Summer Environmental Exchange Projects
2006

Tahoe Projects

• An Investigation of Algal Nutrient Limitation of Lakes in the Upper Tahoe-Truckee Watershed
  Project Leader: Dr. Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada Reno; Assistant Leader: Bodhi May, TBI 2005
  Participants: Tressa Gibbard, Bella Gordon, Konstantin Shishkin
  

  This project examined a number of lakes (Tahoe, Spooner, Fallen Leaf, Eagle, Marlette, Upper Angora, Lower Angora, Lower Echo, Upper Echo, Eagle) in the Upper Truckee- Tahoe watershed at the landscape scale. Specifically, the goals were to assess the growth rates and biomass of phytoplankton and periphyton, nutrient limitation (nitrogen or phosphorus) of phytoplankton, and secondary biomass/ composition of pelagic and benthic consumers.

  The group collected water samples from three depths and conduct bioassay experiments.  They will measure for nutrients (ammonium, nitrate, total phosphorus, dissolved phos, reactive phosphorus) and chlorophyll. The project results are intended to provide baseline data for future monitoring activities on the nutrient limitation patterns found in upper watershed lakes, and what impact such limitations may have on the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 1.4MB)

  
  
• Transportation Monitoring in the Tahoe Basin
  Project Leader: Karen Fink, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
  Participants: Eduard Batotsirenov, Anastasia Ogneva, Wesley Steele
  

  TBI 2006 SEE participants Eduard Batotsyrenov, Anastasiya Ogneva, and Wes Steele offered TRPA Transportation Planner (and former TBI participant and executive director) Karen Fink assistance in creating an evaluation tool to measure pedestrian accessibility to recreation zones in the Tahoe basin. It is TRPA’s intent to increase pedestrian accessibility around the lake in an effort to decrease reliance on the personal automobile. By creating an objective evaluation tool, TRPA can see where improvements in this area need to be made. Over the course of two weeks, Karen, Eduard, Anastasiya, and Wes created and tested such an evaluation tool by visiting numerous sites, including beaches and parks around the lake, on foot and bicycle. The evaluation consisted of criteria they developed (including automobile traffic frequency, distance of pedestrian walkway from traffic, etc.) based on personal observations and discussions with TRPA representatives. Karen is continuing this work, in order to include the assessment results as part of the Pathways 2007 twenty-year management plan for the Lake Tahoe basin.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF File, 1.2 MB)

  
  
• Collaboration for Installation of Best Management Practices
  Project Leaders: Scott Cecchi and Theresa Loupe, California Tahoe Conservancy, Michael Broadhurst, Tahoe Resource Conservation District
  Participants: Andrea Stanley, Tatiana Karelina, Marina Khandarkhaeva, Jason Bollinger
  

  This project, led chiefly by the California Tahoe Conservancy and the Tahoe Resources Conservation District, was a pilot project in the Lake Tahoe Basin to address the poor rate of Best Management Practices (BMPs)* implementation on private residential parcels within the Lake Tahoe Basin. The chief goal of the project was to gather data on why the rate of BMP retrofit has been slow, and to pursue potential opportunities for collaboration between private land owners and several public agencies in reaching area-wide compliance. Participation by TBI participants included developing project strategy, polling residents, surveying residence lots, data assessment, project summary write-up; and was concluded with a public meeting between involved agencies and Brockway residents.

  * BMPs are actions or designs that protect water quality. An example of a BMP is a structure that retains and infiltrates storm water on a developed or disturbed site, thereby preventing runoff from leaving a site and entering directly into a waterway.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF File, 3MB)

  
  
• Controlling White Pine Blister Rust in Tahoe’s Whitebark Pine Populations
  Project Leader: John Pickett, Sugar Pine Foundation
  Participants: Charles Butler, Elizabeth Christen-Rayburn, Maria Mircheva, Denis Sandanov
  

  Four TBI participants this summer took part in a project lead by John Pickett at the Sugar Pine Foundation. The purpose of the white pine blister rust (WPBR) project was to collect WPBR incidence data in sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), western white pine (Pinus monticola) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicalus). Additionally, we installed some predator barriers over the cones of phenotypically superior whitebark pines, in order to collect seeds, which could be used for further studies and restoration.

  White pine blister rust is a non-native and invasive fungal pathogen that attacks trees categorized as white pines. Many forest stands have experienced 90 percent mortality, and white pines have ceased to exist in many areas. Currently there is only limited natural regeneration of sugar pine and western white pine in areas of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Current levels of natural regeneration are inadequate to maintain the effected species as important components of the Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests.

  In the first portion of the project, WPBR incidence plots were established vertically up Slide Mountain to obtain data useful for predicting the spread of WPBR based on climatological influences rather than secondary host abundance. To gather data, three belt transects in each species Whitebark Pine, Western white pine, and Sugar Pine (P. lambertiana) were laid on Slide Mountain in northwest Nevada. The transects were a minimum of 50m and extended until a count of 50 trees in the targeted species were obtained within 15m on each side of the belt transect. The crown condition, crown placement, assessment of old and new cones, and presence of active blister rust were also evaluated on each tree. The compiled data was analyzed focusing on the rate of rust per area, per tree and per elevation. Our findings support the hypothesis that the incidence of WPBR increase at higher elevation. In addition, it confirms that WPBR spreads from the North West as historical research suggests.

  The second portion of the WPBR project occurred at Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, California. To preserve genetically resistant whitebark pine seeds from predation, protective cages were made from hardware cloth cages sized 18 inches by 12 inches and fastened together with zip ties. At Heavenly, healthy whitebark pines, showing no signs of active blister rust, were identified as candidate trees. We climbed the trees using a combination of free climbing, flip lines and rope and belay methods. Once in the tree, we placed the metal cages around the whitebark cones. The cages were left in the trees until late fall when the cones matured and were collected.

  This project was a lot of fun and taught the participants a great deal about forest ecology. The group members also learned about the threats of invasive species to ecosystems and learned to tell about the history of fire suppression, light, rain and other climatic factors in an area by looking at the trees in it. All participants could apply the knowledge gained to their professional interests. Denis, who is a botanist, was quite interested in how the fungus spread, its stages and structure. As an outdoor education teacher, Libby enjoyed learning about the forest and educated by-passers about the purpose of our project. As a policy major, Maria was interested to learn what management strategies for blister rust control were used and their success rate. Charlie could put his hard physical work of clearing certain trees and restoration at the California Conservation Core in the wider context of forest health. Last but not least, this group’s work helped the Sugar Pine foundation secure some grants for whitebark pine restoration by establishing a method that aided in the estimation of time and resources for this type of study.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 2MB)

  
  
• Managing Eurasian Watermilfoil at Meeks Bay
  Project Leader: Drew Jack, Washoe Tribe Environmental Protection Department
  Participants: Alexander Kolosovich, Ilona Kirhensteine, Ekaterina Nosova
  

  The Washoe Tribe Environmental Protection Department (WEPD) is concerned about the infestation of Eurasian Watermilfoil at Meeks Bay Marina. The objective of this project was to conduct an assessment of the extent of the Watermilfoil problem at Meeks Bay, Emerald Bay, and the Tahoe Keys. Outcomes of this assessment consisted of the development of a management plan for eradicating the problem including public outreach strategies, the development of informational literature for boat-owners and visitors to Meeks Bay, and initiation eradication and monitoring activities (such as boat-washing) at the site.

  The project participants researched studies and approaches used in other areas of Lake Tahoe including the Tahoe Keys and Emerald Bay, and met with scientists and regulatory agencies addressing this problem (including Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, TRPA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and UC Davis Tahoe Research Group) to develop their action plan and approach, The informational literature produced by the group (a brochure aimed at boaters)was also based on the information collected through their research. This brochure can also serve other locations around Lake Tahoe where Eurasian Watermilfoil poses threats to water quality. Participants also had the opportunity to spend two days on kayaks assessing the Eurasian water milfoil infestations from the south shore to the west shore utilizing snorkel gear.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 2MB)

  
  

Baikal Projects

• Study of the Natural Complex of Karst Caves on the shores of Lake Baikal in the Irkutsk Oblast.
  Project Leader: Alexander Osintsev, Director of the Irkutsk Club of Cave Explorers “Arabika” and Director of the BaikalHostel.
  Participants: Eduard Batotsirenov, Tressa Gibbard, Ilona Kirhensteine, Marina Khandarkaeva, Konstantin Shishkin
  

  This project, located in the Olkhon region, was focused on study of the cave complex in Aya Bay. The Irkutsk speleologist club “Arabika,” under the leadership of Alexander Osintsev, organized this project.

  In the Pribaikal area, there are more than 200 caves. The longest cave in Russia is among these. Caves are interesting not only as unique objects of nature with fantastical interiors, but also as the habitat of unique animals which cannot be found anywhere else. Since ancient times, people have used caves as shelters or temples. Many archaeological findings demonstrate this.

  The value of this particular project is ties to the fact that the majority of caves in the Pribaikal region have not been adequately studied. The caves in which this project was conducted are located in an ancient complex which is more than 2 million years old. These are the oldest caves in the world.

  The participants of the project conducted topographical survey of the cave, studying the formation of Karst in the Prebaikal region. They also opened a new passage, found paleontological artifacts, and studies the bat populations and invertebrates living in the caves.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 4MB)

• Ethnographic Aspects of the Animal and Plant World of the Baikal Biosphere Reserve.
  Project Leader: Victoria Krachopevtseva, Executive Director of Educational work, Baikal Biosphere Reserve
  Participants: Charles Butler, Maria Mircheva, Ekaterina Nosova, Anastasia Ogenva, Wesley Steele
  

  The project in the Baikal Biosphere Reserve had an ethnographical focus. The basic goal of this project was the collection of material for the composition of an open-air museum. The museum already has a Buryat yurt and an Evenk Chum. Thanks to the work of the TBI group, it was possible to collect material to establish an exhibition of an Old Believers’ (Semejski) cottage.

  In the middle of the 17th century, the Russian church split into two branches: the official branch and the Old Believers’ branch. The Old Believers preserved traditions and culture, not stepping away from ancient ideas and ways. Escaping persecution for their beliefs, the supporters of the old rites fled to the edges of the Russian state, or even beyond the boarders to other countries. Old Believers, living on Baikal,came to be known as the Semejski (from the Russian word for family) because of the fact that they arrived in the region in large family groups. Their habits and traditions have been preserved to this day. Now, ethnographers from all over the world have become interested in Semejski culture, and the composition of a Semejski museum on Baikal has the ability to attract the world community to problems of local groups.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 2MB)

• Comprehensive social-ecological study of the peculiarities of nomadic natural resource use by aboriginal ethnicities of the mountainous regions of southern Siberia.
  Project Leader: Svetlana Kholobeva, candidate of Biological Science, Buryat State University; assistant leader, Vera Kuklina, TBI 2005 participant
  Participants: Jason Bollinger, Denis Sandanov, Andrea Stanley
  

  This project, led by Svetlana Kholobeva of the Buryat State University of Ulan-Ude, was located in the Okinsky District within the Buryat Republic. The project chiefly investigated traditional nomadic land-use practices of the District. This project area is currently a National Park of Russia candidate. Project research gathered baseline data on land-use that may be grand fathered into the land management plan for the future park. Participation by TBI included field observation, inquiry with local government officials and community leaders, interviews with elders of the region (mainly Soyot), and final project write-up. Field work was based out of Sorok, Orlick, and Sayan.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 14MB)

• Complex investigation of the ecosystem of the Chevirkuiski Bay, in Zabaikalski National Park.
  Project Leader: Marina Tsirenova, Candidate of Biological Science, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Informational Technology, Buryat State University. TBI participant in 2000.
  Participants: Elizabeth Christensen-Rayburn, Bella Gordon, Tatiana Karelina, Alexander Kolosovich
  

  This project involved the intensive study of the ecosystem of the Chevirkuiski Bay (plants, soil, topography) as one of the steps towards the study of all of the plants of the Baikal shoreline. The ultimate goal of this study is the composition of a digital map of the flora of the region. The participants in this group measured vegetation plots, and verified data for the digital mapping project.

  Click here for the project presentation (PDF file, 4MB)