The Angora Fire devastated three-thousand acres near South Lake Tahoe, prompting fears that some of the leftover pollutants could find their way into the lake. Geoff Schladow runs the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at UC Davis. He says it turns out the fire actually didn't affect the lake much at all.
Schladow: "That's not to say that any fire would have no impact. But it was just we believe a combination of the climatic impacts - the last few years have been relatively dry - and possibly some of the land management efforts by the Forest Service in the burn area."
Schladow suggests those two reasons may have helped reduce the fire's impact on the lake. The center's annual State of the Lake report also says Tahoe's water clarity held relatively steady in 2009.