How old are the forests around Lake Tahoe?
Not as old as many think. Although the lake is well over a million years old, and the basin around it five million years old, the forests are much younger. Ten thousand years ago the climate was colder and drier, and much of the plant life in the basin was a type of sagebrush. Conifers or “evergreens” such as types of junipers and single-leaf pines quickly colonized the basin as the climate became warmer and wetter. The large stands of conifers we know today became well established around seven thousand years ago.
