending back thousands of years," Morgan said. "There is great value for all of us in cross-cultural exploration of their challenges, historical practices and adaptations."

The Tahoe-Baikal Institute was established in 1990 to help preserve Lake Tahoe in California and Lake Baikal in Siberia, as well as other significant and threatened natural areas around the world. This preservation is realized through environmental education programs, research and international exchanges of students, scholars and practitioners in science, policy, economics and other related disciplines.

Founded in 1999 with a focus on Russia, the Open World program has hosted mayors, journalists, nonprofit directors, small business owners, political activists and high court judges from Lithuania, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

More than 10,500 Open World participants have been hosted in all 50 U.S. states. The program's administering agency, the Open World Leadership Center, is a legislative branch entity with offices at the Library of Congress.

For more information about the Tahoe-Baikal Institute, go to tahoebaikal.org and openworld.gov for Open World.