Clean Up the Lake (CUTL) is back under the surface of Donner Lake implementing a monitoring program as part of its five-year cleanup & litter prevention strategy. This monitoring project is a partnership between the organization and support from Martis Fund, Tahoe Mountain Resorts Foundation, Raley’s, Truckee Tahoe Lumber Company, and the Parsol Community Foundation. Since CUTL’s initial cleanup of Donner Lake in 2020, CUTL has expanded its cleanup program to include: a full re-circumnavigation to monitor changes over two years, exploration of litter issues at deeper depths down to 100 feet, pilot research of aquatic invasive species, algal bloom issues and continued data collection to help combat the ongoing pollution issues facing Donner Lake.
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The team is now halfway around the lake for the second time. The team has been tracking the presence of invasive species around the lake and has already removed more litter than the 5,151lbs previously collected during the 2020 circumnavigated cleanup. With half of the circumference of Donner Lake still to be completed and three deeper cleanup dives not yet performed, at first glance, the staggering amount of litter already removed feels troubling, shocking, and almost unbelievable.
