The California Tahoe Conservancy's mission is to protect and sustain the unique natural resources and recreational opportunities in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Conservancy achieves its mission by developing and implementing programs that acquire environmentally sensitive land, provide grants or directly fund soil erosion prevention and watershed restoration, improve stream environments and wildlife habitats, and improve water quality. The Conservancy also balances these activities with programs to improve public access and recreational opportunities in an environmentally sound manner by acquiring lakefront property, constructing pedestrian and bike paths, and building public access facilities.

The Conservancy is also a key implementing agency of the Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) which is a 1997 agreement between California, Nevada, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the federal government, local governments, and various private entities to commit $908 million over 10 years to a list of acquisition and capital improvement projects needed to achieve environmental goals in the Basin. The EIP is updated periodically to include more refined estimates of projects, modifications in the scope of identified projects, and inclusion of new projects. The 2008-2018 EIP was finalized in July 2009.

Since department programs drive the need for infrastructure investment, each department has a related capital outlay program to support this need. For the specifics on the Tahoe Conservancy's Capital Outlay Program, see "Infrastructure Overview."