wildlife

After Tahoe's July Fourth festivities, our beaches are thrashed with trash, which can hurt wildlife and lake clarity. Each year, hundreds of Tahoe residents and visitors turn out for our largest cleanup of the year to remove litter from our beaches. Help Keep Tahoe Blue by joining a beach cleanup site!

Cleanup sites include:
• Commons Beach (Tahoe City)
• Kings Beach
• Kiva Beach
• Nevada Beach
• Regan Beach

We will provide cleanup materials, refreshments and raffle prizes. Please bring your reusable water bottle, friends and cleanup gloves if you have them!

Location

"The channel looks good and recovery is holding up," said Theresa Cody, Restoration Hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service. "Water is on the flood plains as its supposed to."

Cody was talking about the $7 million project on part of the Upper Truckee River known as Reach 5. The three-year long restoration project was to improve the river channel stability and aquatic habitat along 1.2 miles of the river adjacent to the Lake Tahoe Airport.

Work had recently resumed on the new rehabilitation facility for Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (LTWC) on Al Tahoe Blvd. Thieves stopped by last week and helped themselves to several hundred feed of copper line from the South Lake Tahoe project.

A contractor was connecting the sewer line to the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) connection at Pioneer Village 900 fee away. In order to locate water, electrical and sewer lines in the future, contractors now bury a copper wire just above the line making the task easier should it be needed.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is planning to more than double their current cloud seeding program over the American River watershed from the current 190 square miles to 444 square miles.

Since 1968, SMUD has been involved in the practice of cloud seeding in El Dorado, Amador, and Placer counties to benefit electricity generation in the Upper American River Project (UARP) in Eldorado National Forest.

After a challenging winter and spring in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the summer season is upon us. Agencies around Lake Tahoe (U.S. Forest Service, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, California State Parks, California and Nevada Departments of Wildlife) are reminding residents and visitors to practice proper food storage and trash disposal when living in, or visiting, bear country.

The watercraft inspection spots around Lake Tahoe once again proved their valuable service when a boat at the Alpine Meadows station was found to have quagga mussels on board May 14.

The boat was quarantined for several days and Tahoe Resource Conservation District staff performed multiple decontaminations to ensure all invasive species were removed before the boat was released to the owner.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Governing Board voted to increase prevention methods by requiring motorists towing boats to remove drain plugs from their watercraft after leaving the lake.

A Washoe County Sheriff's deputy trying to scare off a group of bears in Incline Village Saturday morning shot the mother bear with a live round instead of a rubber round.

At approximately 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, May 6, 2017, deputies responded to a report of a group of bears near residences in the area of Driver Way and Village Boulevard in Incline Village.

On arrival, deputies encountered a mother bear and three cubs. This group of bears had been previously identified as food aggressive and deputies have had numerous encounters with this group in recent weeks.

Dogs are currently banned from the Upper Truckee Marsh area due to protection of a critical breeding habitat for special, threatened and endangered species such as the Willow Flycatcher and Yellow Warbler.

The California Tahoe Conservancy announced today its annual seasonal dog closure which will be in place July 31.

Beginning August 1, dogs will again be permitted access to the Upper Truckee Marsh, if they are on leash. The Conservancy-owned Cove East property, west of the river, remains open for year-round, leashed dog access.

The arrival of mosquitoes in El Dorado County communities is delayed this year due to the long and wet winter, but health officials are taking Mosquito Awareness Week of April 16 through April 22, 2017 to remind the public to protect themselves. As warmer weather approaches residents should be aware of the serious risks mosquitoes present to their health, including West Nile, Saint Louis encephalitis, and potentially dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses.

Trees will need to be removed from the Emerald Fire area, and the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) is asking for comments on a proposal to remove the hazardous trees and plant seedlings in that area.

“Restoration of the Emerald Fire area will help restore habitat for various wildlife species and provide benefits to the Lake Tahoe watershed,” said LTBMU Forest Supervisor, Jeff Marsolais. “The restoration effort will also provide visual benefits to residents and visitors and allow for a more fire resilient landscape.”

South Tahoe Refuse is rolling out a Bear Box loan program for their customers living in both California and Nevada at Lake Tahoe, including South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County and Douglas County customers.

Customers can purchase a box up to a value of $1,300 from approved vendors and repay the cost through a $65 increase in their quarterly refuse bill.

LAKE TAHOE, CALIF., - The Northstar Mountain Master Plan was approved Tuesday by the Placer County Board of Supervisors, providing a roadmap for the next 20 years for the North Lake Tahoe resort.

Leave No Trace is a national program that teaches and inspires people to enjoy the outdoors while also helping to protect it.

While protecting the outdoor environment and keeping it clear and free of trash and debris should be commonplace, it isn't.

The Leave No Trace team was recently in South Lake Tahoe on a vacation but stopped by South Tahoe High to talk to members of Generation Green. Many may remember the team as community members who left last year to travel the country and teach and train along the way.

Dear Henry,
I’m new to the area and not sure about how to deal with the cold weather and my dog, do you have any tips for us?
Thank you,
Bethany

Purrfect timing for this question as we are getting a winter this year! Here are some winter tips for all pets.

Twenty-five years ago, I finished my graduate work in Oregon and moved to Northern Nevada for a planning position at TRPA. Having spent a large part of my youth hiking and camping at Tahoe and in the Sierra, the move felt like coming home.

Two Markleville, Calif., men were arrested on December 17 after a Department of Fish Wildlife warden caught them near Diamond Valley Road and Airport Road (Alpine County) as they attempted to "spotlight" deer.

According to Lt. Chris Stoots of California Fish & Wildlife, Ramsey Gene Horse, 29, and William Eugene Berreman, 26, were allegedly driving a Ford sedan with an artificial light in an attempt to spot and kill deer, an illegal action called spotlighting. They also had two loaded rifles in the back seat.

Budding young artists are encouraged to participate in the California State Parks' 2nd annual Youth Art Contest, "Discover State Parks." The submitted artwork should share what the artist personally discovered in one of the state parks.

Any flat medium is acceptable, including chalk, crayon, marker, ink, paint, watercolor or collage. There are no entry fees associated with this contest.

Vail Resorts has called on the United States Congress to approve the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2015. This Act provides $415 million in funding and reauthorizes important Lake Tahoe restoration activities that began in 1997 and refocuses federal, state and local efforts toward reducing wildfire threats, improving water quality and clarity, and combating invasive species. All of these are important to the local economy at one of the most visited lakes in the world.

Dear Henry,
I’m new to the area and not sure about how to deal with the cold weather and my dog, do you have any tips for us?
Thank you,
Bethany

Purrfect timing for this question as it actually looks like we are going to get a winter this year! Here are some winter tips for all pets.

Keep your cats inside. During any time of the year, cats that are allowed to stray can become lost or stolen, injured or killed. They can also be exposed to infectious diseases, including rabies, from other cats, dogs and wildlife.

With several state parks around the Lake Tahoe Basin and surrounding Sierra Nevada, budding Van Goghs have a lot of local experience to draw upon as they enter the California State Park Foundation's art contest, "Discover State Parks."

Since the parks offer endless opportunities for inspiration, the Youth Art Contest is a way for young people to draw on those experiences to create art featuring their encounters with wildlife and nature, learning about history and culture or enjoying recreation.

Nevada wildlife biologists released a three-plus year old male black bear back into the forest near the top of Mt. Rose Summit on Monday morning after capturing him Sunday in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe.

Nevada Department of Wildlife trapped the young bear while attempting to trap another bear that had caused damage to a building, according to wildlife biologist Carl Lackey. The bear that was captured and then later released Monday wasn't the bear Lackey was looking for.

Lackey says that NDOW had handled the released bear once before in the mountains east of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The Lake Tahoe Basin saw continued environmental improvement over the last four years, but faces major challenges from climate change, according to a draft 2015 Threshold Evaluation Report released by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA).

The report offers a detailed assessment of the health of Lake Tahoe and its treasured natural environment as indicated by 178 threshold standards in nine categories: Air quality, water quality, soil conservation, vegetation, fisheries, wildlife, scenic resources, noise, and recreation.

Celebrate the annual fall migration of the Kokanee salmon during the Fall Fish Fest at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center, Lake Tahoe, Saturday and Sunday, October 1 & 2, 2016, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m..

Join the fun and participate in this free family event which has become one of the most fascinating educational and wildlife viewing events in Northern California.

During the 2014 Kokanee Salmon run at the U.S. Forest Service's Taylor Creek Visitor Center in South Lake Tahoe, many visitors attempted to get a "selfie" with the bears who frequent the area in search of Salmon. This disregard for both the bear's safety as well as the public's prompted USFS officials to issue warnings and threat to close the area.