conditions

Several agencies are coming together on Saturday, June 21st for the first Wildfire Safety Expo in South Lake Tahoe.

The threat of wildfire is extremely high this fire season due to record drought conditions in the West. To provide information on creating home evacuation plans, preparing for fire, creating defensible space, the expo has been created.

The expo will be held in the TJ Maxx parking lot from noon to 3 p.m.

Fuels management operations will be held on Tuesday, just north of Zephyr Cove in the Skyland area. The U.S. Forest Service crew will be burning five acres on the east side of Hwy 50 and is expected to last one day.

People in the area should expect to see smoke.

Forest Service staff will post road signs around the areas affected by the prescribed fire, send email notifications, and update the local fire information line at 530-543-2600, #6. To receive prescribed fire notifications, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us.

Expanding access to healthcare in rural communities requires innovation and collaboration. In remote areas like South Lake Tahoe with smaller populations, residents still expect high quality care and individual medical needs vary widely.

To increase specialty medical services available in our community, with consideration that unique medical conditions may not have the demand for a local office, Barton Health launched Telemedicine in 2009.

WHEREAS, mental illness will affect nearly one in five adults and children in a given year, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or religion; and

WHEREAS, mental health is essential to the overall health of every individual and our community; and

WHEREAS, mental health conditions are real and prevalent in our County with many individuals experiencing times of difficulty and stress in their lives; and

The Friends of the Library are happy to welcome back Roger Rosenberger as he presents “Wildflowers… Here and There” on June 25th at the South Lake Tahoe Library. Rosenberger's presentation starts at 6 p.m.

He will get excited about the coming wildflower season at Lake Tahoe. With the third light snow year at hand, it will be important to keep track of flower conditions this summer on the many trails here at Tahoe.

Location

With record drought conditions in the West, preparing your home for
wildfire is more important than ever. May has been designated “Wildfire Awareness Month” in the Lake Tahoe Basin. This year’s theme is “Prepare Your Home For Wildfire” with a focus on creating and sustaining Fire Adapted Communities.

A Fire Adapted Community (FAC) is a community located in a fire-prone area that requires little assistance from firefighters during a wildfire. Residents of these communities accept responsibility for living in a high fire-hazard area. They possess the knowledge and skills to:

A hiker in the area of Cascade Lake reported seeing a floating body on the lake Wednesday afternoon. The Lake Tahoe local woman was hiking on the north east side of Cascade Lake near the shoreline when she thought she saw a body float up towards the surface and then sink down and out of view.

El Dorado County Sheriff's Search and Rescue volunteers and CALSTAR responded to the vicinity of the sighting but did not find any evidence of a floating body.

You may see smoke in three different locations around the Lake Tahoe basin this week as U.S. Forest Service fuel reduction operations continue. Starting Monday, April 7, they will be burning near Spooner Summit on the East Shore, in the Luther Pass Campground off of Highway 89 S near South Lake Tahoe, and on the west side of Highway 89 N near Tahoma on the West Shore.

Operations are ongoing and may continue through the week and next weekend if weather, staffing, and conditions allow.

Though late season storms have helped skiers and boarders enjoy Lake Tahoe resorts a bit longer, the snowpack measured at 38% of normal today during the monthly test at Echo Summit. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR)reported a statewide average of just 32% of average.

Surveyors from DWR trekked to several monitoring stations as they do annually to measure the water content in snow, as well as depth, to try and pinpoint the state's water supply this summer.

The scheduled renovations at the South Lake Tahoe office of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) have been postponed until a future date. They are alerting local customers that the work will not go on March 26 - April 1 as planned because of weather conditions.

Clarity levels within the iconic blue waters of Lake Tahoe continued a decadelong trend of stabilization in 2013, according to University of California, Davis, scientists who study the lake.

Data released today by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC)and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency reported the average annual clarity level for 2013 at 70.1 feet. While the reading represents a 5 foot decrease over the previous year, it is still well above the lowest value recorded in 1997 of 64.1 feet and above recent years' averages.

It takes collaboration and action to meet a community’s health needs. In March 2012, Barton Health engaged with the community to complete a comprehensive Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) of South Lake Tahoe’s health needs. Part of the Affordable Care Act, all nonprofit hospitals must identify health needs for vulnerable, often under-served, populations within their community and create an action plan to address these needs.

Lake Tahoe is one of California’s greatest natural treasures. It is a beauty to behold, with forested mountains surrounding the deep blue shimmering surface. It is famous for many recreational activities- snowboarding, skiing, hiking, mountain biking, boating, fishing, and sunbathing. But the clear blue waters of Tahoe are in trouble. Invasive species, climate change, and sedimentation all threaten the unique ecosystems of the lake.

North Lake Tahoe's Julia Mancuso led Team USA once again Saturday, posting the best American finish in eighth at a rough and unforgiving super G, the final women’s speed event of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. Another difficult course set plus temperatures in the 40s yielded DNFs in seven of the first eight racers, but Austrian Anna Fenninger dialed it in for gold on the inconsistent course.

There will be several controlled burns around west and south shore of the Lake Tahoe basin beginning on Tuesday, February 4.

In South Lake Tahoe, the prescribed burns will take place on the east side of Tahoe Mountain, the south side of Highway 89 near Camp Richardson, and off of North Upper Truckee Road in the Angora fire area south of Mule Deer Circle.

Skiers and riders rejoiced today at Heavenly Mountain Resort as a much anticipated storm dumped 10-12 inches by 8 am this morning and totaled 18-20 inches at 3 pm today. The snow is expected to continue falling overnight and into Friday, setting resort guests up for a weekend of snow-filled fun.

If predicted rain and snow arrives this week, U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews will resume prescribed fire operations in several locations around the Lake Tahoe Basin beginning Tuesday, January 28, 2014.

Operations will take place on the South Shore in the Luther Pass Campground off of Highway 89 S, on the West Shore off of Bunker Drive near Tahoe City and off of Chalet Road near Alpine Meadows ski area, and on the East Shore off of Easy Street on Lower Kingsbury Grade.

Operations may continue through the weekend, weather, staffing, and conditions permitting.

The nomination period is open for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s 24th annual Best in the Basin awards program, which annually recognizes environmentally compatible projects in the Tahoe Basin that stand out as the best designed, planned and implemented.

Projects completed between October 12, 2012 and December 31, 2013 can be nominated for consideration by the judging panel in the spring or early summer of this year.

Just in time for the Martin Luther King holiday, Lake Tahoe's Heavenly Mountain Resort is opening Boulder Lodge, Boulder Lift and Boulder Bowl on the Nevada side of the mountain.

Even with only 2-3" of new snow over the last few weeks, snow making operations are going to allow skiers to access the mountain from all four base mountain lodges.

Also opening on Saturday is Groove run for ski-thru, with a single jib line featuring seven small rails and boxes on the left-hand side of the run as well as EpicMix Racing, located on lower Ridge Run.

El Dorado County health officials have confirmed an influenza-related fatality in a County resident. The individual was an adult who resided on the Western Slope of the County. This is the first confirmed flu-related fatality in El Dorado County this flu season.

In Washoe County, Nevada there have been 5 flu related deaths, bringing the total deaths in Nevada due to the flu to 8.

A lack of snow in South Lake Tahoe has caused local businesses to get creative in order to succeed. Over the next several days we'll be taking a look into what they're doing to make it.

Opportunities to go snowmobiling or go tubing down a run have been few and far between, that is, until now.

With hundreds of new laws every year for the past 45 years, one might wonder if anyone knows them all or can keep track of the changes. There are new laws on the books for both California (800 new laws) and Nevada (45 new laws) that Lake Tahoe residents might want to brush up on.

Here is an overview of some of them:

California

Citing the cooler temperatures and some snow on the ground as ideal prescribed fire operations, the U.S. Forest Service will resume burning at Luther Pass on Monday, January 6.

All prescribed fire projects are conducted in accordance with an approved prescribed fire burn plan. Burn plans describe specific conditions under which operations are conducted including the weather, number of personnel, and opportunities to minimize smoke impacts. This information is used to decide when and where to burn.

Heavenly Mountain Resort will open the California side of the resort on Saturday, December 21, expanding open terrain to include Ridge Run, Patsy’s, Maggie’s, Skyline Trail, Sky Chute, and the beginner areas of the Enchanted Forest and DMZ near the California Main Lodge. With the opening of Skyline Trail and California Trail, guests will be able to ski and ride to and from the California side to the Nevada side and access top-to-bottom skiing and riding on the Nevada side. With the California opening, the resort will operate 19 lifts, accessing 17 trails and 13.5 miles of skiable terrain.