Douglas thanks volunteers for picking up Zephyr Shoals beach

The volunteers who picked more than three tons of trash off Zephyr Shoals Beach on July 5 were officially thanked by Douglas County commissioners with a proclamation on Thursday.

Commissioner Sharla Hales said the county was very grateful for the volunteers’ effort.

“I’m grateful so much that you and your people took care of this whole mess,” she said. “It’s one thing to recognize you, but it’s sort of meaningless if we didn’t follow up by doing something to try and prevent it next year. We are discussing and thinking ”

Zephyr Shoals is located on the former Dreyfus Estate next door to Zephyr Cove.

“Even though It’s not under our direct management, but it’s still ours as a county, we feel a responsibility and we do not want to have it happen again,” Hales said. “Thank you, thank  you.”

One thing that Douglas has done to reduce issues at neighboring Zephyr Cove is to ban alcohol, which made up part of the debris found at Zephyr Shoals on July 5.

The U.S. Forest Service included the beach under the Zephyr Cove Resort concession so it will be managed once that takes effect Nov. 1.

Zephyr Shoals made international news after the Fourth of July for the 6,318 pounds of litter picked up.

“It is unconscionable to me that we would not have members of the public clean up after themselves,” Chairman Mark Gardner said.

In all 54 volunteers and a dozen people from Clean Up the Lake, the Forest Service, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s “Tahoe Blue Crew” and representatives of Stio Mountain Studio helped clean up the beach.

Senior Community Engagement Manager Marilee Movius accepted the proclamation on behalf of Keep Tahoe Blue.

“We really could not keep Tahoe blue without volunteers in the community and the grassroots efforts of people who are visitors to Lake Tahoe, who are members of the community, who are part time and full time workers coming out,” she said. “People who are from down here coming up to be participants in the clean up and people who are visiting and want to make it part of their vacation. I’m proud to have organized this for the last 10 years. I couldn’t do it without our volunteers, our staff, and our partners, I’m so proud to see everybody come together to keep Tahoe blue. We’ll continue to protect the Lake and make changes to make it better than we saw this past year and leave it better than we found it.”

On Monday, beach cleaning robot BEBOT will be at South Lake Tahoe’s Conolley Beach sifting the sand for small bits of liter and plastic at 32,000-square-feet per hour.

“We are excited to continue to expand the BEBOT’s pilot testing to Conolley Beach,” said Genoa resident JT Chevallier, co-founder and chief strategy officer of ECO-CLEAN Solutions. “This deployment represents the importance of partnerships and shared stewardship in the Lake Tahoe Basin. We commend the City of South Lake Tahoe and Beach Retreat for their commitment to environmental sustainability in the region.”

 This project would not be possible without support and advocacy from Keep Tahoe Blue.”