UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center

06/02/2026

We are now open on Saturdays for the summer! ☀️🫧

Drop by to explore the Tahoe Science Center or join us for a guided tour!

Tour Times: 11:00 AM or 12:30 PM
Click the link in our bio to book your tour (highly recommended)!

Full hours: Tuesday - Friday: 11:00 - 4:30, Saturday 11:00 - 1:30

Pictured: Tahoe Science Center docent talking to a group of visitors in the lab exhibit.

06/01/2026

The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center has been nominated for Best of the Sierra Nevada in three categories: Place to Take Visitors, Family Attraction, and Museum!

We love sharing the wonder of science and Lake Tahoe with our community and visitors alike. If you love what we do, please take a moment to vote for us! 💙

To vote, click the link in our bio, select Things to Do, and vote for us under Place to Take Visitors, Family Attraction, and Museum! Voting now through June 19th!

05/29/2026

05/26/2026

FREE COMPOST & OPEN HOUSE! 🏠🌱

Looking to give your garden a boost or curious about what we do?

Come by the UC Davis Tahoe City Field Station tomorrow for our Open House and Compost Giveaway!

Drop in, tour the field station, chat with our team, and grab some nutrient-rich compost for your spring planting. Limited plant sales are also available! 

When: Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 27) | 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Where: Tahoe City Field Station 2400 Lake Forest Rd Tahoe City

What to bring: Your own buckets or bags to transport your compost! 🪣

Don’t let your garden miss out. See you tomorrow afternoon!

05/18/2026

We love it when journalists come out for a day on the lake with us! Fox 40 Sacramento journalist Bianca Ventura spent the day with us as we executed our monthly mid-Lake Tahoe profile measurements and visited the research buoys that we jointly operate with NASA. Why did they spend the day with us? Stay tuned for the full report coming soon! Thanks for spending the day with us, Bianca!

Image one: Bianca Ventura interviews TERC Researcher Brandon Berry on the back deck of the R/V John LeConte on a sunny day about the measurements we take on Lake Tahoe and our historical dataset. Hiding behind his camera is Dan Stark from Fox 40. Image credit: Cara Hollis, UC Davis TERC

Image two: Brandon discusses zooplankton sampling with Bianca while two team members work on the LeConte’s top deck. Image credit: Cara Hollis, UC Davis TERC

Image three: Brandon holds a sample bottle of zooplankton up to the sun for Bianca to photograph for her report. Image credit: Cara Hollis, UC Davis, TERC

05/16/2026

Huge thank you to Full Circle Soils & Compost for their generous donation of Boost Soil to support our Tahoe community and sustainability efforts. 🌱

Thanks to their generous donation our gardening community can try their Boost Soil to help improve our soil’s ability to retain moisture, add essential nutrients and beneficial microbes, and ultimately support healthier plants.

Want some for your own garden? BYOB (bring your own bucket, bag, etc.) to the F***y Bridge Ceremony on Sunday, May 17 and take some Boost Soil home with you while supplies last! 🌿

Some of our fun takeaways from our visit:

This compost truly comes full circle, created from green waste and food scraps collected throughout the Tahoe-Truckee region. Instead of those waste materials ending up in landfills, they are transformed into a valuable resource that we are thrilled to bring back to our environment and community. ♻️

Produce stickers are made of non-compostable vinyl or plastic and break down into microplastics. Always peel them off and throw them in the trash before composting.

Check out our story for more details!

Pictured: Samantha learns about the process from owner Cody Witt

05/13/2026

Plants coming your way this weekend!

Find the TERC booth at the F***y Bridge Dedication and Community Block Party this Sunday, May 17!

We will be selling plants and giving away compost! BYOB (bring your own bucket)

Reserve your plant purchases ahead of time on our website! More details on our website: link in bio.

05/04/2026

May the 4th be with you! Who says scientists aren’t artists? TERC’s very own Postdoctoral Fellow, Dante Capone, has taken his scientific interests in bacteria to zooplankton and the critical functions they play in cycling nutrients and maintaining the Lake’s health, and turned it into an epic battle to restore the balance in Lake Tahoe’s food web. With non-native Mysid Shrimp on the Dark Side and Tahoe’s native Daphnia on the Light side, this is a fantastic example of art imitating life, even if it is not on an intergalactic scale. Thank you for sharing your artistic and scientific talents with us, Dante!

Image one: Mysid Darth Vader faces off with Daphnia Obi-Wan in a battle to restore balance to the food-web force in Lake Tahoe. Credit: Dante Capone