Washoe County sheriff’s deputies were called out to Mount Rose Ski Resort on Feb. 3 because of a lost skier.
Mount Rose ski patrol rescued the lost skier on the east side of the mountain.
“The skier is OK and our volunteers are bringing him down to Davis Creek Park,” officials said.
Further details were not available.
— Lake Tahoe news staff report
Researchers in Merced a site owned by the University of California. Photo/University of California
By Matt Weiser, Water Deeply
California is about to learn a whole lot more about how water moves through its many diverse landscapes.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded a $2.2 million grant to the University of California to use remote sensors and drones to monitor hydrology across various landscapes. The subject areas will be the U.C.’s Natural Reserve System, a network of protected lands covering more than 750,000 acres and representing many habitat types in the state.
Called the California Heartbeat Initiative-Freshwater, the project will equip reserves with wireless sensor nodes to track weather, soil moisture, transpiration and a host of other criteria. Each node, about the size of a thermos, is outfitted with a battery and solar panel. They communicate wirelessly with each other and a central computer. Drones will fly programmed routes with special cameras attached to monitor how vegetation changes with the climate.
Placer County is in the process of developing a Sustainability Plan, outlining ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and manage climate risks that threaten property value, natural resources and quality of life.
Two community workshops this month will offer a chance for people to learn about the plan’s purpose and goals, and how to become involved in the planning process.
The plan inventories current sources of greenhouse gas emissions in unincorporated Placer County and will outline the county’s strategy to reduce them in a way that maximizes economic benefits from energy savings and operational costs, improves infrastructure, and further benefits the county and community.
Additionally, the plan is intended to provide a streamlined environmental review process related to GHG emissions analysis for land development projects.
It will also describe strategies to prepare the county and residents to reduce and adapt to the effects of climate risks like wildfire, drought and flood.
California law calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions statewide to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
Placer expects to complete its Sustainability Plan in spring 2019.
The workshops will be March 7 in Kings Beach (North Lake Tahoe Event Center) and March 8 in North Auburn (Community Development Resource Agency). Both will are from 6-8pm and will begin with a presentation by county staff, with staff available afterward to answer questions and take feedback in an open-house style workshop. The presentation will include an explanation of the plan’s greenhouse gas inventory , completed in January.
By Carlos Lozano, Los Angeles Times
An avalanche at Mammoth Mountain early Saturday forced the closure of the mountain and area ski resorts, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or missing people, but rescue operations have been activated, officials said.
By James DeHaven, Reno Gazette-Journal
Nevadans who haven’t kept up with the state’s upcoming elections, take heart — the rest of the country is paying plenty of attention for you.
Three months before party primary voters decide which candidates will appear on November’s general election ballot, money and media attention has poured into races for the Silver State’s top political spots, among them an open governor’s seat and one of the nation’s most closely watched U.S. Senate contests.
Washoe County — narrowly won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 — figures to play a decisive role in both of those races, as Democrats seek to close a slim 6,000-person countywide voter registration edge held by Republicans armed with a pricey new data-driven voter turnout initiative.
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
Emergency management officials are warning Lake Tahoe residents to avoid activity in some neighborhoods because of the potential for an avalanche.
On Friday Washoe County issued a Stage 1 Avalanche Warning for the Crystal Bay and Third Creek subdivisions.
“Storm and wind slab avalanches are likely, especially human triggered, however due to the relatively new nature of the underlying snow cover they are not predicted to be large enough to directly affect houses or roads,” the warning stated.
About 160 homes are in the affected areas.
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
An avalanche swept up five people, including one who was seriously injured, at a Lake Tahoe-area ski resort on Friday.
The avalanche happened at 1:40 p.m. at Squaw Valley Resort, less than five hours after searchers recovered the body of a snowboarder who had gone missing late Thursday during a blizzard.
According to the resort five guests, two female and three male, were caught in the inbounds slide near the Olympic Lady chairlift.
By Kathryn Reed
STATELINE – One more vote and the Meyers Area Plan will be the law of the land, replacing the planning document from 1993.
The process to develop this plan started in February 2012. In these six years there have been a multitude of meetings, angry words levied between residents, at El Dorado County staff and electeds, misunderstandings, and finally compromise and resolution.
The fact that only one member of the public spoke at the Feb. 28 Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board meeting speaks volumes for how far things have come. It used to be the topic of this area plan would bring out the masses, with opinions all over the board.
It took four drafts to come to the plan that the bi-state regulatory agency approved unanimously. (Sue Novasel, who represents El Dorado County on the Governing Board had to recuse herself because she owns property in the plan area. CAO Don Ashton filled in for her.) Later this month the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors will review it one last time.
This most southwestern entrance to the Lake Tahoe Basin has more traffic and visitors than any other gateway. This is why transportation and traffic were critical elements of the plan.
“One key challenge to Meyers is that it has to operate as a ‘Main Street’ and as a highway,” Brendan Ferry, planner with the county, told the Governing Board. Highway 50 is 280 feet wide at most places, making it a challenge to cross.
The county has been working with Caltrans to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. The intersection at Apache Avenue is one of the most critical points, especially for people trying to reach the elementary school and park on the north side of the highway. It’s possible a yellow light to slow traffic could be installed there.
The lack of transit is another issue for Meyers. There was some discussion about this at the board level. Funding is the problem. Still, the county is pursuing state and federal grants to improve the physical corridor, and is working with the Tahoe Transportation District for bus service.
One item in the plan is to work to move the agricultural inspection station to Highway 89 or find a way to deem its existence irrelevant. This will not be an easy endeavor, as the state has the final say. The reason to get rid of it is that it’s an eyesore and with it only being staffed at random times its viability is questioned.
Austin Sass, who represents South Lake Tahoe on the TRPA board, asked if there would be anyplace for workforce housing in Meyers based on this plan.
Ferry spoke more in general development parameters instead of specific uses when he said there is vacant land available. Some of it is owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy and would be available through the state agency’s asset lands program.
During the last six years of public meetings, the residents of Meyers were more interested in development that would generate tax dollars and add to the local flair, such as a boutique lodging establishment, an outdoor oriented commercial entity and the like.
By Matt Weiser, Water Deeply
A skier threads his way through patches of dry ground at California’s Squaw Valley Ski Resort on March 21, 2015, when the state experienced one of its driest winters ever. A new forecasting tool could one day be able to predict such poor mountain snowpack conditions as much as eight months in advance.Max Whittaker/Getty Images
If we had known a year ago that this winter would be so dry, would we have conserved water more aggressively last summer? Would ski resorts have installed more snowmaking equipment? Would farmers buy different seeds to plant this spring?
These are among the tantalizing questions raised by a team of government and university scientists, who believe they have developed a tool to predict mountain snowpack in the West up to eight months in advance – long before the first winter snowflake has fallen.
The tool, a powerful computer model, is described in a new study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is still experimental, but it seems capable at this stage of giving a thumbs-up or -down signal about whether March 1 snowpack will be heavy. And it can do so at the scale of a particular mountain range, offering some indication about potential spring runoff for individual watersheds.
Douglas County commissioners on March 1 approved $407,000 to spent at Kahle Community Center for maintenance issues.
Scott Morgan, parks and recreation director, told Lake Tahoe News 90 percent of the expense is for the roof, the rest is for carpet.
Shaheen Beauchamp Builders is expected to begin work next week inside the Stateline facility.
“We’ve experienced some leaks. The dormers are over 20 years old and are causing problems,” Morgan said.
The membrane of the roof, which will be replaced, is 11 years old. It had a life expectancy of 10 years.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report