Tahoe City residents were woken up early Thursday morning to the earth shaking.
The Nevada Seismological Laboratory reported a 3.5 earthquake at 12.22am July 26 less than 7 miles from Tahoe City. This was along the West Tahoe-Dollar Point fault.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 444 people felt the temblor, including in South Lake Tahoe, Reno and Grass Valley.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
A motorcyclist died early this morning in South Lake Tahoe.
Officers at 8:20am were still on scene gathering evidence.
The collision between the motorcyclist and vehicle occurred about 6:15am July 26 on Highway 50 near Safeway. Details about the accident and people involved have not been released.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Rocky Beaty
There will be a fundraiser for Nicholas “Rocky” Beaty on Aug. 25 from 3-9pm at Aleworx in South Lake Tahoe.
The 18-year-old fractured multiple vertebrae in a trampoline accident at a local gym in May.
The money will be used for his medical expenses.
Donations may be made directly to El Dorado Savings Bank, payable to “Rocky’s Road.”
At the August event there will be a raffle. To donate or to purchase tickets, call Ron at 530.314.3646.
By Cassandra Moseley, The Conversation
Just six months after the devastating Thomas Fire – the largest blaze in California’s history – was fully contained, the 2018 fire season is well under way. As of mid-July, large wildfires had already burned over 1 million acres in a dozen states. Through October, the National Interagency Fire Center predicts above-average wildfire activity in many regions, including the Northwest, Interior West and California.
Rising fire suppression costs over the past three decades have nearly destroyed the U.S. Forest Service’s budget. Overall funding for the agency, which does most federal firefighting, has been flat for decades, while fire suppression costs have grown dramatically.
Earlier this year Congress passed a “fire funding fix” that changes the way in which the federal government will pay for large fires during expensive fire seasons. This is vital for helping to restore the Forest Service budget. But the funding fix doesn’t affect the factors that drive costs, such as climate trends and more people living in fire prone landscapes.
More burn days, more fuel
Why are costs increasing so dramatically? Many factors have come together to create a perfect storm. Climate change, past forest and fire management practices, housing development, increased focus on community protection and the professionalization of wildfire management are all driving up costs.
Fire seasons are growing longer in the United States and worldwide. According to the Forest Service, climate change has expanded the wildfire season by an average of 78 days per year since 1970. Agencies need to keep seasonal employees on their payrolls longer and have contractors standing by earlier and available to work later in the year. All of this adds to costs, even in low fire years.
In many parts of the wildfire-prone West, decades of fire suppression combined with historic logging patterns have created small, dense forest stands that are more vulnerable to large wildfires. In fact, many areas have fire deficits – significantly less fire than we would expect given current climatic and forest conditions. Fire suppression in these areas only delays the inevitable. When fires do get away from firefighters, they are more severe because of the accumulation of small trees and brush.
Protecting both communities and forests
In recent decades, development has pushed into areas with fire-prone ecosystems – the wildland-urban interface. In response, the Forest Service has shifted its priorities from protecting timber resources to trying to prevent fire from reaching houses and other physical infrastructure.
Fires near communities are fraught with political pressure and complex interactions with state and local fire and public safety agencies. They create enormous pressure on the Forest Service to do whatever is possible to suppress fires, which can drive up costs. There is considerable pressure to use air tankers and helicopters, although these resources are expensive and only effective in a limited number of circumstances.
As it started to prioritize protecting communities in the late 1980s, the Forest Service also ended its policy of fully suppressing all wildfires. Now fires are managed using a multiplicity of objectives and tactics, ranging from full suppression to allowing fires to grow larger so long as they stay within desired ranges.
This shift requires more and better-trained personnel and more interagency coordination. It also means letting some fires grow bigger, which requires personnel to monitor the blazes even when they stay within acceptable limits. Moving away from full suppression and increasing prescribed fire is controversial, but many scientists believe it will produce long-term ecological, public safety and financial benefits.
Professionalizing wildfire response
As fire seasons lengthened and staffing for the national forest system declined, the Forest Service was less and less able to use national forest as a militia whose regular jobs could be set aside for brief periods for firefighting. Instead, it started to hire staff dedicated exclusively to wildfire management and use private-sector contractors for fire suppression.
There is little research on the costs of this transition, but hiring more dedicated professional fire staffers and a large contractor pool is probably more expensive than the Forest Service’s earlier model. However, as the agency’s workforce shrank by 20,000 between 1980 and the early 2010s and fire seasons expanded, it had little choice but to transform its fire organization.
Few opportunities for cost control
Many of these cost drivers are out of the Forest Service’s hands. The agency may be able to have some impact on fire behavior in certain settings, with techniques such as hazardous fuels reduction and prescribed fire, but these strategies will further increase costs in the short and medium term.
Another option is rethinking the resources for wildfire response. While there are almost certainly savings to be had, capturing these savings will require changes in how society views wildfire, and political courage on the part of the Forest Service to not use expensive resources on high-profile wildfires when they may not be effective.
Even if these approaches work, they will likely only slow the rate of increase in costs. Climate change, the fire deficit on many western lands and development in the wildland-urban interface ensure that continued cost increases are baked into the system for decades to come.
Wildfire fighting costs now consume more than half of the agency’s budget, reducing funds for national forest management, research and development, and support for state and private forestry. Even if it doesn’t lower costs, the fire funding fix is vital because it will help create space in the Forest Service budget to fund the very activities that are needed to address the growing problem of wildfire.
Cassandra Moseley is an associate vice president for research and a research professor at University of Oregon.
By Joann Eisenbrandt
“Why should people who live in South Lake Tahoe care about this?”
I have written articles for Lake Tahoe News for many years. Every article had to first pass this relevancy test. Granted, Kae Reed and I have had our disagreements about what was relevant and what wasn’t. We burned up quite a few cell phone towers in the process. However, we have never disagreed about our role as journalists.
Kae viewed Lake Tahoe News as the gatekeeper for the information highway between Lake Tahoe residents and those making the decisions that would impact their lives. She took this role very seriously. It often involved asking the hard questions, not taking things at face value and being willing to dig beneath the surface to find the truth.
Telling that truth sometimes led to acrimonious backlash. Truth and transparency have been in short supply on the lake’s South Shore a very long time. The same small, inbred circle of corporate and governmental power brokers or their hand-picked successors has had control there for decades. This has led to a sense of entitlement and a lack of any real accountability.
It has also led to the failure to effectively solve the core problems that lie buried to this day beneath the lake’s mysterious blue waters. Kae did as much as any single doggedly determined truth seeker could do to bring them up into the light. She told me many times how vital it was that those who lived at the lake had meaningful input into local officials’ decisions. Lapses in protocol and secret back door deals violated her sense of what good government should be. Regurgitating glossy press releases and filling her stories with self-serving quotes was not her style.
On July 31, Lake Tahoe News will cease publication. Kae was a stern editor and taskmaster, but that was a good thing. I am sad my time writing for her will be over. Still, I am even sadder about the gaping vacuum the publication’s departure will leave behind.
“Why should people who live in South Lake Tahoe care about this?”
For the majority of residents, living at the lake can be a day-to-day struggle. Low wages and the lack of affordable housing mean they often must sacrifice what is less important just to hang on. Lake Tahoe News made sure they did not sacrifice their right to be informed about what was really taking place in the city where they lived. I fear the much-needed unvarnished truth that Kae told will be much harder to come by in the future.
By Associated Press
An attention-grabbing pimp’s campaign for the Nevada Legislature has sparked an anti-brothel effort that sex workers fear could spread to parts of the state that allow legal prostitution.
A November ballot referendum is seeking to shut down four brothels in Lyon County in eastern Nevada owned by Dennis Hof, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
Hof, the owner of half a dozen legal brothels in Nevada and star of the HBO adult reality series “Cathouse,” won a Republican primary for the state Legislature last month. Many leading Republicans in the state are shunning his candidacy and he has previously said the anti-brothel efforts are political retribution.
· Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., this week secured the transfer of seven C-130 air tankers for CalFire to use fighting wildfires.
· Steve Teshara has been named president of the California Association of Councils of Governments’ (CALCOG) board of directors. Teshara represents the Tahoe Transportation District on CALCOG’s board and also serves as chair of TTD’s board of directors.
· Truckee is in need of someone to fill a Planning Commission seat that will expire in March 2019. Applications are available online.
· South Lake Tahoe Library will host Jaguar World Music on July 27. The free outdoor show starts at 2pm at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd. Jaguar World Music will play musical instruments from all over the world, including flutes and stringed instruments. Learn about unique Aztec and Mayan flutes while enjoying Andean music. Bring the whole family for this outdoor performance.
· The League to Save Lake Tahoe is having two Eyes on the Lake trainings in August. The first is Aug. 8, 5-7pm in South Lake Tahoe – RSVP here; the other is Aug. 14 from noon-2pm in Tahoe City – RSVP here.
South Lake Tahoe Grocery Outlet’s 8th annual Independence from Hunger Food Drive goes through the end of the month.
It benefits Christmas Cheer and Saint Theresa Catholic Church in their efforts to combat food insecurity.
During the summer, many families lose access to school supported food programs, creating an increased risk for food insecurity. To address this issue, IFH collects food and cash donations in-store across Grocery Outlet’s 300 locations that is distributed directly to local food agencies.
Customers may give cash at the store or purchase a pre-made bag that is filled with an assortment of groceries selected by the local food agency and then place it in a collection bin at the front of the store.
By Gregory Burkard
You may not be familiar with the practice of physiatry, but from sports injuries to stroke, a physiatrist can play an important role in patient recovery. A physiatrist is also known as a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician. Physiatrists treat a variety of conditions related to the musculoskeletal system, which includes bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles. They also focus on the central and peripheral nervous system—the brain, spinal cord, and nerves.
Gregory Burkard
What does a physiatrist treat?
A physiatrist can provide care for many different problems, injuries, and disabilities to restore overall patient function and improve quality of life. Those conditions include the following:
· Traumatic brain injury
· Stroke
· Spinal cord injury
· Amputation
· Burns
· Cardiopulmonary deficits (such as heart attack, congestive heart failure, and COPD flare-ups)
· Musculoskeletal problems
· Sports injuries.
Physiatrists may specialize in areas such as pain medicine, sports medicine, spinal cord injury medicine, brain injury medicine, prosthetics and orthotics, or pediatric rehabilitation medicine, among others. As part of treatment, physiatrists may prescribe physical, occupational, or aquatic therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic care, dietitian services, neuropsychology or psychology care, and pain medications.
Should you see a physiatrist?
You might want to make an appointment with a physiatrist if:
· You have an injury or chronic condition that has resulted in pain or limited functionpedicsandwellness.com.
· You have an illness that has limited your energy or ability to move easily
· You’re recovering from a stroke or other problems related to nerve damage
· Life changes such as childbirth have caused new difficulties in your physical function
· You’re thinking about surgery or you’re recovering from a surgical procedure.
If any of these situations are affecting you or a loved one, a physiatrist will be able to guide treatment to restore function and improve your quality of life. Talk with your primary care provider about a referral to meet with a Barton physiatrist.
Gregory Burkard Jr. practices physiatry at the Barton Center for Orthopedics & Wellness.
Barton Health in August will host Camp Sunrise, a free bereavement camp for ages 7 to 14 who have experienced the death of a loved one.
The grief camp offers education and support through fun-filled activities and programs on the shore of Lake Tahoe. Camp Sunrise takes place Aug. 16-17 at Galilee Camp and Retreat Center in Glenbrook. Registration is open through July 31. Camp Sunrise is offered to children in the Lake Tahoe and Carson region; applications are available online.
Children receive grief education and support including memory exercises, physical activity, honoring ceremonies, and talking circles. All activities including lodging and meals are free for campers.
For questions and more information, call Barton Hospice at 530.543.5581.