The only local private aviation charter company in Lake Tahoe is joining forces with one of the region’s non-profit organizations to help lower and sequester carbon emissions. Mountain Lion Aviation will donate money for every hour flown to the Tahoe Fund. These funds will support environmental improvement projects in the Tahoe Basin.
“We’re all locals. We all love living here and we all wanted to do something to help preserve this beautiful place we call home,” says Chris Barbera, CEO of Mountain Lion Aviation. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our members and clients, and as a deep appreciation for them, and a love for our home, we decided to support the Tahoe Fund this way – the more we fly, the more we donate.”
The Tahoe Fund will use these donations to support projects in three key focus areas that are directly tied to carbon reduction:
- Forest Health: Forest health projects reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire and its polluting emissions, and create a healthier forest better able to sequester carbon.
- Transportation: More public transportation reduces vehicle miles traveled and carbon emissions.
- Wetlands Restoration: Restoring watersheds has a number of benefits in Lake Tahoe: improving lake clarity, reducing the prevalence of aquatic invasive species, mitigating fire and flood risk, increasing groundwater storage, strengthening habitat and ecological health, providing more opportunities for recreation, and critically, sequestering carbon.
“It’s great to see a local business like Mountain Lion Aviation step up to make a difference,” said Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry. “Every hour they spend in the air will help us get more work done on the ground to improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy."
Some of the projects that will benefit include: the Smartest Forest Fund, which supports innovative projects and new technology to improve forest health; TART Connect, which offers free, on-demand public transportation across the region; and the Greater Upper Truckee Watershed Restoration, the largest and most impaired watershed in the region.
To learn more about the various programs funded by Tahoe Fund, visit: www.tahoefund.org
