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It's been almost fifteen years ago
that I left this lake
very very
dispondent.
The clearly continue to dissipate.
The clearness of the lake wasn't there as it use to be.
I didn't know what to do.
I ran into a member of the press
and out of frustration I said,
I think what we need is a Presidential Summit.
to be honest with you I didn't know what a Presidential Summit was,
but I thought it sounded like something that we needed to focus attention on this lake.
When the day of the Summit came,
it was
really
unusual.
Not only did we have local press,
statewide press,
national press,
international press.
This even then
was a international wonder.
For the two days
that the first summit took place
the first day the President was there
and the Vice-President the second day
was the vice President number of cabinet folks
it was really remarkable what it did
it focused attention on this lake all over our country.
Not for a day
but two days
all over the world.
The first summit gave me appreciation
for how the health of this beloved lake
we share with California
is not only a
concern of Nevada and California and our country
it's a world's concern.
there's only one other lake they say like this in the world.
and that's in Russia, Lake Baikal
glacial alpine lake.
And that's what we have in America.
It's here.
Lake Tahoe is a international treasure.
Mark Twain said, it's the fairest place in all the earth.
he described it about the way it is.
Lake Tahoe doesn't manufactured computers here.
There're are no computer chips that
are manufactured here.
Certainly we don't build cars.
There's no manufacturing of any kind
in Lake Tahoe.
What Lake Tahoe does though is attract people
from all over our country, and all over the world.
people want to enjoy
the unique beauty
and recreation
that we all worked very hard to protect these last thirty years that is the beauty and recreation
of this area.
we can never stop
protecting it.
And not only protecting it, projecting to the world
what a unique facility this is.
Since the first Summit
we've invested more than
one and a half
billion dollars
in Lake Tahoe.
and right now we're
working to renew this legislation
which will begin bring in another
four hundred and fifteen million dollars to continue the work of invasive species
improving water clearity helping prevent
possible devastating wildfires and other things.
Since the first year of this Summit,
we talked about a host of issues important to the Lake.
We talked about clarity,
wildlife, while fire prevention,
wildlife protection,
fuels reduction, transportation, stream restoration,
and many other things.
They're important and timely
to this beautiful Lake.
This year I wanted to expand our vision little bit.
We all know about the state of our economy.
We all know how people lost their jobs, lost their homes.
we all know
small businesses
in some instances have to close their doors.
we all know that while
Lake Tahoe is a very special place,
it's not immune what's happening
around the rest of the country.
We can see that in driving here saying that
for rent signs in office buildings and some of those strip malls
not being filled.
The work combined with a travel promotion act, which we passed earlier this year.
Will help improve Nevada's economy
at least to six thousand new jobs across state of Nevada.
You'll hear a lot today,
words like,
sustainability,
economic strategy,
eco tourism in jobs.
Their each central to our mission to our responsibility as citizens,
and the future of Lake Tahoe.
these Summits have been
productive because we've developed
a model
public-private partnership,
lots of them.
We've brought together environmentalist, business leaders, developers and others,
state and local governments,
and federal agencies.
With them all focused on the same goal that is
making sure
Northern Nevada,
the west,
and the nation,
and the world enjoy a lake as fair as the one Twain saw.
The results,
painted Picture
that will be just as inspiring. 0:04:40.669,0:04:41.239 Thank you all very much.