Eyes on the Lake
These two aquatic invasive plants threaten Lake Tahoe's ecology. Download the Citizen Science app and use the Eyes on the Lake feature to start reporting your sightings today! Scan the QR code below or click to download.
Eyes on the Lake is the League's volunteer citizen science program to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive plants in Lake Tahoe and surrounding waters. If you are a water lover in Tahoe (beachgoer, swimmer, paddler, SCUBA diver, boater) and want to help ensure Tahoe's waters stay clear and pristine, then Eyes on the Lake is for you. Volunteers identify and report on aquatic invasive plants they find in and around Tahoe, helping us catch them before they can spread to other parts of the Lake. Help protect Lake Tahoe while you play!
The two main targets of our Eyes on the Lake program are Eurasian watermilfoil and curlyleaf pondweed, aquatic invasive plants introduced to Tahoe in the last few decades. Both plants are already established in over a dozen locations in Lake Tahoe, and are difficult and expensive to control. These invasives crowd out our native plants, alter the Lake bottom and ecosystem and generally impact the beauty of Lake Tahoe. Both plants can spread easily to other areas around the Lake by hitching a ride on recreational equipment and boats and can become established infestations -- we’re trying to stop that from happening.
Download the Citizen Science app and use the Eyes on the Lake feature to reporting your sightings today! Doing so helps us catch new infestations of these plants before they spread. If you think you’ve seen these plants, please contact us. It is also helpful for us to receive reports of “absences” -- anywhere you haven’t seen these plants. You can also explore our pages on Eurasian watermilfoil and curlyleaf pondweed to learn more about these aquatic invasive plants and how to identify them.
If you’d like to get more involved in the Eyes on the Lake program and help us with more regular surveying and reporting, organized surveys and even hand-pulling of aquatic weeds, you can join us for an official Eyes on the Lake training. During these trainings you’ll get a chance to step through our identification guide using real plants in our “lab”. We’ll also take you out in the field for about an hour to conduct a field survey and get you some experience in looking for these plants in a real-life setting. View our schedule of upcoming Eyes on the Lake trainings.
The League collects surveys of aquatic invasive plants. This map provides the locations of verified infestations of aquatic invasive plants and locations where fragments of plants have been spotted. We're excited to be able to provide this data for use by researchers, agencies and other decision-makers engaged in the management of aquatic invasive species around Lake Tahoe.
Eyes on the Lake is led by the League to Save Lake Tahoe, in partnership with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, as well as other organizations that make up the Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Program. Learn more about this program.
