A new agreement among scientists and research institutions conducting environmental studies of the Lake Tahoe basin will integrate all of the lake's research facilities, leaders of three institutions announced today during a meeting in Kings Beach. To be known as the Tahoe Environmental Science System, the agreement will integrate the new University of California, Davis, lab complex with research facilities being planned by the University of Nevada, Reno. The agreement was signed this morning by officials of UC Davis, UNR and the Desert Research Institute. Its intent is to encompass different kinds of facilities to ensure that duplication is avoided and cost savings realized. "It is our hope that scientists can move freely among these facilities, and that TESS will eliminate competition, encourage collaboration, and reduce the costs of conducting research at Lake Tahoe," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef. The agreement was announced concurrently with the U.S. Forest Service's release of a major Tahoe Watershed Assessment report, in which UC Davis, UNR and DRI scientists collaborated to compile 20 years of research about Tahoe's water quality, air quality, forests and economy. The report is intended to guide future Tahoe research and allow for informed policy decisions to restore and preserve the lake. The facilities sharing agreement builds upon a memorandum signed last August by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, UNR, UC Davis, DRI, U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Forest Service. That memorandum states the agencies and researchers will work together to foster research to ensure sound environmental management of the Tahoe basin. The facilities that will be part of the new agreement include UC Davis' Lake Tahoe Center for Environmental Research in Tahoe City, UNR's Lake Tahoe Field Research Station at Thunderbird Lodge and the proposed Environmental Research and Policy Center, run by DRI. UC Davis' Tahoe City lab was established in 1958. The limited lab used by the Tahoe Research Group is scheduled to expand into a new, state-of-the-art research center with public education space, instructional technology and lab space for water and air quality investigations.