Masters of Tahoe Incline Real Estate, Written by Kathryn Reed with Tahoe.com

While several small towns ring the Lake Tahoe Basin, Incline Village is a community that welcomes people from all walks of life – the retiree and the college student, the uber-wealthy and those with more modest bank accounts, elite athletes and weekend warriors, families and singles.

“Most small towns are homogeneous,” says Shahri Masters of Masters of Tahoe Incline Real Estate. “What I like about Incline Village is that the people here are not all the same. The variety and diversity of people makes it more interesting.”

Masters is one of the many locals who can be credited with helping create that diversity. She is like a seamstress who stitches together the multitude of fabric pieces to create community.

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Originally Published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 08/14/2025, Written by Leah Carter

Despite its small population of just under 56,000, the Lake Tahoe region is home to a wide variety of myths and legends.

Most of those myths have yet to be debunked, but the most notable ones are Tahoe Tessie — the Lake Tahoe version of Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster —and a number of rumors about what’s really at the bottom of Lake Tahoe.

 People have reported supposed sightings of the large, serpentine-like creature since the early 1900’s, while the local Washoe and Paiute Tribes also spoke of a powerful, serpent-like creature found in Tahoe’s waters. 

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Photo: Jim Grant

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Lake Spirit Awards, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to Lake Tahoe’s natural environment, the agency announced today. The health of the Lake Tahoe Region depends on collaboration between community members, volunteers, scientists, and public officials.

“The Lake Spirit Awards are an opportunity for the community to honor the people who are helping protect Lake Tahoe, often behind the scenes,” TRPA Executive Director Julie Regan said. “A culture of stewardship permeates the Tahoe Basin, and we should recognize individuals who embody this spirit.”

Nominations are open to the public through September 30 and may be submitted online at trpa.gov/awards/lakespirit. Winners will be formally recognized by the TRPA Governing Board later this year.

The Lake Spirit Awards include three nomination categories:

• Citizen
• Agency Representative/Environmental Scientist
• Lifetime Achievement

Multiple recipients from around the region will be selected in each category.

Since the first Lake Spirit Awards in 2011, TRPA has recognized over 40 individuals whose work has contributed to tangible environmental benefits across the Tahoe Basin. Awardees are selected based on the strength of their contributions and ability to engage others in protecting the lake. Some recent Lake Spirit award winners are listed below.

Call for Nominations for the Best in Basin Awards

In addition to the biennial Lake Spirit Awards, TRPA holds the Best in Basin Awards every other year to recognize projects and programs that demonstrate exceptional environmental design and stewardship of Lake Tahoe. Now is the time to nominate projects completed in 2024 or 2025 for the Best in Basin Awards to be announced in May, 2026. Submit a nomination attrpa.gov/awards/bestinbasin.

Past Lake Spirit Award Winners

Citizens

• Helen Neff – “Take it Slow, Tahoe” Citizen Leader on Traffic Safety
• Lila Peterson – Vail Resorts Zero-Waste Program Coordination
• Helen Henry Smith – Vikingsholm Foundation
• Ben and Evan Anderson – Truckee High School Envirolution Club
• Sue Hughes – Incline Flume Trail
• Karen Mullen-Ehly – Washoe County Parks
• Tom Carter – Underwater Litter Collection
• Jeff Poulin – Litter Cleanups

Agency representatives

• Amy Berry – Tahoe Fund 
• Heidi Doyle – Sierra State Parks Foundation
• Jean Diaz – St. Joseph Community Land Trust
• Marilee Movius – League to Save Lake Tahoe Community Engagement
• Jay Howard – Nevada State Parks
• Jacob Quinn – USDA Forest Service Trails
• Forest Schafer has worked for the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District

Lifetime Achievement

• Roland Shaw – Nevada State Parks
• Don Lane – USDA Forest Service

Image Credit: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

Caption: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency staff and the 2023 Lake Spirit Award Winners stand for a group photo after the award ceremony. Pictured from left: TRPA Community Engagement Manager Victoria Ortiz, award winners Roland Shaw, Lila Peterson, Jean Diaz, Heidi Doyle, and Don Lane, and TRPA Executive Director Julie Regan.

Long a country of checks and balances, we suddenly find our two-party system in checkmate and off-balance. Unity of purpose and policy is no longer a reliable proposition. So just as the Preamble to the United States Constitution calls for a More Perfect Union, these turbulent times call for the birth of a third political party. 

Having recently converted my voter registration to, “No Political Party” I’m in a Catbird Seat to launch our third political party, “DO NO HARM 2026.” 

Not yet registered with the Federal Election Commission, I shall introduce our party here in this fine family journal, and as I owe $300 in Mark Twain library late fees, I shall create a Super PAC to fund this nascent party. Operational steps will be determined by real people, with no assistance from Artificial Intelligence. 

I’ve learned a couple things from flipping back and forth between FOX and MSNBC of late. Judging from the frequency of sponsors, MSNBC viewers must have dryer eyes, while FOX viewers must have more toenail issues, and they both wish the other had them and they didn’t. As one of Mark Twain’s characters tells us, “Tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.” 

In building a platform of fiscal responsibility & social commitment to all Americans, I herein hand the reins of DO NO HARM over to a person whose sympathies are wide and warm, and whose heart is large and knows no guile, non-other than The Honorable, (please fill in the blank here with your choice and return to me as quickly as possible.)                        

So long as political survival dominates the primary political instinct, human harm will persist. Greed for power and wealth has reached an all-time American high. Yet, driven hard enough, human capacity for empathy can conquer egocentric drive for power. It’s time to promote those who will say “Enough Already” to buccaneer capitalism, and “Enough” to those born hoggish after money. The true measure of a person is not net worth, but net humanity.

In this moment, when several nations are equipped with weapons capable of unleashing destruction upon the whole of mankind, do we hear enough calls to draw down, might we not hear more shouts for détente? We really do need to eradicate weapons of warfare before they eradicate us…

When Democrats and Republicans fight, DO NO HARM will step in, seek middle ground, and start the healing process. Finally with good deeds outnumbering crimes by 1000/1 on a daily basis, news outlets will be encouraged to include a few more good news stories along with all the bad news stories, and thus provide some refreshment toward our nation’s mental health. And we are going to do all of this in the spirit of The Old Rail Splitter, “…with malice toward none; with charity for all.”

So onward and upward with DO NO HARM 2026, coming to a polling place near us soon…

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO

Originally Published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 08/12/2025, Staff Report

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Tahoe Fire & Fuels Team hazardous fuels reduction (forest thinning) projects are underway around Lake Tahoe and scheduled to continue through fall 2025, conditions and weather permitting. Multiple partners including the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, California Tahoe Conservancy, Liberty Utilities, NV Energy, Nevada Division of Forestry, North Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Douglas fire protection districts, and the USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit are working together to protect Lake Tahoe communities by reducing excess vegetation (fuels) that can feed unwanted wildfires. For project details, including location, land ownership, lead agency, start date and expected duration, view the Lake Tahoe Basin Project Map at Tahoe Living With Fire, which highlights current and upcoming projects.

Forest health is a top priority of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program, a landscape-scale collaboration and partnership between nearly 80 public and private organizations to achieve the environmental goals of the region. To date, partners have treated nearly 100,000 acres in Lake Tahoe Basin forests to reduce hazardous fuels.

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E. Clement “Clem” Shute, a California attorney who dedicated much of his career to protecting Lake Tahoe, received the Dianne Feinstein Lake Tahoe Award at the annual Lake Tahoe Summit held in South Lake Tahoe today. The award is named in honor of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to preserving and improving Lake Tahoe’s environment.

Shute has played an instrumental role in Lake Tahoe’s protection and restoration since the early days of the environmental movement, according to the award presenters. During his career, he helped establish the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in 1969, the first interstate compact agency of its kind in the nation. He also helped strengthen the agency’s regulatory framework and defended its policies before the highest courts in the nation.

“It’s a personal honor to have nominated Clem for this award on behalf of the environmental community and all who cherish Lake Tahoe,” said Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, CEO for Keep Tahoe Blue. “From his landmark legal accomplishments that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, to his decade of service on TRPA’s Governing Board, Clem helped build partnerships for Team Tahoe that continue to protect Tahoe today — and will into the future.”

In addition to helping establish TRPA more than 55 years ago, in 2011, Clem answered the call to return to Lake Tahoe as one of California’s representatives on the agency’s 15-member Governing Board. For the next nine years, Shute was a strong presence on the board. He helped negotiate a pivotal update to the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan in 2012 that ultimately brought California and Nevada together to recommit to the Bi-State Compact, TRPA Executive Director Julie Regan said.

“Clem embodies the spirit of collaboration and partnership that has underpinned Lake Tahoe’s protection for more than 55 years,” Regan said. “During the Regional Plan Update, his extensive knowledge and commitment to collaborating with Nevada officials brought the bi-state partnership back together. Lake Tahoe remains one of the clearest bodies of water in the world thanks to leaders like Clem over the decades.” 

Shute began his law career in the California Attorney General’s office working for the San Francisco Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission. His work in the appellate courts established significant precedents in environmental law. In 2002, he was part of the legal team that successfully defended the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan before the U.S. Supreme Court in Tahoe Sierra Preservation Council v. TRPA, a case that is widely cited in land-use planning policy. In 2015, Shute was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the California State Bar.

Shute’s love of Lake Tahoe goes back to his childhood when he spent vacations on the North Shore with his family. Even as a boy he understood how special the lake is. 

“When given the chance to help ‘save Lake Tahoe,’ the choice was easy,” he said. “Looking back, it’s incredible to see just how much has been accomplished collectively. It is humbling to be included among the major figures in Lake Tahoe’s preservation, and I feel those who were alongside me share in this award.”

In 2021, Senator Feinstein herself became the first recipient of the eponymous award for her decades of dedication to Lake Tahoe’s preservation. She co-founded the annual Lake Tahoe Summit 30 years ago along with the late Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. The event continues to bring federal, Tribal, state, and local leaders together to address environmental challenges facing the Lake Tahoe Basin and build collaborative, bi-partisan solutions.

In 2022, the legendary scientist Dr. Charles Goldman received the award. His research in the 1960s showed how harmful development practices were destroying the lake’s famed water clarity. Goldman’s work has helped guide science-based environmental policy in the Tahoe Basin for decades.

Images

Clem_Shute_Award_Tahoe_Summit_2025_stage
Caption: E. Clement “Clem” Shute Jr. accepts the Dianne Feinstein Lake Tahoe Award at the Tahoe Summit August 6. Over his legal career, Clem successfully defended Lake Tahoe environmental policies and helped strengthen the bi-state partnership to protect Lake Tahoe. From left: U.S. Senator Catherine Cotez Masto (D-Nev.), U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Clem Shute. Credit: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

Clem_Shute_Award_Tahoe_Summit_2025_presenters
Caption: Clem Shute stands for a photo with the presenters of the Dianne Feinstein Lake Tahoe Award. From left, Keep Tahoe Blue CEO Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, TRPA Executive Director Julie Regan, E. Clement “Clem” Shute Jr., and Placer County Supervisor and TRPA Governing Board member Cindy Gustafson. Credit: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

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The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency leads the cooperative effort to preserve, restore, and enhance the unique natural and human environment of the Lake Tahoe Region, while improving local communities and people’s interactions with our irreplaceable environment. For additional information, contact Jeff Cowen, Public Information Officer, at (775) 589-5278, or jcowen@trpa.gov.