Forest Service will hear objections to Incline Lake plan
RENO — The Forest Service will review plans to return a former private lake overlooking Lake Tahoe to a natural meadow with wetlands over the objections of Nevada wildlife officials who say it could be a premier trout fishery.
Agency officials say they will hold an “objection resolution conference” Nov. 24 to discuss the state’s continued desire to repair a dam and refill Incline Lake along the Mount Rose Highway west of Reno.
Once a private enclave for Nevada’s rich and famous, the Forest Service drained the lake five years ago for fear the aging dam could fail in an earthquake.
On Sept. 3, Nancy Gibson, supervisor of the Forest Service’s Tahoe unit, determined that the dam should be removed and the lake should be restored into a wetland meadows to address public safety concerns, protect water quality and improve natural habitat.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife formally objected last month.
“Basically it’s our last step in the process. It was our only option,” Mark Freese, NDOW’s supervisory habitat biologist, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The lake on a forested ridgeline west of Reno was acquired by the Forest Service in 2008. The complicated transaction paid $43.5 million to the Incline Lake Corp., the former owner of the lake and 777 acres of land.
Original plans called for the lake and surrounding structures to remain, but lakeside cabins were razed. The lake itself was drained during the public acquisition process after inspectors determined its dam could fail and flood areas of nearby Incline Village. It has remained mostly empty over the past five years as the Forest Service considered options for the property’s future.
