By USSA

MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN — Putting pressure aside, after a crash on his first run, David Wise of Reno went huge on his final run and nailed it, scoring a 94.4 for the win at the VISA U.S. Grand Prix, FIS World Cup and platinum AFP event on Sunday.

The win was the third consecutive victory for Wise and also his third major of the season.

On the women’s side, Brita Sigourney of Carmel placed her own bookend on the freeskiing series with a top finish. She was also the winner of the first event of the season in Copper Mountain, Colo.

Canada’s Rosalind Groenewoud finished second and Maddie Bowman of South Lake Tahoe was third.

Bowman collected her sixth straight podium of the season.

Following Wise was Canada’s Noah Bowman with a 92.0 and France’s Benoit Valentin with a 90.0.

Yater-Wallace and Wise have been battling for the top position in the Association of Freeskiing Professionals World Ranking lists. The win moves Wise to the top with Yater-Wallace in the second slot.

El Dorado County this month began the Best Rx Savings Program for all county residents, as well as residents of the Sacramento region.

By using the free card, residents will be able to save up to 75 percent off generic medications, with overall average savings more than 40 percent across brand and generic medications combined.

No personal information is required to obtain the card. Tear-off brochures featuring two ready-to-use El Dorado Best Rx Savings Cards are being available at various locations throughout the county.

Residents can also print an El Dorado Best Rx Savings Card by going online or calling 877.684.0032.

El Dorado Best Rx Savings Cards are already available at county offices including Health & Human Services Agency offices (public health, senior centers), veteran services, and library branches.

No tax dollars are used to make the El Dorado Best Rx Savings Card available. A public-private partnership between El Dorado County and Envision Pharmaceutical Services makes the discounts possible.

By David McGrath Schwartz, Las Vegas Sun

Gov. Brian Sandoval will travel throughout Nevada to promote a new effort to get residents to take vacations within the state, a sort of “buy local” program for tourism.

Sandoval and Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki announced the “Discover Your Nevada” program at a Reno park last week.

Nevada tourism officials want residents to vacation in the Silver State. Photo/LTN

“The point is to encourage Nevadans to get out and explore our own state,” said Sandoval.

The state’s Commission on Tourism is asking residents to submit their favorite places throughout the state, which will then be voted on at the commission’s website.

Read the whole story

Will Richardson of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science will speak about Winter Wildlife Survival: Strategies for the Tahoe Basin on March 8.

The 7pm event at Emerald Bay Physical Therapy is sponsored by the Tahoe Area Sierra Club.

Have you ever wondered what Tahoe’s animals do for the winter? Do Tahoe’s bears really hibernate? Exactly what is hibernation, anyway? Where do the frogs go? What about the birds, squirrels, and insects?

This talk will present an overview of the strategies used by Tahoe wildlife for enduring long Sierra Nevada winters, and highlight many fascinating examples of how these strategies are employed.

Emerald Bay Physical Therapy is at 812 Emerald Bay Road, South Lake Tahoe.

Truckee Donner Land Trust is one of Sunset magazine’s 2012 environmental award winners.

Independence Lake won in the category of best lake or lakeshore preservation. As an award winner, the Land Trust joins the ranks of the most creative and effective environmental organizations in the West.

William Thauvette, president of the Land Trust, in a statement said, “Independence Lake was on and off the market for 50 years before it was purchased from NV Energy by The Nature Conservancy and the Land Trust. To receive this award really illustrates how important our work is in the northern Sierra.”

Independence Lake, considered to be one of the finest pristine sub-alpine lakes in the West, supports California’s last wild and self-sustaining lake populations of threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout.

In the 1970s, Disney Corporation planned on building a mega-modern ski resort and complex on the ridges and bowls encircling the lake. Disney had plans for a four-lane highway from the current turn-off to Sagehen Field Station on Highway 89. Mt. Lola, Carpenter Peak and other peaks were to be connected via gondolas and chairlifts.

Independence Lake would have been ringed with marinas, piers and docks leading to vacation homes and estates. Plans included a golf course, equestrian center, hotel, condos, hundreds of miles of roads, parking for 2,500 vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial development to accommodate visitors to the new resort.

The lake was again threatened by development in 2002 when the property was nearly sold to a Silicon Valley icon.

Today, visitors can enjoy the lake’s day use facilities, which include, picnicking, swimming, mountain biking, hiking, wildlife viewing, and fishing. A fleet of boats and kayaks offered by the Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy are available for free to visitors.

The 2012 Environmental Awards are featured in the March 2012 issue of Sunset magazine.

On March 16, the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Achievement Awards Ceremony and Film will be at Mo’s Place in South Lake Tahoe.

Awards will be given in four categories for the years 2010 and 2011 to those who have significantly contributed to the advancement of bicycling in the Tahoe region.

The free event starts at 7pm.

Following the award ceremony the mountain bike film “Lifecycle” will be shown.

A benefit to raise money to protect Washoe Meadows State Park will be March 12 from 4-9pm at Lake Tahoe Pizza Company.

Fifteen percent of sale will go to the Save the Park Fund.

Tahoe Cool Water will provide the music. There will also be a cash-only silent auction.

Lake Tahoe Pizza Company is at 1168 Highway 50, South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, email washoemeadowsinfo@yahoo.com.

Will Richardson of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science will speak about Winter Wildlife Survival: Strategies for the Tahoe Basin on March 8.

The 7pm event at Emerald Bay Physical Therapy is sponsored by the Tahoe Area Sierra Club.

Have you ever wondered what Tahoe’s animals do for the winter? Do Tahoe’s bears really hibernate? Exactly what is hibernation, anyway? Where do the frogs go? What about the birds, squirrels, and insects?

This talk will present an overview of the strategies used by Tahoe wildlife for enduring long Sierra Nevada winters, and highlight many fascinating examples of how these strategies are employed.

Emerald Bay Physical Therapy is at 812 Emerald Bay Road, South Lake Tahoe.

By USSA

MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN -– Olympians Louie Vito of Sandy, Utah, and Elena Hight of South Lake Tahoe won Saturday’s halfpipe, concluding the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain.

Vito was crowned series champion while the women’s runnerup Kaitlyn Farrington of Bellevue, Idaho, won the women’s series title. It was a sweep for the U.S. women and men with Hight scoring an impressive 92.8 followed by teammates Farrington and Ellery Hollingsworth of Darien, Conn. For the men Greg Bretz of Mammoth Lakes finished second and Luke Mitrani of Breckenridge third.

• Lake Tahoe locals receive free admission to the Tahoe Maritime Museum in Homewood on March 10 and April 14.

• Since setting goals in 2008 to reduce energy consumption at its ski resorts, Vail Resorts says it has reduced energy use by 10 percent, and plans to cut use by another 10 percent by 2020.

• Spin-A-Yarn at the South Lake Tahoe library is Wednesdays 5–7 pm through May and the first Saturday of each month. This is an informal gathering of knitters and crocheters. All ages and experience levels are welcome.

• Here is the weekly roadwork schedule from Caltrans for the Sierra and El Dorado-Tahoe.

• The Truckee Donner Land Trust this month put in a bid to buy the 3,000-acre Royal Gorge property on Donner Summit.