Tahoe Fund Secures $130,000 Grant to Upgrade the "Other Flume Trail"
INCLINE VILLAGE Nev. (Monday, June 12, 2017) –The Tahoe Fund announced today that it has secured a $130,000 Recreation Trails Program grant to restore the Incline Flume Trail, also known as the “other flume trail.” To be eligible for the grant, the Tahoe Fund partnered with Friends of Incline Trails to provide funding for the environmental permitting to have the trail adopted by the Forest Service. The new designation as an official Forest Service trail was received in May, paving the way for this important grant that will help improve the trail, build a retaining wall in a particularly erosive area, and install interpretive and way-finding signage. It will also help fund the transfer of the historic bull wheel (located nearby the trail) from the Nevada Land Trust to the US Forest Service.
The Incline Flume Trail, known as the most family-friendly trail in the Tahoe Basin for its flat terrain and beautiful lake views, runs for 7 miles from Mt. Rose Highway across Diamond Peak Ski Resort to Tunnel Creek Road. It is the site of a former flume system that operated in the Comstock Era.
“This has been a favorite family trail for years, but improvements couldn’t be made until it was in the Forest Service Trail System,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “Thanks to very generous donors and a terrific partnership with Friends of Incline Trails, the Forest Service, Nevada State Parks, Nevada Land Trust, Washoe County and Incline General Improvement District, we were able to get the private and public funds necessary to have the Forest Service adopt it and improve it.”
The restoration work will be led by the Friends of Incline Trails in partnership with the Forest Service, the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and the Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA). Trail days are scheduled for June 15-17, July 21-23, August 12, and September 26, 28 & 30.
“It has been a dream of many to see this trail opened up and restored,” said Friends of Incline Trails President Sue Hughes. “This is proof that when a community comes together we can accomplish great things. We look forward to getting to work on the trail!”
“The Forest Service is so appreciative of the great partnership between the community and the public agencies that formed to make this happen.” Said Jacob Quinn, Trails Engineer, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. “We look forward to seeing this trail restored and improved to expand safe outdoor recreation areas in our public forests.”
In December 2015, David and Cheryl Duffield donated 18.6 acres of land along the trail, including the historic bull wheel, to Nevada Land Trust, a nationally-accredited nonprofit conservation land trust based in Reno whose work includes a portion of the Tahoe Basin. Volunteers from TAMBA, the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, and Friends of Incline Trails built the missing link of the trail through that section of property last fall, opening the trail from Mt. Rose Highway all the way to the Tunnel Creek Trail. The land will be transferred from the Nevada Land Trust to the Forest Service later this year, putting the entire trail in public hands for the first time in decades.
-- by Tahoe Fund
