By Nicole Raz, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Equipped with new legislation, Nevada is ramping up its workforce training programs.
The Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation aims to boost the number of apprenticeship programs in the state by 10 percent within the next five years.
Nevada is a combined 200,000 jobs short of the national average in five of the state’s emerging target industries.
South Lake Tahoe will be hosting the 2nd annual Public Safety Appreciation Day on Sept. 7 from 5-7:30pm at Lakeview Commons.
Festivities will include a local live band, barbecue, a thank you card making station and blue ribbons to tie around the trees at Lakeview Commons as a visual way to say thank you.
This is a multi-agency event including:
· Calfire
· California Highway Patrol
· Douglas County Sheriff’s Department
· El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department (including STAR and search and rescue)
· Fallen Leaf Lake Fire Department
· FBI (South Lake Tahoe Division)
· Lake Valley Fire Protection District
· South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue
· South Lake Tahoe Police Department
· Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District
· U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
By Rachel Buxton, Colorado State University
As transportation networks expand and urban areas grow, noise from sources such as vehicle engines is spreading into remote places. Human-caused noise has consequences for wildlife, entire ecosystems and people. It reduces the ability to hear natural sounds, which can mean the difference between life and death for many animals, and degrade the calming effect that we feel when we spend time in wild places.
Protected areas in the United States, such as national parks and wildlife refuges, provide places for respite and recreation, and are essential for natural resource conservation. To understand how noise may be affecting these places, we need to measure all sounds and determine what fraction come from human activities.
In a recent study, our team used millions of hours of acoustic recordings and sophisticated models to measure human-caused noise in protected areas. We found that noise pollution doubled sound energy in many U.S. protected areas, and that noise was encroaching into the furthest reaches of remote areas.
· Go online for the latest updates on the Fanny Bridge project in Tahoe City.
· Fourteen artists were selected to use the steel from the old Bay Bridge. One creation will be a miniature train station in Truckee.
· Former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha “Cupcake” Tate on July 29 will be at the Graceland Ballroom inside the Lake Tahoe Hard Rock for the Cormier vs. Jones 2 World Light Heavyweight Championship fight. Tate will do Q&A during fight transitions and take pictures with fans. Tickets start at $40. For more info, go online.
· The $57.14 million loan for the El Dorado County public safety complex in Diamond Springs through the Community Facilities Direct Loan Program has been approved.
· Paul Bancroft of Kings Beach has been appointed to Sierra College’s education board.
The Linkin Park concert scheduled for Sept. 1 at the Harveys Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena has been canceled.
The following is a statement from Linkin Park’s management: “We are incredibly saddened to hear about the passing of Chester Bennington. The Linkin Park One More Light North American Tour has been canceled and refunds are available at point of purchase. Our thoughts go out to all those affected.”
Bennington committed suicide July 20. He was 41.
By Mark Anderson, Sacramento Business Journal
The Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe hotel has opened a luxury perk for guests called the Lake Club on the shore of Lake Tahoe.
The hotel and spa is at the Northstar California Resort, which is mid-mountain at a ski resort in Truckee. The new Lake Club is about 20 minutes away on the lake.
Lake Club adds to the resort’s summertime offerings.
By Brant Allen
If you are one of the many recreational boaters who enjoys wake sport activities, you may be unwittingly contributing to the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS). Be sure to fill and empty your boat’s ballast tanks at least a mile offshore over deep water.
The first line of defense against aquatic invasive species is preventing them from arriving in new water bodies. Once established, it is difficult to prevent their spread and nearly impossible to totally eradicate them. This reality is why the Lake Tahoe Basin enacted mandatory boat inspections for all motorized watercraft recreating on the basin’s pristine water bodies. The strategy is to prevent the spread before boaters launch.
This strategy accepts the common, and often true, belief that once a new species is in a lake it will naturally migrate to, and populate all suitable habitat. However, some water bodies have natural barriers that prevent the movement of certain species within their aquatic realm.
Asian clams began to spread around the Lake Tahoe shoreline in the early 2000s. By casting their offspring (veligers) loose on lake currents, the clam population was able to expand. Soon bright white patches of clam shells could be seen on the sandy bottom along the southeast portion of the lake. Over the following four years the density of clams increased, but their range had approached its natural limit. After 15 years in the lake, the clams remained isolated in the southeast.
Lake Tahoe is unique. Its underwater topography (bathymetry), cold temperature, and large-scale lake currents create a natural deterrent to the lake-wide distribution of organisms unable to propel themselves through its clear water. Steep canyons separate its shallow shelves, and its currents form three counter rotating gyres that turn alongshore motion toward the center of the lake. It is believed the combination of great depth nearshore and Tahoe’s prevailing currents create a natural barrier to Asian clam migration to the north and west shores.
Asian clam veligers need to settle on suitable habitat shallower than 60-feet deep to experience warm enough summer water temperatures to grow and eventually reproduce. Those settling in deeper water will live a long and happy life, but will never enjoy the pleasures of parenthood as the water temperatures are too cold to permit reproduction.
Given that, how did satellite populations of Asian clams end up at the mouth of Emerald Bay and the Sand Harbor State Park boat launch? Recreational boating may inadvertently be the culprit. How is this possible when all boats are inspected prior to entering the lake?
It is believed recreational boats equipped with ballast tanks are responsible for the in-lake transport of Asian clam veligers beyond their natural distribution. About five years ago there was a large increase in wake surfing. The surge in interest was partially due to new boats designed with ballast tanks. After launching, the ballast tanks are filled with as much as 375 gallons of lake water. With this extra weight, a large wake is created, allowing hands free surfing on an endless wave for skilled riders. Once the surf session is complete, the ballast tanks are emptied, rarely in the location where they were filled. It is easy to see how boat ballast tanks may be responsible for moving clam veligers to the satellite locations of Emerald Bay and immediately in front of the Sand Harbor State Park launch ramp, two of the most popular boating destinations on the lake.
While long-established boat inspections are doing their job preventing new species from populating waters of the Tahoe basin, boaters need to be cognizant of in-lake transport and take simple precautionary measures.
Remove and dispose of any aquatic vegetation from your prop, engine intake or keel before exiting the launch or marina. Ballast tanks should only be filled and emptied in the same location or at least one mile offshore. This will keep any hitchhikers over deep water, away from warm shallow habitat. Additionally, the installation of commercially available filters on ballast tank pumps is highly recommended. A joint study by UNR and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency found the filters to be an effective measure against the transport of aquatic species.
So, enjoy the recreational opportunities Tahoe summers afford, but be a responsible boater. Prevent further spread of the aquatic invasive species already in the lake by filling and dumping ballast tanks at least a mile offshore and removing plant material before leaving marina.
Brant Allen is with the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.
By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee
Higher crime rates and electric bills. Crops and laborers wilting in the sun. A new study says California’s economy is going to lose billions of dollars a year to climate change.
But hey, it will be a picnic compared to states like Florida and Texas.
The groundbreaking study, led by two UC Berkeley scientists, says global warming will punish some areas of the country more severely than others. California will suffer, but not as badly as the national average. The situation will be far worse in Gulf Coast states, which can expect to get ravaged by increasingly frequent hurricanes, and areas of the Deep South and Midwest, where agricultural yields will plummet.
By Meghin Delaney, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Changes to the state’s ranking system for public schools will result in many more low ratings, damaging morale among educators and confusing parents, Nevada’s two largest school district say.
“Schools have been working for two years without an updated ranking, now is not the time to change how these rankings are established,” Nicole Rourke, the Clark County School District’s government affairs director, told the state Board of Education last week at its July meeting.
Rourke was referring to changes made by the state Department of Education to the Nevada School Performance Framework, a rating system that rates schools on a scale of one to five stars, with one star being the lowest.
To the community,
The South Lake Tahoe Yacht Club’s sponsor crew had a busy evening at the July 10 Adopt A Day of Nourishment dinner event.
Helping the Bread & Broth volunteers at their sponsorship meal were SLTYC members George and Liz-Ann Hainsworth, Tina Miranda and Joseph and Bonnie Phair. This hardworking team prepared the utensils, bagged food giveaways, served the barbecued chicken dinner, worked the drinks and dessert table, and ended their evening cleaning and putting away the tables and chairs.
The B&B volunteers at the Monday meal really count on the donor organization and their crew to provide the funding and the work needed to prepare the weekly meal setup and serve the 80 to 100 guests that arrive at Grace Hall to enjoy a full-course, nutritious meal. Feeding the hungry in the Lake Tahoe South Shore community is the mission of B&B and thanks to generous sponsors like the South Lake Tahoe Yacht Club, B&B can provide meals and food to take home every week for those in need.
Volunteering in any form can be a very rewarding and humbling experience. So often the volunteer crew members who serve at B&B meals are rewarded for their concern and caring by the gratitude expressed by the meal’s diner guests. Such was Hainsworth’s experience. While serving on the line, the clients were very appreciative. There was a ‘thank you’ from everyone as they passed through the dinner’s serving line.”
Thank you to the SLTYC and its members for improving the lives of others.
Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth