At Lake Tahoe, Obama links conservation to climate change

STATELINE, Nev. --Standing beneath the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, President Barack Obama drew a connection Wednesday between conservation efforts and stopping global warming, describing the two environmental challenges as inseparably linked.

Obama used the first stop on a two-day conservation tour to try to showcase how federal and local governments can team up to address a local environmental concern such as iconic Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada. Obama told a crowd of several thousand in a small lakeside town, "Our conservation effort is more critical, more urgent than ever."

"When we protect our lands, it helps us protect the climate of the future," Obama said, joined by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, California Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Reid, who leaves office next year and invited Obama to attend the summit's 20th anniversary, said thanks to nearly $2 billion in spending since 1997, Lake Tahoe is now "more pristine than it has been in decades." And Brown, hailing the bipartisan support the lake restoration has enjoyed, called it proof "beauty transcends politics."

Twenty-two miles long and 12 miles wide, Lake Tahoe would cover California with more than a foot of water if it were emptied.

A major tourist attraction, the lake has been a major source of concern for environmentalists for decades, as underwater visibility began receding sharply.