Blue skies and clean beaches greeted volunteers on Saturday morning as they arrived to participate in the annual Keep Tahoe Blue’s July 5th “Keep Tahoe Red, White & Blue” Cleanup at sites ringing Lake Tahoe. Today’s event marked 12 years of the region’s largest volunteer cleanup event, continuing the movement toward cleaner beaches, increased environmental stewardship, and improved beach management around the Fourth of July holiday.
“This is the direction we love to see — less litter and more people leaving the beach better than they found it,” said Marilee Movius, sustainable recreation manager for Keep Tahoe Blue.
653 volunteers found 26% less litter today than at last year’s event, totaling just under 1,375 pounds. The amounts cleaned up from the previous years are as follows:
- 2025: 1,375lbs
- 2024: 1,866lbs
- 2023: 8,559lbs
- 2022: 3,450lbs
- 2021: 1,500lbs
- 2020: 500lbs (covid-restricted gatherings)
- 2019: 1,875lbs
Some participants walked out of their front doors and across the street to help with the cleanup. Others made a point of carpooling in from out of town, and still others made “Keep Tahoe Red, White & Blue” a part of their summer vacations. This year, seventeen organizations and business partners helped host the cleanup.
“Every July 5th, we see lots of familiar faces turn up to volunteer, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people spend their vacation with us cleaning up the beach. Whether it’s our home or our beloved vacation spot, we can each do our part in protecting this special place. And the volunteer participation we saw today, all around the basin, shows that folks are truly stepping up to protect Lake Tahoe,” said Cara Bourne, on behalf of Vail Resorts — Kirkwood, Heavenly, and Northstar.
Since 2013, Keep Tahoe has conducted cleanup events like this one, where volunteers collect not only litter but also data on the types of trash they find, where it is located, and how much. By analyzing the data, Keep Tahoe Blue identifies trends and then advocates for solutions that prevent litter at its source. Past successes include bans on single-use plastic water bottles and Styrofoam, the deployment of beach-cleaning robots, and a beach management initiative called the Tahoe Blue Beach program, which is designed to create an environment where responsible, Lake-friendly recreation is the easy and obvious choice for everyone who comes to the shoreline.
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“The Tahoe Blue Beach program consists of the three E’s, which are education, engineering, and enforcement,” said Kaytlen Jackson, partnerships and communications manager for California State Parks.
Kings Beach State Recreation Area joined the Tahoe Blue Beach program this year with funding from the North Tahoe Community Alliance’s TOT-TBID Dollars At Work program, which reinvests funds generated in North Lake Tahoe to support community vitality, environmental stewardship, and economic health.
“We have a bigger goal of fostering a community of stewardship of these places. When people care about a place, they’re much more likely to take care of it. And that is really the goal of events like today,” said Jackson from California State Parks.
The Tahoe Blue Beach program launched in 2024 at Zephyr Cove Resort through a partnership with the USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and Aramark Destinations. As a result, volunteers collected 97% less litter during the 2024 “Keep Tahoe Red, White & Blue” Cleanup event than the previous year. Today, the total litter collected at Zephyr Cove Resort dropped again, totaling less than 100 pounds. Tahoe Beach Club, Meeks Bay Resort, and Camp Richardson Resort are part of the Tahoe Blue Beach program as well.
At Zephyr Cove Resort, volunteers Ashley Mau and Liz Gustafson drove up from Reno to lend a hand. They hunted for litter on the beach, in forested picnic areas, and parking lots, and had very little to show for it.
“We’ve seen how trashed these beaches have gotten in the past, so we wanted to help out,” said volunteer Mau. “But we couldn’t find much. It’s pretty clean out there.”
The cleanup was made possible with the support of event partners: Aramark Destinations, Bally’s Lake Tahoe, California State Parks, Camp Richardson Resort, City of South Lake Tahoe, ECO-CLEAN Solutions, ExplorUS, Great Basin Institute, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Incline Village General Improvement District, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Northstar Mountain Resort, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Stio Mountain Studio Tahoe, Tahoe City Downtown Association, Tahoe City Public Utility District, and USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
Keep Tahoe Blue is aligned with and taking action to implement the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan in collaboration with over 20 regional organizations. The award-winning plan, developed through the participation of over 3,000 residents, visitors, and businesses, establishes a shared vision for the region’s outdoor recreation and tourism, encouraging everyone to help take care of Tahoe’s cherished communities and environment. Visit www.stewardshiptahoe.org to learn more and read the plan.
