Placer County Environment Digest

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.

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 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.

A rodent posing a serious threat to levees and native marshlands has found its way to Sacramento County. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife first sounded the alarm on nutria in 2017, when the large South American rodents were detected in the San Joaquin Valley.

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.

Small fragments of fibers from clothing, packaging and other plastic residue have invaded freshwater lakes and watersheds globally and in alarming quantities, according to new research.

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.

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.

California lawmakers passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, permanently protecting the iconic and imperiled species.

U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) announced $3.1 million in funding she secured for Lake Tahoe in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to prevent and combat the spread of aquatic invasive species in the lake through the Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Program.

An unprecedented group of Lake Tahoe destination management, land management and nonprofits launched the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan with the signing of an agreement to create the first stewardship council for the region.

The State of California will provide new protections for prescribed fire and cultural burning practitioners. The $20 million allocated for the Prescribed Fire Liability Claims Fund Pilot will cover losses in the rare instance that a prescribed or cultural burn escapes control.

Tahoe National Forest, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, plans to prescribed burn up to 500-acres near French Meadows Reservoir, approximately 36 miles northeast of Foresthill, Calif.

The Tahoe Institute for Natural Science has introduced its newest board member, Brian Wright. The latest addition to the all-volunteer board serves as the general manager for the Truckee Donner Public Utility District.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is highlighting native species protection programs and legal and safety requirements below ahead of boating season to improve safety and protect Lake Tahoe’s environment and native ecosystem.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana ruled the U.S. Forest Service can continue to use aerial fire retardant to fight wildfires while waiting on a Clean Water Act permit.

Roseville has embarked on a groundbreaking initiative to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and minimize landfill waste. This effort involves powering its trash and recycling fleet with renewable natural gas derived from the digestion of organic waste.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe (aka Keep Tahoe Blue) hosted a training course for the people working where the public meets the lake—at marinas and boat ramps—so key information about aquatic invasive species can be shared.

The inaugural Lake Tahoe Litter Summit, hosted by nonprofit Clean Up the Lake, brought together 50 of Lake Tahoe's agency leaders and citizens fighting litter in the basin.

The Holman Arts and Media Center invites artists of all skill levels to Lake Tahoe for its 39th season of the Summer Arts Workshops, beginning June 26.

California legislative committees in the Assembly and Senate blocked two big climate bills. One would have made the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets more ambitious. Another would have allowed people to sue oil companies over health problems if they meet certain criteria.

Film submissions for the 2024 Wild & Scenic Film Festival are now being accepted in three categories: Environmental, Adventure and Student Film. The early-bird deadline is July 16.

Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto passed legislation to protect Lake Tahoe and Nevada's Ruby Mountains through the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe's plan to redevelop an aging office building into a new environment and education center, as well as the organization's headquarters, is building momentum.

A magnitude-5.2 quake was recorded in Northern California May 11 in Plumas County, about 6 miles east of Lake Almanor.

Photographs have been flowing into the Tahoe Tribune email featuring bobcats that have been spotted around the region, leading the newspaper to explore whether there are more of the felines in the area.

Since January, residents have asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to meet publicly to answer questions about when the trichloroethylene plume threatening the border of Sun City Lincoln Hills will be remediated.

The U.S. Federal District Court of Montana heard oral arguments April 17 for the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics’ lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for the service’s discharging of fire retardant into national waters.