The economy focus of 14th summit

INCLINE VILLAGE - While federal and state officials on Tuesday discussed the environmental challenges facing the Lake Tahoe Basin, Sen. Harry Reid spoke about rejuvenating the basin's slumping economy at the 2010 Lake Tahoe Summit.

"The focus needs to remain on the environment of Lake Tahoe, but we must also focus on jobs," said Reid, who organized this year's summit at Sand Harbor State Park.

The U.S. Senate Majority Leader said that the summit's focus has always been on the environment; however, incorporating the premise that economic prosperity can fund public and private preservation efforts was important to note this year.

"This year, I wanted to expand our vision," Reid said. "We all know people who have lost their jobs and their homes. We all know small businesses that have closed their doors. And we all know that while the Lake Tahoe Basin is a very special place, it is not immune to what is happening everywhere else in Nevada and California and across the country."

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who sported a bandage on his right arm - the evidence of a tumble off a mountain bike along a Tahoe trail - said the commitment remains, and he particularly stressed the importance of fuel reduction projects to protect the Tahoe basin from catastrophic wildfires and becoming a "moonscape."

Reid invited Trish Kelly of the Sacramento-based economic development firm Applied Development Economics to speak regarding the need for the environment, economy and sociology of the Lake Tahoe Basin - often called the triple bottom line of Lake Tahoe - to advance together. Kelly is one of the principal organizers of the Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan, which provides an unprecedented collaborative effort to assess the basin as one economic region and identify means of stimulating economic growth.

"We've presented the Lake Tahoe Prosperity Plan to federal and state officials, and they agree the plan is ambitious but achievable," Kelly said. Collaboration between the public and private sectors to achieve environmental improvement and long-term ecological integrity was a central message of the summit.

"This series has been so productive because we have developed model public-private partnerships," Reid said. "We've brought together environmentalists, business leaders, and state and federal agencies."

• With Associated Press reports