Laurel Ames is a long-time resident of South Lake Tahoe who has worked with various agencies dedicated to the use and conservation of Lake Tahoe including The League to Save Lake Tahoe, the California Water Quality Control Board, Sierra Club, and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The collection contains materials created and collected by Ames while working with organizations in the Lake Tahoe basin whose primary goal was to protect Lake Tahoe from overdevelopment and urbanization.

Report by Raymond M. Smith includes information about regional planning efforts in the Lake Tahoe, California and Nevada, basin beginning in the 1950s and histories and goals of various Tahoe organizations and agencies. Smith was formerly a planning director of Washoe County, Nevada (1970).