The Upper Truckee River Watershed is the largest contributor of freshwater to Lake Tahoe. … With fewer floodplains, more fine sediment and nutrients began flowing in, and the lake’s clarity declined from more than 130 feet in the 1960s to a low point of 60 feet in 2017. … Once a healthy wetland, the property is paved with asphalt, housing a defunct Motel 6 and a long-shuttered restaurant. During the next several years, the buildings will be razed, the asphalt removed and the wetland restored, connecting 560 acres of the Upper Truckee Marsh on the shores of Lake Tahoe to 206-acre Johnson Meadow across Highway 50 to the south. It’s all part of a bigger effort to restore the lake’s clarity by reclaiming habitat around the 9 miles of the river closest to Lake Tahoe, an area that has seen heavy development.