El Dorado County Environment Digest

Satellite data from across California’s landscapes reveal an increase in nitrogen dioxide levels in remote forest areas, and wildfire and soil emissions are likely the reasons why, according to a paper from UC Davis published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

A federal appeals court reversed the decision of a lower court that would have allowed exploratory drilling in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The drilling threatened to harm an endangered fish and a dwindling population of bi-state sage grouse.

The Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force launched the beta version of a first-of-its-kind Interagency Treatment Dashboard that displays the size and location of state and federal forest and landscape resilience projects in California.

The Biden administration is one step away from designating the first national marine sanctuary nominated by a tribe. Tribal members of the Chumash, who have lobbied for the creation of this Central Coast preserve for more than a decade, would be involved in managing it.

In a new study published Aug. 17 in the journal Science, fossil records at La Brea Tar Pits indicate that the disappearance of California’s sabertooth cats, dire wolves and other large mammals nearly 13,000 years ago was linked to rising temperatures and fire activity spurred by people.

With only 12,000 hydrogen cars on the road, and just two models for sale, California lawmakers are debating how much state money should support them.

This acquisition of open space and important wildlife habitat joins BYLT’s 25,000+ acres of land permanently protected in the Bear and Yuba River watersheds.

The USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is scheduled to begin mechanical forest thinning and fuel reduction operations next week on approximately 208 acres along a powerline corridor.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) has awarded the County of Nevada Office of Emergency Services (OES) with $3,914,536 to implement Phase II of the Woodpecker Ravine Shaded Fuel Break.

To Keep Tahoe Blue, the League to Save Lake Tahoe teamed up with ECO-CLEAN Solutions and the Tahoe Keys Marina to introduce an aquatic robot that glides across the surface, removing water-borne debris and aquatic weeds.

Frustration runs deep among medical cannabis patients and advocates who say the commercial market created by Proposition 64 in 2016 isn’t meeting their needs.

Clean Up the Lake, known for its 72-mile cleanup project around the shores of Lake Tahoe, has opened its Environmental Dive Center at Lake Tahoe.

The total number of climate change court cases has more than doubled since 2017 and is growing worldwide. These findings, published by the UN Environment Programme and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, show that climate litigation is becoming an integral part of securing climate action and justice.

The Department of the Interior announced the distribution of $24,881,884 to the state of California today as part of the $295,582,830 granted this year from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

The California Department of Conservation released a draft list of orphan wells it proposes to be permanently sealed as part of the first wave of such projects that will be supported by state and federal funding.

With a record number of participants this year, the 18th annual Tahoe Bike Challenge got more people than ever out of their cars to help improve Lake Tahoe's environment and communities.

The tree, dubbed “Firetop,” is 265.87 feet tall, more than 16 feet around and just over 5 feet in diameter.

Public interest groups filed amicus letters with the California Supreme Court seeking review of a decision by the First District Court of Appeal that would allow Boeing to demolish radioactive structures at Santa Susana Field Lab and dispose of the resulting debris in unequipped landfills and metal recycling centers without any state oversight.

Raising Shasta Dam to increase its capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year, legislators say. But that assumes there will always be enough precipitation, and the move risks flooding sacred Native American lands and harming local habitats.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe and USDA Forest Service’s Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit are working both independently and collaboratively to stop the scenes of July 5th, which saw thousands of pounds of litter from one Lake Tahoe beach following the July 4th holiday, from happening again.

The California Tahoe Conservancy has awarded two grants totaling $4,627,000 to build partner capacity for forest and wildfire resilience projects across the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The environmental costs of ending water diversions from Mono Lake to Los Angeles would be mixed: It might help a shore bird habitat but would require changes that increase carbon emissions.

Known for its purity and high level of legal protection, Lake Tahoe had the third-highest concentration of plastic of 38 lakes tested around the world, according to research published in the scientific journal Nature under the title “Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs.”

The nonprofit Tahoe Fund is partnering with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association to launch a $50,000 matching campaign to address the 19 miles of trail that travel through Desolation Wilderness from Echo Lakes to Lake Aloha.

Beginning the week of July 10, NV Energy and partnering agencies will continue to implement measures to reduce wildfire and natural disaster risk throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin and Southern Nevada as part of the Natural Disaster Protection Plan.

As nights warm and droughts intensify, past models predicting fire behavior have become unreliable. So California is working with analysts and tapping into new technology to figure out how to attack wildfires. Gleaned from military satellites, drones and infrared mapping, the information is spat out in real time and triaged by a fire behavior analyst.

The USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is scheduled to begin thinning trees by hand on July 10 on the south end of Prey Meadows north of Glenbrook on the East Shore of Lake Tahoe.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is inviting public review and comment through Aug. 6 on an environmental assessment evaluating alternatives to restore giant sequoia groves and adjacent fisher habitat in areas severely impacted by the 2020 Castle and 2021 KNP Complex wildfires, and where adequate regeneration is otherwise not anticipated.

Cal Fire has announced the availability of nearly $20 million in funding for grants to conserve and protect environmentally important, privately-owned forestland.

Research by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s snake fungal disease project indicates that the pathogen is occurring in more locations and impacting more snakes in California than previously known.

Truck manufacturers won’t file legal challenges over California's controversial mandate, and in return, the state air board will relax some smog-fighting requirements.

A lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service over damage caused by the Tamarack Fire has been filed in the Eastern District of U.S. District Court of California.