At the Lake: Kayak trail passes committee

Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, scored a legislative victory Monday when his Lake Tahoe Water Trail Bill, AB 1227, passed unanimously out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

AB 1227, which was sponsored jointly by the Lake Tahoe Water Trail Committee and the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, would create a kayak and canoe trail around the perimeter of Lake Tahoe.

The bill would identify nodes or stations around the lake for human-powered vessels to dock. Furthermore, these nodes or stations will offer temporary mooring for quick trips to local venues for day-camping, shopping or dining establishments.

Assemblyman Gaines was pleased to see bi-partisan support for such important environmentally friendly legislation.

"As a champion of private property rights and conservation, I am grateful to see Republicans and Democrats working together to create the water trail," Gaines said.

"It will provide an added recreational opportunity, promoting health and fitness, and the trail will generate economic activity through increased tourism," Gaines said.

The bill next moves onto the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where the it is unlikely to find much opposition, according to Gaines.

Gaines represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all or parts of Placer, El Dorado, Alpine and Sacramento Counties.

Beginning in 2003, a group of community volunteers formed the Lake Tahoe Water Trail Committee in an effort to overcome obstacles between kayakers and motorboat enthusiasts.

Committee members felt enhancing and coordinating information about non-motorized watercraft access sites would encourage Lake Tahoe visitors to seek slower paced activities, putting them in closer contact with the lake's natural environment.

The committee worked for two years to engage public land agencies and private businesses and, in 2005, published a trail map and trip planning guide, already on sale throughout the region.

Facing a $1.2 billion maintenance shortfall, the state of California's 278 parks are deteriorating without a funding lifevest, advocates say in a recently released report.

At Lake Tahoe, about $12.5 million in deferred maintenance has been counted, and $450,000 is needed to make repairs this year. But Tahoe parks officials fear that at this rate, it will take 25 years to catch up.

That's a whole generation experiencing the outdoors with these problems, a sign of age and cutbacks through time.

Park hosts Barbara and Jerry Cauthen have seen the decay of the parks from the ground level as camp hosts at Sugar Pine Point State Park.

For him, the roads stand out as having the most need for a makeover. Some of the roads are crumbling, matching the driveways of about half the campsites.

"When we tell people they have to pull (their vehicles) forward because of the asphalt, they say: 'What asphalt?'" Jerry Cauthen said. The Rio Vista resident, who plans to stay in the park with his wife starting in May, said he's logged many miles in the golf cart tending to maintenance issues. Lines at showers and backed up plumbing tops the list.

Otherwise Barbara Cauthen said she's amazed by how quickly and efficiently the park employees will care for facilities.

"We're loved to death, and we're trying not to die," said Ken Anderson, acting superintendent for the Sierra District. Anderson took over the top job from Hayden Sohm in running the Tahoe City-based district, which oversees Lake Tahoe parks.

Piggybacking off the California State Parks Foundation study, Anderson painted a dire picture of an agency that can only scratch the surface of what needs to be done.

With $450,000 allocated at the lake, bear-proof containers will go into campgrounds at Sugar Pine Point, Emerald Bay and D.L. Bliss. At Sugar Pine, an interpretive site to commemorate the 1960 Olympics cross country ski trail will be installed. The district also intends to put in a cultural resource center at Burton Creek State Park.

But the repair and rehabilitation list extends from replacing the historic windows of the Vikingsholm castle on the shoreline of Emerald Bay to restoring the campsites at D.L. Bliss State Park. The campground sits on the lake ridge, where erosion has a way of winning the gravity battle, so rock work is necessary.

On top of that, campsites need expanding to make room for growing demands "particularly in the types of vehicles campers use in the 170 sites.

"Everything is bigger. It's hard to fit everybody in these little sites," Anderson said.

The D.L. Bliss parks staff must also contend with an antiquated water system that can leave even the most desirable camping experience into a memorable one with flaws. Anderson said restroom concerns show up as the No. 1 concern in surveys of park and campground users.

And even with the help of the California State Parks Foundation's $200,000 in funding spent in the last few years, the Vikingsholm estate at Emerald Bay fails to go very far in tackling the $1 million backlog of repairs.

"Our view is it can certainly help and should in ways that can get us traction, but we don't want to chase a receding tide. No matter how much of a service we are, no where can we come close to $1.2 billion, (especially) for things not sexy," Foundation spokeswoman Elizabeth Goldstein said.

Goldstein, who applauded the state parks department for operating lean and mean, implied legislators may find it more appealing to fund projects in which things are built instead of fixed.

"It's nice to have ribbon cuttings," she said.

California Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, said the foundation report raises "an important issue" about the state of the parks system. But concern can only go far enough when a budget reality sets in.

"Last year, the Legislature and the Governor attempted to attack the infrastructure decay in our state parks by providing a $250 million funding boost in the state budget. However, recent budget challenges may limit the availability of parts of those funds," Cox said.

The statewide parks system ended up with $90 million instead.

A judge dismissed a case involving a man who traveled to meet a woman he met on the Craigslist Web site who encouraged him to bring drugs for a casual, sexual encounter.

But the woman was actually a law enforcement decoy with SLEDNET, South Shore's law enforcement agency. The 38-year-old man was arrested in January near Heavenly Mountain Resort when he drove from Morgan Hill to South Lake Tahoe with various amounts of Ecstasy, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.

He was charged with possession of methamphetamine for sale, transportation of methamphetamine for sale and possession of marijuana for sale. The man's attorney, Marc Eisenhart, claimed authorities entrapped his client.

"It's been an enormous psychological distress on him," Eisenhart said.

The decision, delivered Friday by El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Jerald Lasarow, did not side with Eisenhart's argument, but seemed to agree with the prosecutor's belief that the case had its difficulties. In a hearing April 6, El Dorado County Assistant District Attorney Hans Uthe said he fully supported SLEDNET but had some doubts about the program.

Uthe, on vacation, could not be reached for comment.

"We're very grateful that the (district attorney's) office was addressing our concerns with candor in terms of the propriety of this program," Eisenhart said.

The decision could spell doom for the new sting operation in South Lake Tahoe.

The SLEDNET officer who conducted the investigation testified he used particular phrases and strategies from law enforcement in other counties.

South Lake Tahoe police Chief Terry Daniels and El Dorado County sheriff's Lt. Les Lovell sit on SLEDNET's board and said they will need time to review Lasarow's decision, speak to Uthe and collect more information about the sting operation.

Lovell said the program could be modified and didn't see the difference when authorities pose as underage minors when speaking on the Internet to potential child predators.

"I'm not so really sure on the legal differences between the two," Lovell said.

Daniels said SLEDNET might have to "get back to basics" in combating street-level crimes within the area.

"I think my initial instinct is, we're bringing crooks into our area and we're bringing drug dealers to town. That's not what SLEDNET intended to do," he said.

Daniels said luring child predators to town via online decoys is a "very different animal to me."

McGeorge Law School professor Mike Vitiello said one school of thought is undercover stings are needed to combat illegal drug activity and prostitution since arrests are difficult when there is a willing buyer and seller.

On the other hand a judge may not want to tie up time and money and court resources on a particular case, Vitiello said.