May is Wildfire Preparedness Month at Lake Tahoe, and we’re highlighting the comprehensive, coordinated work happening year-round in the Tahoe Basin to improve forest health and protect communities from wildfire. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency helped form the Tahoe Fire & Fuels Team in 2008 after the Angora Fire to streamline planning and accelerate the pace and scale of forest fuel reduction projects. Since then, partner agencies have reduced hazardous fuels on more than 77,000 acres in and around Tahoe Basin communities. Below are just a few of the projects within the team’s four strategic priorities that were recently completed or are currently underway.

Image: The Tahoe Fire & Fuels Team includes 21 federal, tribal, state, and local conservation, land management, and fire agencies.

Originally Published in the Sierra Sun, 05/13/2025, Written by Eli Ramos

The Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) hosted their latest Lunch and Learn on affordable housing on Friday, giving Sierra Community House’s housing coordinator a platform to speak about the services they offer and their importance to the North Tahoe and Truckee community.

Denisse Vega Zarate has served as the housing coordinator for Sierra Community House for two years, helping provide much-needed services to people looking for housing in the area, especially those who are under the 80% area median income (AMI).

Recently, California’s Housing and Community Development department (HCD) released their numbers for state income limits determining who qualifies for certain housing programs. For a four-person household, the income limits for Placer County are $120,800 and for Nevada County are $124,600. TTCF program director Kristina Kind said it was the first time she’d seen that Nevada County’s limit was higher than Placer County’s.

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Allow me to introduce my pet jay, “Huckleberry,”

Who believes he is a Missionary…

Born in 2017 on the deck here at Layne Haven,

He has always believed he is part Raven,

And Lo! he’s even fond of quoting Poe!

When Huckleberry and three siblings were ready to fledge,

I spread a sleeping bag beneath their tall ledge,

Hitting the bag for Huck was a towering win,

while his sisters took it on the chin…

I remember Huck looking up as if to say,

“Wow, thanks!” And we are pals to this day…

He comes by at Happy Hour when I whistle,

“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.”

I give him a Beer Nut, and he says, (you guessed it)

“Nevermore!”

Once he has his Happy Hour Beer Nut,

Huck thinks he’s King Tut,

Throws himself a touchdown dance,

Spikes that Beer Nut and tosses me a grateful glance…

Huckleberry faked his own death once to get my attention.

Feet up, wings out, a sight that needs no further mention,

I shouted, “Huckleberry!” and he jumped up as if to say,

“Hey pal, just in time, got any Beer Nuts for a poor jay?”

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO

May is National Wildfire Awareness Month, and here in Nevada, University of Nevada, Reno Extension, the Nevada Division of Forestry and their partners in the Fire Adapted Nevada Program are launching a new program to encourage residents to volunteer to be “ambassadors” to help their neighborhoods be prepared for the threat of wildfire. 

The goal of the Fire Adapted Nevada Neighborhood Ambassador Program is to help local neighborhood residents serving as ambassadors to provide information to their neighbors and help them prepare for wildfire. Fire Adapted Nevada is a multi-agency initiative that works with neighbors and agency partners to create fire adapted communities.

“Our vision is that our ambassadors will be part of a statewide network of passionate individuals working to connect neighbors with trusted wildfire education, expert partners and resources for mitigation projects,” said Megan Kay, a coordinator for Extension’s Living With Fire Program. “The ambassadors will also serve as key contacts for local firefighting agencies and community preparedness efforts, helping to build stronger, fire-ready neighborhoods.” 

An online informational session will be held at noon, May 7. Those interested in attending just need to register online to be provided with the link for the meeting. Kay said ambassadors will help lead community outreach efforts, access potential funding for larger wildfire mitigation projects, receive support from Fire Adapted Nevada staff to update or create a community wildfire protection plan, and join other ambassadors at workshops and trainings.

“By stepping up to be a neighborhood ambassador, people can make a real difference in wildfire preparedness,” Kay said. “Its great when individual homeowners take action, but when a neighborhood works together, it really improves the chances of the neighborhood surviving a wildfire threat.”

Extension, in collaboration with firefighting agencies and other partners, has developed a myriad of information and resources since the Living With Fire Program’s inception over 25 years ago.

Extension and its partners are encouraging residents to take action to be “Battle Born Wildfire Ready” as part of the collaborative Nevada Wildfire Awareness Campaign this month.

For more information, contact Kay at kaym@unr.edu or 775-336-0231.

– @UNRExtension –

Photo Cutline: The Davis Fire threatened neighborhoods in northern Nevada in September 2024. Photo by Adam Mayberry.

Extension is a unit of the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources engaged in Nevada communities, presenting research-based knowledge to address critical community needs. It is a county-state-federal partnership providing practical education to people, businesses and communities. For more information on its programs, visit extension.unr.edu.

The University of Nevada, Reno, is a public research university that is committed to the promise of a future powered by knowledge. As a Nevada land-grant university founded in 1874, the University serves 21,000 students. The University is a comprehensive, doctoral university, classified as an R1 institution with very high research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Additionally, it has attained the prestigious “Carnegie Engaged” classification, reflecting its student and institutional impact on civic engagement and service, fostered by extensive community and statewide collaborations. More than $800 million in advanced labs, residence halls and facilities has been invested on campus since 2009. It is home to the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and Wolf Pack Athletics, maintains a statewide outreach mission and presence through programs such as the University of Nevada, Reno Extension, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Small Business Development Center, Nevada Seismological Laboratory, and is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Through a commitment to world-improving research, student success and outreach benefiting the communities and businesses of Nevada, the University has impact across the state and around the world. For more information, visit www.unr.edu.

Contact: Claudene Wharton
Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist
College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources
University of Nevada, Reno / MS 0405
Reno, Nevada 89557-0404
775-784-7072
whartonc@unr.edu

Originally Published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 05/09/2025, Written by Katelyn Welsh

Transportation challenges, litter, and user impacts are lake-wide issues that some believe Nevada Senate Bill 420 might have one answer for. SB 420 would establish an act that allows local businesses to create business improvement districts, BIDs for short, in the Tahoe area of Nevada.

The establishment of a BID could manifest in an extra 5-10 cents on your $10 beer or slice of pizza, however, that percentage would then go towards community needs as approved by local businesses.

“It’s really taking local control over issues and opportunities that are in front of us,” Andy Chapman says, president and CEO of Travel North Tahoe Nevada, a proponent for the bill and the destination management organization for the Washoe County portion of Lake Tahoe.

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When space and time interface it’s a wonder to behold. I call it spatial temporal interfacing. Tangible time, time that is perceptible to the senses, is a spectacle. This perception came to me twenty-six years ago while overlooking the Lake of the Sky from the vantage point of Rifle Peak on a crystal-clear Tahoe day when I could survey almost the entire circumference of the lake. 

I fixed my focus on the distant shore and imagined I was attached by a string to the center of the Earth and could spin around the globe faster and faster until I was propelled ahead of real time. It was only for a few seconds, twenty maybe, but that was enough to cause me to tremble like a leaf on a Quaking Aspen. I then had to gather myself before taking a few unsteady steps through a heavy gravitational wave before resuming my daily run.

Fast forwarding twenty-six years, it happened again last night while I was portraying Mark Twain. For a few seconds, twenty perhaps, I was consumed by a surge of emotion that told me I was still portraying Mark Twain, but I was no longer me. And whoever I was, I was no longer in the Pacific Time Zone…

I considered sitting down and requesting a timeout to gather myself, but forged on with the flow of the story, and was able to muddle through without a second spell. Today, however, I was still on borrowed time so to speak, and probably a second or so ahead of yesterday’s real time, when a lady tried to mow me down in a crosswalk, or at least that’s how I perceived it at the time. 

Actually she didn’t see me, but I saw her, and saw what was about to happen if I did not turn myself into Bob Beamon and leap out of harm’s way, which I did. You could not have slipped an ace of spades between my behind and her bumper as she passed me by, which in terms of time might have amounted to a mere second.  In other words, had I not experienced my little time-travel episode of the day before, well, I might be pushing up turnips today where the soil needs enriching.

Not unlike Cicadas, we two-legged animals have internal clocks ticking away in our breasts. How many times have we set an alarm only to awaken one minute before it goes off? Our internal clocks are ticking like that stopwatch on 60 Minutes, synchronized by the orchestral interconnections of all living things within the harmony of the universe.

It might be safe to say that my internal clock skipped ahead a beat, and might have saved me by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin.  Should you be considering resetting your internal clock, may I humbly recommend Rifle Peak overlooking the Lake of the Sky for your synchronization.  And I look forward to seeing you, in the distant future…

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO

Originally Published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 05/08/2025, Written by Zoe Meyer

As snowmelt turns to streams and wildflowers begin to bloom, Lake Tahoe’s summer soundtrack comes alive. From major headliners at the lake’s biggest venues to free weekly concerts in the park, here’s your no-fuss, easy-to-navigate guide to live music around the lake this May, June, and July.

Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival – Sand Harbor

• Jumping Jack Flash (Rolling Stones Tribute) – July 7
• Reno Philharmonic: Icons – July 14
• Reno Jazz Orchestra: Tribute to Quincy Jones – July 21
• The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA – July 22

Music on the Beach – Kings Beach
Fridays, June 13–Aug. 29, 6:30 p.m.

• Suika T & Band – June 13
• Peter Joseph Burtt & The King Tide – June 20
• Coburn Station – June 27
• The Blues Monsters – July 3
• Jimbo Scott & Yesterday’s Biscuits – July 11
• The Sam Chase & The Untraditional – July 18
• Wolf Jett – July 25

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