For decades, people have been fascinated by Lake Tahoe – its pristine beauty, its colorful history, as well as the natural forces that created it and continue to influence its growth and development.

By our very proximity, the University of Nevada, Reno is in a unique position to study, research, and appreciate the many facets of Lake Tahoe. This website offers a place to find out about the wide variety of scholarly and creative activity currently being conducted by our University faculty. In addition, it’s a place for us to share our historic maps, photographs, and collections related to Lake Tahoe. more...

Ants Could Hold Key to Future Lake Tahoe Clarity Efforts
From Nevada News
Story by John Trent

Ants are often considered nuisances, pests that are to be quickly eradicated and forgotten.

Yet, according to a team of scientists that includes Monte Sanford, a Ph.D. student, and Dennis Murphy, a professor in the Biology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, ants could hold important keys to improving water clarity at Lake Tahoe and in maintaining ecological health in the Lake Tahoe basin.

Sanford says that one of the more common types of ants at Tahoe, "aerator ants" — which are ant species that construct nests and extensive tunnel networks in the ground — "can play a substantial role in facilitating water infiltration in forests, which can affect the clarity of the lake’s waters."

"The study reminds us that we tend to overlook the little things that run the world," Murphy said.

Read the full story in Nevada News, 14 November 2007

DRI, University Combine Forces at Lake Tahoe
From Nevada News
Story by John Trent

Ten years after the Lake Tahoe Presidential Summit in 1997, collaboration among Tahoe researchers has never been stronger.

Today, the Desert Research Institute (DRI) and University of Nevada researchers, along with other academic institutions with active research agendas at Tahoe, such as UC-Davis, have combined forces in a winning effort to slow the decline in Lake Tahoe’s legendary clarity.

"That is one of the great legacies of President Clinton’s visit to Lake Tahoe in 1997,” says Glenn Miller, a professor of natural resources and environmental science at the University of Nevada, Reno. Miller, along with several other faculty members of the University, as well as its Tahoe research partner, the Desert Research Institute (DRI), attended the Lake Tahoe Presidential Summit in 1997. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore’s visit to Tahoe brought unprecedented national and worldwide attention to the fight to save Lake Tahoe.

“It was such a group consensus-building effort,” Miller continues “It was probably the best consensus-building effort I’ve ever been involved in during my almost 30 years at the University of Nevada. And the consensus-building has carried through. The legacy of that 1997 summit is still with us today."

Read the full story in Nevada News, 15 August 2007
Related story on Tahoe Summit 2007: Tahoe Summit: Nevada Research is true blue

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Updated 19 November 2007