The Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit still presumably has relevance, but it was hard to know that from what was said on Aug. 6.

It was a lot of blah, blah, blah for the most part. A lot of why Tahoe is so important to the speaker and that it needs to be preserved. All good, but not much substance. It sounded like host Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had never been to the area before. If true, super sad considering he’s lived in the state since 1972.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaks at the 2016 Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

This gathering of federal, state (Nevada and California), regional and local politicians as well as those with an interest in the environment was started in 1997 when President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore launched what became an annual gathering.

Since then more than $2 billion in mostly public money has been spent on projects in the basin all with the goal of improving the environment—be it forest health, lake clarity or something else.

Much was said about the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who was an ardent supporter of the lake.

The 2016 summit where President Barack Obama was the keynote speaker was the most well attended. His talk of climate change resonates today.

Maybe this is in part why it was the words of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., stuck with me the most this year. To me she was the only one who sounded an alarm, a call to action.

She mentioned the thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees who have lost their jobs since Trump took office. She said she would rather see the actual forest be thinned, than the USFS staff thinned.

Masto stressed now is the time for lawmakers to hear the voices of the people. That we need to make sure lawmakers understand what we want. Our voices matter. That’s what I took away from her talk, and really, the only thing of real importance that was said that day.