UPDATE: NAAMLP IN-PERSON PORTION CANCELLED DUE TO WILDFIRE; PLENARY & TECHNICAL SESSIONS WILL BE HELD VIRTUALLY

Dear NAAMLP Conference Attendees,

The NAAMLP Conference Planning Committee regretfully has cancelled the in-person portion of the conference and will be migrating the plenary session, all technical sessions, and tours to a virtual format. We will continue to push updates by email leading up to the conference.

The ongoing Caldor Fire has now burnt up to the edge of the South Lake Tahoe basin requiring a mandatory evacuation for all South Lake Tahoe residents. The Caldor Fire has resulted in over 37,000 people evacuated, over 177,000 acres burned, over 600 structures lost, and fire containment has dropped from 19% to 14%. Nevada has declared a Declaration of Emergency due to the Caldor Fire posing an imminent threat to South Lake Tahoe and its surrounding communities and the evacuation of more than 20,000 South Lake Tahoe residents and visitors to the communities in Carson, Douglas, and Washoe counties. There is hope that the fire crews can still hold the fire line out of South Lake Tahoe, but the fire intensity this year has proven all previous predictions wrong. If we are lucky enough to have the firefighters hold the fire outside the Lake Tahoe Basin, the aftermath of this fire and smoke will last for weeks.

With less than two weeks until the start of the conference, it is my unfortunate news to inform you that the in-person portion of the 2021 NAAMLP conference is now canceled. It is our plan to keep the virtual technical session and allow all in-person attendees to transfer their one in-person registration into two virtual registrations. If you are a presenter who was planning on attending and presenting in-person, we will be following up with an email in the next day or two on how to make that transition. If you are a sponsor and or exhibitor, we will also be following up with an email on options for moving forward.

The NAAMLP planning committee is diligently working on further details in the coming days to transition other portions of the conference and business meeting to a virtual format but we wanted to inform all out of state guests as soon as we could so you can cancel your travel arrangements. There will be multiple emails in the coming days, and we will be updating our website as soon as possible. As for canceling the hotel reservations, I will work with the Montbleu to cancel the room block but much of staff are currently evacuated and the traffic is at a standstill, so please be patient if trying to call.

Thank you,

-NAAMLP Conference Planning Committee