The concessionaire for the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir campground-marina closed the venue to the public in early December, and Tuolumne County officials are seeking a way to get the popular venue reopened to the public.

At least one major event is planned at the venue in the next two months — the 2026 Tuolumne County Polar Plunge to benefit the Northern California Special Olympics is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 21 with more than 50 people already registered and $11,385 raised so far. The nonprofit has staged Polar Plunge fundraisers at South Shore Tulloch Reservoir for a decade. It raised more than $36,000 from the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir event in 2024, and this year’s goal is to raise $50,000.

The concession at South Shore Tulloch Reservoir is called Lake Tulloch RV Campground and Marina. Concessionaire Jacob Varner told The Union Democrat in April he had managed the Lake Tulloch Campground concession for five years and owned the concession for two years.

Varner announced in online posts Dec. 12 that unspecified circumstances outside of his control made it impossible for him to continue providing services in a safe, financially viable, and compliant manner, and as a result, Lake Tulloch RV Campground and Marina was closed to the public, effective immediately.

Varner told The Union Democrat in April that he and his business had lost more than $140,000 in revenue in the first four months of 2025 due to the invasive golden mussels closure to boaters and Tri-Dam Project’s handling of the issue, and he anticipated total losses of more than $400,000 this year if nothing changed. Varner did not respond to requests for comment this week and last week.

Tri-Dam Project owns and operates Tulloch Reservoir, but the state Department of Fish and Wildlife owns the land where Lake Tulloch RV Campground and Marina is situated. A 30-year lease of that land to Tuolumne County ended in April 2023.

The county is currently working with state Fish and Wildlife to renew the lease so the county can then put the Lake Tulloch RV Campground and Marina out for bid to a new concessionaire.

Terms of the now-expired lease with the state required the county to maintain the premises, conduct regular improvements, and provide public access to Tulloch Reservoir, which impounds the Stanislaus River below New Melones Reservoir. From 1993 to 2023, the county contracted with concessionaires to manage and operate the campground and marina for the duration of the lease with the state.

Invasive golden mussels were discovered near the Port of Stockton in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in October 2024. Tri-Dam announced the immediate closure of Tulloch Reservoir to all recreational boating as a precautionary measure in February 2025, and reopened the reservoir with strict new protocols in April 2025. 

At the same time, the county government experienced significant staff turnover, further delaying efforts to renew the South Shore Tulloch lease with state Fish and Wildlife, County Administrator Roger Root said in a news release last week.

“County staff have been working with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the new concessionaire to renew the agreements with both the state and the new concessionaire,” Root said in the news release, without naming Varner. “Tuolumne County is a recreation destination and resolving the issues on South Shore Lake Tulloch is a priority for county staff.”

Tri-Dam Project General Manager Summer Nicotero told The Union Democrat this week that Tri-Dam is committed to working with the county through the process of awarding a new concessionaire agreement.

“We are in contact with the County Administrator and will provide all required information as they prepare the bidding package,” Nicotero stated in an email Monday. “The South Shore Marina and Campground facility is a great recreational benefit to the public and Tri-Dam will do everything we can to facilitate the process of welcoming a new concessionaire.”

Nicotero emphasized Tri-Dam does not manage the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir area.

“The biggest point to emphasize is that Tuolumne County is working with the DFW,” Nicotero stated, referring to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, “to renew a lease so they can bid out the concessionaire agreement. Once that lease is renewed, Tri-Dam will communicate the requirements for a new concessionaire to operate on the reservoir.”

Meanwhile, the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir area, including the Lake Tulloch RV Campground and Marina, remain closed to the public, Root said Tuesday in a phone interview with The Union Democrat.

Root said he was not aware that the 2026 Tuolumne County Polar Plunge to benefit the Northern California Special Olympics has been staged at the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir area on Lake Tulloch RV Campground and Marina property, but he said he would seek to contact the organizers and coordinate with them.

“I’ve been in contact with the state in the last few days, and we’ve made some pretty significant progress in getting that lease renewed,” Root said. “I think it’s important to recognize that the county staff and the Board of Supervisors in March 2023 were aware that the state lease needed to be renewed, and they were renewing the long-term concessionaire agreement while that was still pending. I was not aware until the issue with the golden mussels came up. The concessionaire has had the ramp closed to the public the entire summer because of the golden mussel issues.”

Root, the former assistant county administrator and acting/interim county administrator since then-CAO Tracie Riggs resigned from county employment in January this year, was promoted to  county administrator earlier this month when the county Board of Supervisors approved a new three-year contract with him.