A park ranger will lead a trek where participants will be taught how to identify some of the most common plants found near Spooner Lake.

On this hike, participants will learn how to tell the difference between the various trees, shrubs and flowers that grow around the lake.

Bring water and wear sturdy shoes or hiking boots. Meet in the upper section of the parking lot.

Dates are June 17 and June 24, 10-11:30am.

Entrance fee of $10 per vehicle. Nevada residents receive a $2 discount. There is no additional charge for the hike.                               

For more info, Spooner.Ranger@gmail.com.

The Placer County Board of Supervisors on June 27 is expected to discuss the possibility of widening Highway 267.

This route links Kings Beach and Truckee.

Part of the county’s capital improvement program calls for increasing the stretch from Truckee to the top of Brockway Summit from two to four lanes.

There is a group of area resident who are against this idea. They have an online petition saying as much.

The petition in part says, “Widening roads is used to justify more development, and more development is used to justify widening roads. This is ludicrous. The solution to the existing congestion at Lake Tahoe is not to create more traffic; more roads equals more cars, more congestion, more pollution, and more danger to area residents.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

These are some of the photographs the Veerkamp family donated to State Parks. Photo/Provided

By Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle

A glimpse into the Placerville area’a extraordinary past emerged last week with a donation of historic photographs chronicling the bittersweet story of America’s first Japanese settlers.

The nearly 150-year-old portraits, which a local family is giving to the state park system, evoke a time when samurai swordsmen and silk traders found refuge from a bloody uprising against Japan’s shogun in California’s Gold Country.

Against an unfamiliar backdrop of mining towns and timber mills, the Japanese refugees built an agricultural community on mulberry trees, tea plants and bamboo shoots. The so-called Wakamatsu Colony didn’t last long, however, owing to drought and a lack of money, but it endures in the history books as an important footnote in California’s cultural evolution.

“Most Japanese believe it was the Plymouth Rock of Japanese immigration,” said Herb Tanimoto, a historian who leads tours of the former colony outside Placerville. “It really opened the door to a much larger influx from Japan.”

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Rob Katz, Vail Resorts CEO, and his wife, Elana Amsterdam, donated $125,000 to B&B 4 Kids.

In partnership with the South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center and Vail Resorts, Bread & Broth’s summer program will ensure South Shore youth have access to food each week by handing out a variety of kid-friendly food every Wednesday morning during the summer break at St. Theresa Church Grace Hall.

It will launch June 21 from 9am-noon, the day after Lake Tahoe Unified School District ends the current school year.

For the past two years, the St. Theresa B&B 4 Kids program has been providing LTUSD K-8 students who struggle with hunger, seven meals and four snacks every weekend throughout the school year. The summer program will extend B&B’s efforts.

Employees from Heavenly and Kirkwood mountain resorts will also be involved with the program by volunteering on Wednesdays to help the B&B volunteers at the food give-away events. The summer B&B 4 Kids program will continue until Aug. 23 when the school year resumes.

Any child up to the age of 18 can come alone, or with their parent or guardian. Food will only be given to parents accompanied by their child.

Highway 50 is open in both directions without controls between Tahoe and Placerville.

On June 8 a mudslide covered a wide section of road at Alder Creek between White Hall and Kyburz. The highway was temporarily closed, then open to one-way traffic with controls.

Doug Veerkamp General Engineering was hired by Caltrans to remove the debris. About 50 truckloads were taken from the site.

With winter-like weather returning today, it’s possible more slide activity could occur in the coming days. For up-to-date road information, click on the state icon on the home page of Lake Tahoe News.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A science center at Zephyr Cove is designed for multiple grade levels. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

ZEPHYR COVE – No books needed. Lake Tahoe is a science lab unto itself.

While students on the South Shore have been taking advantage of learning outdoors through the South Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, a new resource was unveiled on June 9. An Environmental Science Center is now part of Zephyr Cove Elementary School.

“It’s another opportunity for children to learn about the Lake Tahoe Basin,” Principal Nancy Cauley told Lake Tahoe News. “It teaches them how to be stewards of the place they live.”

Getting K-6 students outside to learn has been going on for the past few years on both sides of the state line. The converted classroom will be a resource for ZCES as well as other students in Douglas County, Lake Tahoe Unified and elsewhere.

Water quality, macro invertebrates and bugs are some of the topics students will delve into.

Teachers will be able to access the materials to foster science education in an age-appropriate manner. It’s also hands on.

Next year Whittell High School students may be brought into the fold.

Already on one wall is a do-it-yourself graph charting the growth of the mudsnail and magfly in the basin. It teaches youngsters about aquatic invasive species, while also allowing them to plot the findings in a large-scale visual format.

A mural fills one wall in the science center. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Lisa Kirkman and the Tahoe Art League are responsible for another wall that is a colorful mural of Lake Tahoe. The various fish that can be found in the lake are depicted as well as other wildlife.

With school about to get out for the summer, the room is expected to be put to greater use starting next school year.

“It creates a home base for outdoor education,” Devin Middlebrook with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency told Lake Tahoe News. “They can see, touch and feel. The classroom is for more in-depth learning.”

He was instrumental in getting the grant from the Nevada Division of State Lands Lake Tahoe License Plate Program in 2016 that led to ZCES being able to be part of South Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, which until then had only been for LTUSD students.

Since then science has been growing exponentially at Zephyr Cove. It has been a community effort with parents, teachers, an anonymous donor, grant funding, TRPA, Rotarians and others pitching in to make the on campus lab a reality.

“It’s teaching kids about where they come from,” Middlebrook said.

By Troy Matthews and Barbara Bannar

It is that time of year again. It is time for the youth in our beautiful community to take the big plunge. We, the members of the Lake Tahoe Unified School District board of education, wish to congratulate each and every member of South Tahoe High School and Mount Tallac High School class of 2017 for all their hard work, not just for the last four years, but for the last 12. We are deeply proud of our seniors, and we hope that moving forward you never forget the closeness and care of a community like South Lake Tahoe.

If your path leads you to stay here at the lake, or pursue your dreams elsewhere, never forget your mountain roots. We wish you all the best and are cheering for your every success. As a unified school district, we are charged with full primary and secondary education for all our students; we also celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of our eighth grade class, and welcome you to your next chapter at South Tahoe High.

There are so many exciting things happening at our schools. From the beautiful choral concerts at Tahoe Valley, to the two-way bilingual immersion program at Bijou School, to the nutritional growing domes and mountain academy at Sierra House, and the excellent outdoor education programming at Lake Tahoe Environmental Science Magnet. Both South Tahoe Middle School and South Tahoe High School were once again named AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) demonstration site schools, a major nationwide accomplishment. South Tahoe High School’s athletes had a historic year. Performing arts is also thriving at the middle school and high school with amazing plays and concerts produced each year with tremendously gifted performers.

Recently, South Tahoe High School’s photography students received statewide awards in the CTE California Streaming Photo awards, of which STHS students took two out three statewide awards, and CSU California Through My Eyes Photography awards, of which STHS students took four out of five statewide awards. Just an incredible accomplishment. Our community has so much to be proud of from all of our students.

The board wishes to extend a sincere welcome to the new STHS principal, Carline Sinkler. Sinkler comes to us from Herbert Hoover Middle School in San Francisco. There, she led over 85 staff members, collectively engaging and enriching the lives of 1,000 students from a variety of linguistic, economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The school is highly complex as it serves students in two language immersion programs, three performing arts programs, the first STEAM program in SFUSD, AVID Excel, and AVID.

Some of Sinkler’s recent career highlights include ACSA Region 5’s administrator of the year, San Francisco mayor’s principal of the year, SFUSD innovation award (cultivating a culture of creative confidence through design thinking), and SFUSD impact award (increasing outcomes for English language learners). We also wish to thank Chad Houck for his passionate dedication to our students, and wish him all the best in his new endeavor. He will be missed.

Though we as school board members love to celebrate the successes of our schools, we will not ignore our challenges as well. We are continually striving to increase student academic achievement at all of our schools, and we understand we have more work to do. The mental health and wellness of our students will always remain a top priority as we address the often harsh challenges and pressures facing our youth from external sources, including the media and online bullying. We will continue to provide every opportunity for educational success for every single student, regardless of familial income, language, and immigration status.  

The probationary status of STHS’s WASC accreditation took everyone by surprise; we understand and appreciate the concern of the community. In order to give this matter the full attention it deserves, we will dedicate an entire future article to the WASC process and the work that is currently being done to resolve the situation. The district also has a dedicated informational web page on the WASC renewal process at www.LTUSD.org/District. The site is interactive, and members of the community can submit questions. Stay tuned for regular written articles from the LTUSD school board on this and other matters.

We live in a breathtaking and caring community. We have incredible students, and parents, and teachers. We are honored to serve you as members of the school board. Everyone is welcome at regular open school board meetings, typically held the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the LTUSD education center at 1021 Al Tahoe Blvd. at 6pmm. Come by and say “hi,” and let us know what is on your mind during public comment. We wish everyone a safe and fun summer.

Troy Matthews and Barbara Bannar are on the Lake Tahoe Unified School District board of education.

By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP

U.S. household debt reached a record high in the first three months of this year, topping the previous peak reached in 2008, when the financial crisis plunged the economy into a deep recession.

Americans have stepped up borrowing over the past three years, yet the nature of what Americans owe has changed since the Great Recession. Student and auto loans make up a larger proportion of household debt, while mortgages – the epicenter of the financial crisis – and credit card debt remain below pre-recession levels.

Those changes suggest households are still cautious about taking on debt to fuel day-to-day consumption.

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·      The Lake Valley Fire Protection District is hosting the Meyers Community Gathering on June 25 from 11am-3pm at Tahoe Paradise Park. The event will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Angora Fire by focusing on the community’s healing and resiliency. 

·      During the Thursday Live at Lakeview concerts El Dorado boat ramp hours will be open from 8am-1pm. On July 4 the boat ramp hours are 8am-4pm. Regular hours are 8am-6pm, with the last launch at 4:30pm.

·      Become an American Red Cross certified swim instructor at South Lake Tahoe’s community pool this month. For details and to set up the pre-course and swim test, call 530.542.6056.

·      Christopher Joy has been named vice president of hotel and food-beverage for Harrah’s and Harveys Lake Tahoe.

·      Here is the Sierra roadwork schedule from Caltrans for next week.

By Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval on Friday signed a bill increasing the cost-of-living raises for state workers from 2 percent to 3 percent per year.

Senate Bill 368 was amended late Monday by lawmakers to increase the pay hikes, which get passed on to other public employee groups as well.

In a tweet, Sandoval said he was proud to invest in the state’s public employees with the additional pay increase.

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