Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in North America and the tenth deepest in the world. (Source: USGS)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Visitors can choose from a variety of outdoor activities at Lake Tahoe, such as skiing, sledding and snowman making. Skiers can hit the slopes on one of the 182 ski trails of more than 8,800 total ski resort acres. (Source: VirtualTahoe.com)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe never freezes due to its tremendous depth and volume, which keeps the water in constant motion. (Source: U.S. Forest Service)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe contains more than 37 trillion gallons of water. If completely drained, it could cover a flat area the size of California to a depth of 14 inches. (Source: U.S. Forest Service)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe's water is so clear that a 10-inch white dinner plate would be visible at 75 feet below the surface. (Source: VirtualTahoe.com)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

An average 1.4 million tons of water evaporates from the surface of Lake Tahoe every 24 hours, yet this drops the lake level only one-tenth of an inch. (Source: VirtualTahoe.com)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

More than 75 percent of the area around Lake Tahoe is public land managed by the Forest Service. Totaling over 150,000 acres, this land includes beaches, hiking and biking trails, wilderness, historic estates and developed recreation areas such as campgrounds and riding stables. (Source: U.S. Forest Service)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is 22 miles long, 12 miles wide and has 72 miles of shoreline. The bottom of the lake is actually 92 feet below the level of Carson City, Nevada. (Source: U.S. Forest Service)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is designated as an Outstanding National Resource Water, a special designation under the Clean Water Act. Only three bodies of water have this designation in the Western United States: Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake in California and Crater Lake in Oregon. (Source: Tahoe Regional Planning Agency)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

The blueness of Lake Tahoe comes from its great depth, purity and the clarity of the dark blue sky found at higher elevations. Generally, the deeper the lake is, the bluer it looks. It can also appear red during sunsets, or gray-black during storms. (Source: U.S. Forest Service)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe currently has a water clarity of about 70 feet, which has reduced from greater than 100 feet since the 1960s. (Source: USGS)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe

Though Lake Tahoe is going through a natural aging process, slowly filling in with sediments like other lakes, additional amounts are washed into the lake as slopes are cleared for construction. Each sediment particle carries nutrients that stimulate algae growth and could eventually cloud the famous clarity of the lake. (Source: U.S. Forest Service)

• Feature Victory: Restoring Clarity to Lake Tahoe
• Audio Interview: Down to Earth: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
• Press Release: Federal Judge Blocks Plan for New Piers and Boat Facilities on Lake Tahoe