Scorched Landscape Provides
Challenges and Reflection for
Sterling College Alum

Lake Tahoe: a vacation destination for people worldwide, is home of some of the best skiing in the west coast and known for its natural beauty year round. Earlier this summer the Angora Fire scorched the Tahoe Basin and is being recorded as one of the most costly fires in the United States. Roughly $140 million dollars of damage has been assessed and recovery efforts are underway. Adam Lewandowski ’02 is one of those people helping to restore Tahoe’s beautiful environment.

As the Wildlife Program Coordinator for the California Tahoe Conservancy, Adam restores wildlife habitats in the Tahoe area. He explains, “The main issue in Tahoe is the canalization of many rivers and streams. This means that when the spring runoff happens the river doesn't get onto the floodplain, so it results in less wetland and riparian habitat and also more erosion leading to impacted water quality. We're hoping that by restoring the natural flooding process we can improve water quality and habitat.”

The dry winter and summer has not only hindered the flooding, but sparked a wildfire that wreaked havoc in a matter of days. Adam has been busy assessing much of the damage that occurred on conservancy land. “It's pretty crazy walking through the burned area. It looks like a war zone, foundations and burned out car frames everywhere.” Between June 24 and July 2, 2007, over 3,000 acres were burned in the Tahoe area and approximately 255 homes were lost.

The California Tahoe Conservancy has combined efforts with the US Forest Service and devised a strategic plan for restoration. Adam explains briefly part of the plan for restoring the burned area, “We will be replanting some areas, mulching, and putting in check dams and other features to minimize the erosion in the burned area. One challenge is to balance safety and aesthetics with habitat. The standing dead trees left after the fire provide great habitat for a lot of birds and small mammals, but people don't like to see standing dead trees and they could pose a wildfire hazard if they are near neighborhoods. Our compromise is to remove most of the dead trees within the wildland urban interface (leaving a few key ones for the wildlife) and then leaving most of the trees in the general forest.” Almost anytime someone is faced with an environmental problem, albeit student or professional, they are challenged to be creative in how they handle the situation. From his explanation, it is clear that Adam and the Conservancy are challenged to maintain beauty of the area, create a safer environment for residents, and provide necessary habitat for wildlife.

Adam understands what it means to be a creative problem solver. His work challenges him daily to think outside the box, a skill he honed in classes at Sterling College. Adam’s Senior Applied Research Project (SARP) focused on the research and development of management plans for the Mount Mansfield watershed. “I think the broad understanding of environmental conservation that Sterling College provides has really helped me. A lot of people that I have met in the conservation field have very in-depth theoretical knowledge but it is very specific. The balance of the breadth and depth of a subject provided by Sterling has helped me to see an issue from every angle.”

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