Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 4.djvu/290

 114 STAT. 2352 PUBLIC LAW 106-506—NOV. 13, 2000 of combustible forest fuels has significantly increased the risk of catastrophic forest fire in the Lake Tahoe basin; (9) as the largest land manager in the Lake Tahoe basin, with 77 percent of the land, the Federal Government has a unique responsibility for restoring environmental health to Lake Tahoe; (10) the Federal Government has a long history of environmental preservation at Lake Tahoe, including— (A) congressional consent to the establishment of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in 1969 (Public Law 91- 148; 83 Stat. 360) and in 1980 (Public Law 96-551; 94 Stat. 3233); (B) the establishment of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit in 1973; and (C) the enactment of Public Law 96-586 (94 Stat. 3381) in 1980 to provide for the acquisition of environmentally sensitive land and erosion control grants; (11) the President renewed the Federal Government's commitment to Lake Tahoe in 1997 at the Lake Tahoe Presidential Forum, when he committed to increased Federal resources for environmental restoration at Lake Tahoe and established the Federal Interagency Partnership and Federal Advisory Committee to consult on natural resources issues concerning the Lake Tahoe basin; (12) the States of California and Nevada have contributed proportionally to the effort to protect and restore Lake Tahoe, including— (A) expenditures— (i) exceeding $200,000,000 by the State of California since 1980 for land acquisition, erosion control, and other environmental projects in the Lake Tahoe basin; and (ii) exceeding $30,000,000 by the State of Nevada since 1980 for the purposes described in clause (i); and (B) the approval of a bond issue by voters in the State of Nevada authorizing the expenditure by the State of an additional $20,000,000; and (13) significant additional investment from Federal, State, local, and private sources is needed to stop the damage to Lake Tahoe and its forests, and restore the Lake Tahoe basin to ecological health. (b) PURPOSES.— The purposes of this Act are— (1) to enable the Forest Service to plan and implement significant new environmental restoration activities and forest management activities to address the phenomena described in paragraphs (4) through (8) of subsection (a) in the Lake Tahoe basin; (2) to ensure that Federal, State, local, regional, tribal, and private entities continue to work together to improve water quality and manage Federal land in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit; and (3) to provide funding to local governments for erosion and sediment control projects on non-Federal land if the projects benefit the Federal land.

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