Conservation

Enjoy the Tahoe Area Sierra Club's fundraiser, "Dinner in the Autumn Garden," on Sunday, September 20 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Aspen Hollow Nursery.

Join them as the spend an evening in the garden enjoying food, wine, friends and fall planting ideas.

All proceeds will benefit the conservation work of the local group. Tickets will be sold at the door and are $15.00 for members and $20.00 for non-members. Aspen Hollow Nursery is located at 541 Emerald Bay Road in South Lake Tahoe.

Location

Join the Tahoe Heritage Foundation and the U. S. Forest Service at Lake at the Lake of the Sky Amphitheater on Friday, August 28 for a fun and educational presentation by Wild Things, Inc. Learn about the animals around the Lake Tahoe area with a LIVE animal presentation!

This live lecture is at Taylor Creek Visitor Center’s Lake the Sky Amphitheater at 7:00pm. It is open to the public and is a $5.00 donation to Tahoe Heritage Foundation.

The public will have a chance to learn about sustainable landscaping in Lake Tahoe at the 8th Annual Conservation Landscape Tour on August 19. The tour will begin at the Lake Tahoe Community College Demonstration Garden and continue down Pioneer Trail towards Meyers Station.

When Governor Jerry Brown told the residents of the state to cut back their water usage, he had the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) tell each region how much to cut back. That benchmark in South Lake Tahoe was 20%.

For the past three months, residents have cut much more than that. In May, water use at South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) was down 34%, followed by 24% in June and 27% in July. This is on top of the 27% reduction in water use that the district's customer have accomplished since 2007.

Tahoe Resource Conservation District, in partnership with South Tahoe Public Utility District, is hosting FREE Water Conservation Workshops this summer.

The next one on the schedule is "Understanding and Implementing Micro-irrigation."

Lake Tahoe’s first new campground in more than 20 years would be developed on a forested ridge overlooking Lake Tahoe under a plan announced Wednesday by developers.

Mountainside Partners and landowner Sierra Pacific Industries have submitted an application to build a 550-site campground on a ridge south of Northstar California and near the Tahoe Rim Trail.

Who? American Conservation Experience Americorps member Sarah Markowitz, Tahoe Area Sierra Club, Clean Tahoe, Washoe Meadows Community and YOU

What? Wear comfortable walking shoes and use sunscreen. Snacks, water, gloves, and trash bags will be provided.

When? Saturday August 8th from 9 a.m.-Noon

Where? Meet at the Lake Tahoe Blvd entrance to Washoe Meadows State Park near Tahoe Mountain Rd. to pick up instructions and supplies and sign in

Location

The public is invited to the 16th annual Children's Environmental Science Day presented by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center on Sunday, August 2 at Commons Beach in Tahoe City. The event will begin at 12:30 p.m. and will continue until 3:30 p.m., with a free Mumbo Gumbo concert at 4:00 p.m.

This week, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency voiced its strong support for legislation to reauthorize the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act that has been introduced in Congress by Tahoe’s Senate delegation.

Sponsored by U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-Nevada) along with Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), and Barbara Boxer (D-California), the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act would authorize up to $415 million in federal funding over 10 years to help continue critical environmental restoration work at Lake Tahoe.

The long-range forecast doesn’t bode well for the interior West as it chokes on a fourth year of drought and smoke from wildfires.

With the fire season ramping up and temperatures starting to soar, drought and fire dominated the discussion at the Western Governors’ Association annual meeting being held this week at Incline Village on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has chaired the group for the past year, made drought his signature initiative, bringing together water experts and managers to develop best practices for water management and drought preparation.

As one can imagine, Donielle Morse has been very busy lately. As the Water Conservationist specialist for the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD), Morse spends her days informing, teaching and keeping up on the new state water mandates.

Drought or no drought, water conservation is necessary and its the reason South Lake Tahoe is faring better than most communities in the West. Since 2007, local water users have cut back 27% of their annual water usage.

During times of drought, homeowners turn to water conservation not only in their daily habits but in their gardens as well.

There is even a word for this: xeriscape. The definition of xeriscape is landscaping and gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for supplemental water from irrigation.

The Tahoe Resource Conservation District is hold a free workshop on xeriscping on Wednesday, June 17 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the South Tahoe Public Utility District.

The Sixth Annual Native Species Festival will be held at the Taylor Creek visitor Center in South Lake Tahoe on Saturday, May 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This free family event is hosted by the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and is a great way to spend the day outdoors and learn about the native species of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The Visitor's Center is located three miles north of South Lake Tahoe on Highway 89.

What are homeowners in the Tahoe Keys doing to fight aquatic invasive species (AIS)? How successful was the pilot research project to reduce the Asian clam population in Emerald Bay, and what does it mean for future control projects? What does the latest research say about whether quagga mussels could survive in Lake Tahoe?

More than a hundred trained volunteers will continue a 15 year tradition with a one-day hands-on effort to capture a snapshot of the health of Lake Tahoe’s watershed on May 16 at Lake Tahoe Community College.

“Snapshot Day creates the opportunity for people of all ages and experience levels to take part in protecting our watershed,” said Jesse Patterson, deputy director for the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

In typical South Lake Tahoe fashion, Mother Nature has decided to visit the local Earth Day celebration on Saturday. While sunshine may be preferred by some, needed moisture will be making a visit.

Don't let a forecast of rain or snow keep you from Earth Day 2015 though. As seen in the video in this story, snow fell just prior to last year's event too.

Tahoe Douglas Rotarians spent Saturday cleaning out the historic Osgood Toll House, the oldest standing building in South Lake Tahoe. They took out hundreds of items including windows, doors, window frames, shutters and boards. After removing them they cataloged each item, cleaned and dried them and then stacked them back in the toll house.

This week, as part of the first EpicPromise Week, Vail Resorts will present the first ever EpicPromise Awards to two Heavenly or Kirkwood employees for their ongoing commitment to strengthening the local community and fostering a sustainable environment. The EpicPromise Awards are being given at Vail Resorts’ mountains across the country as part of the first annual EpicPromise Week (April 6-10, 2015), a full week dedicated to celebrating Vail Resorts’ widespread commitment to creating a more promising future for generations to come.

Learn how to design and install Best Management Practices (BMPs) for homes and small businesses in a series of workshops being presented by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in coordination with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and Nevada Tahoe Conservation District.

Due to limited grant funding, this will be the last year the workshops for both the contractor and the do-it-youselfers will be held. The workshops will also be the last time businesses can qualify for the BMP Installation Service Providers List by having at least one supervisor per business attend.

The most innovative South Shore businesses will exhibit at the 2015 Business EXPO: Innovation in the Basin on Friday, March 27. The largest business and networking event of the year, Tahoe Chamber’s Business EXPO includes 100 local businesses ranging from restaurants and resorts to recreation providers to retailers. The event includes food and drink tastings, giveaways and a new networking lounge sponsored by the City of South Lake Tahoe, Winters Construction Group and Red Carpet Events and Design.

South Lake Tahoe may soon be one less aging motel along the main stretch in town. On Tuesday, the Placer County supervisors gave staff the go ahead to purchase the A & A Lake Tahoe Inn for $1.425 million. The county wants to have the motel's 34 tourist accommodation units (TAUs) so they can add hotel rooms at the north end of Lake Tahoe.

The south shore motel rests in a stream sensitive zone. If the purchase goes through, Placer County would give the motel to the California Conservancy for demolition and restoration while keeping the TAUs.

California water agencies are on track to satisfy a state mandate to reduce water consumption 20 percent by 2020. But according to their own projections, that savings won’t be enough to keep up with population growth just a decade later.

A 2009 state law requires urban water agencies to reduce per-capita water consumption 20 percent by 2020, compared with use at the start of the century. Most agencies are on track to reach that goal, and have made even more progress thanks to emergency cuts over the past year triggered by the ongoing drought.

Almost twenty years later and the Tahoe Valley Area plan isn't in place, yet. John Hitchcock, the City of South Lake Tahoe Planning Manager, gave the Council another presentation on the status of the plan and where things stand as of today during Tuesday's City Council meeting.

First proposed in the early 1990's, the resurrection of the Tahoe Valley Area plan made great strides towards adoption in 2014 with Hitchcock holding four public meetings where input was requested, presenting the plan to TRPA three times, three times to City Council and twice to the planning commission.

Learn about the role the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plays in the management of ski areas and other keys areas on the Lake Tahoe environment during their Ski With a Ranger program beginning on Friday, January 16.

Tours begin at the top of the gondola at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. every Monday and Friday. There is also a Spanish version starting at 10:30 a.m. on Fridays beginning Friday, February 20, 2015.

They run until April 10, weather permitting.