President Clinton and Vice-President Gore are expected to come to Lake Tahoe near the end of July to hear compelling reasons for keeping the famous resort lake blue. To prepare for what many hope will be the announcement of keystone policy decisions, experts -- including longtime lake researchers from UC Davis -- are gathering this month to discuss key issues. The findings of the UC Davis Tahoe Research Group supplies the background information and can provide the scientific solutions needed to understand and remedy the ecosystem decline of the lake and the surrounding region. The scientists have identified a 10 to 12-year window of opportunity in which action must be taken or the lake will permanently become a lake of "ordinary clarity," with visibility of 40 feet or less. For the past 39 years, the UC Davis Tahoe Research Group has been studying Lake Tahoe, one of the clearest large lakes in the world, and has observed the increasing growth of algae in the water and on the shoreline rocks of the lake. Algae may soon cause the blue lake to have a permanent green hue, and has already diminished its renowned clarity. Preserving the alpine beauty of Lake Tahoe reaches far beyond just retaining a magnet for tourist dollars; the Tahoe basin serves as a model for ecosystem destruction, restoration, and management. What is happening at this lake will happen 10 to 20 years later at other areas of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is already beginning in remote lakes, such as Crater Lake in Oregon, according to researchers.