The 2011 Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival is slated for April 23 from 11am to 5pm at the Village at Squaw Valley.

This all-ages, community sponsored event gives participants an opportunity to learn about recycling/composting, alternative energy, sustainability, watershed and forest health, and reducing ecological footprints via a diverse array of agency representatives and earth-friendly vendors. It is the largest eco-event in the North Lake Tahoe/Truckee area. More than 6,000 people attended in 2010.

Live music, kids’ activities and fun for everyone help to make this the largest environmental event in the Lake Tahoe area.

Tahoe Maritime Museums’ 3rd annual Launch into Summer party is May 28 from 5-8pm.

For more information, contact Patty Williams at patty@tahoemaritimemuseum.org or (530) 525.9253, ext. 102.

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the Federal Technology Center to host a workshop titled Responding to Requests for Proposals on March 10 from 9am-noon.

This is for owners or managers of a small business who would like to expand their sales or services to the government and need ideas.

This event is free and open to the public. It will be at the chamber office, 169 Highway 50, Stateline.

Pre-registration is required — go online or call 866.382.7822.

UC Davis’s Tahoe Environmental Research Center in partnership with the Tahoe Expedition Academy will host the sixth annual Science Expo. The Science Expo features interactive experiments and demonstrations for children grades 3–6 (ages 8–12) and their families.

The Science Expo is open to the general public on the evening of March 16 from 4–6pm at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village.

Ice cream will be provided by Susie Scoops of Incline Village and UC Davis TERC. Admission is free.

The 2011 Science Expo will showcase 20 hands-on investigations that explore Earth Science concepts such as:

* Erosion

* Atmospheric Processes

* Fossilization

* Astronomy

* The Properties of Rocks and Minerals

* 3-D Geographic Visualizations – Bathometry and Topography.

Interest in the event has grown tremendously. Last year, nearly 700 people, students and parents, participated in the Science Expo. The event is hosted annually and operates according to a three-year cycle; thematic emphases include Earth Science (2011), Life Science (2012), and Physical Science (2013).

This year, students from Tahoe City, Kings Beach, Incline Village and South Lake Tahoe will be attending during the school days of March 16-18. High school students participating in the Youth Science Institute will facilitate science investigations with the younger students in the community. Lake Tahoe School middle school students and parents in the community will also participate. UC Davis Americorps volunteers and docents will also be staffing some of the activity stations, however, additional volunteers are still needed.

If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering, contact volunteer coordinator Mary Danahey at (650) 743.2309 or email marydanahey@gmail.com.

The Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences is located at 291 Country Club Drive in Incline Village on the campus of Sierra Nevada College.

Keith Hansen, former National Intelligence Council official, will be the featured speaker at the Fireside Chat on March 24 at 7pm in Sierra Nevada College’s Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, rooms 139/141.

Given recent WikiLeaks arrests and controversy, Hansen will discuss this topic from a policy and intelligence perspective. Host Andy Whyman will lead this community dialogue addressing the question, “How does a democracy balance the public’s right to know against the need to preserve national security?”

Fireside Chats — a concept that grew out of the Seniors Conversation Café — are an ongoing series of evening discussions with some of Incline Village’s most interesting community members. It represents a partnership between Sierra Nevada College and the IVGID Senior Programs. Refreshments will be served.

Hansen joined SNC’s International Studies program as a visiting professor in fall 2010. He teaches courses on Global Issues and U.S. National Security Issues. Deeply involved in negotiations on the disarmament of nuclear weapons, as well as on a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, he served for more than three decades with the government in military and civilian assignments. In Washington he served in various positions, including as the National Intelligence Officer for Strategic Programs and Nuclear Proliferation, where he supported the treaty ratification and counter-proliferation efforts of various administrations through the intelligence community’s efforts to produce national estimates on nuclear and proliferation issues.

Now retired from 35 years of government service, Hansen is a consulting professor of international relations at Stanford University. He and his wife live in Incline Village, but volunteer with various organizations in the United States and overseas. He is the author of several books about nuclear test bans and intelligence technologies.

For more information on the event, contact Shelia Leijon at (775) 832.1310, shelia_leijon@ivgid.org, or Debi Noonan at (775) 831.1314, ext. 7420, dnoonan@sierranevada.edu.

Tahoe Derby Dames will show off their derby skills at the first Winter Wonderslam on March 25 at Kahle Community Center in Stateline.

This family-friendly event will blend the full-contact roller derby action the Dames are known for with their love of philanthropy. A portion of the event’s proceeds will benefit Steven Rose, a friend of the Tahoe Derby Dames who is battling cancer. In addition, orange ribbon pins will be for sale in honor of Rose at the scrimmage.

For those looking for Tahoe Derby Dames T-shirts, beanies, and stickers to show their support for Lake Tahoe’s only flat-track roller derby league, the Dames will be selling merchandise at the event.

Tickets are $5, and kids under 5 are free with a paid adult. Tickets may be purchased at the event. Doors open at 7pm and the roller derby scrimmage kicks off at 8pm. Refreshments will be available at Kahle, and an after party will be at Brothers Bar & Grill in South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, visit the Dames online.

It’s going to be soggy on the slopes of Lake Tahoe today.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

Publisher’s note: This is reprinted from the January 1974 Lake Tahoe Historical Society newsletter.

By Nancy Felling

Lake Tahoe will soon be in the movies again, according to Lake Tahoe historical Society president Bill Craven. The history of the Tahoe Basin is being filmed as a joint project of the society and David Phillips, a graduate cinematography student at the University of Southern California.

The half hour color and sound presentation will be used by the society as part of its educational program, Craven said.

Filming began last fall and the movie, which will also be used by Phillips in obtaining his master’s degree, is scheduled to be completed this summer.

The movie will be available to Tahoe schools in both California and Nevada for use in conjunction with social studies programs. It will also be available for use by community organization and for showing at campgrounds during the summer.

Another visual aid currently being prepared by the society is a series of slide presentations on the various economic and influential periods on Lake Tahoe’s past. The slide program is being developed by South Tahoe Intermediate School teacher Chuck Lucas. Lucas serves as a member of the board of directors of the historical society.

In keeping with his philosophy that one of the most important jobs of the society is educational. Craven said he would like to see a traveling mini-museum established. He explained that a portable museum could take displays of various aspects of the basin’s past to schools and community centers.

Craven feels there is a possibility that old time residents who have hesitated to make a permanent donation of artifacts to the museum would donate items for a short term traveling display.

In addition to a mobile museum, Craven said the society is looking at other locations for its permanent collection. The Log Cabin Museum opened by the historical society in 1970 is just about outgrown.

In addition, it is impractical to keep the present museum open during the winter. According to Craven, there is a need not only for more display area but also for storage and workroom facilities.

Craven, manager of Fallen Leaf Lodge, said another major obligation of the group is preservation of artifacts and sites of historic importance. He said he would hope that some members of the organization would become specialists in evaluating which aspects of the past are of value and should be saved.

Although the society is unable to finance all preservation projects, Craven believes it should continue to take an active role in obtaining funds for his work.

For example, if the steamship “Tahoe” is ever raised from its water grave, Craven said he felt the society should play some part in it preservation and display.

By Kathryn Reed

Seven positions were eliminated Tuesday night by Lake Tahoe Unified School District’s board of trustees.

Attrition and early retirements will account for most of the positions that won’t exist in the 2011-12 school year.

The surprise on March 1 was the elimination of the NRJOTC instructor. This had not been on the radar of the board during recent budget discussions, though there was an awareness the Navy would eventually cut its funding. With the Navy providing more than 50 percent of the salary, the district could not pick up the rest of the expense. The Navy nixed the program because it wants 10 percent of the student body to be in the program. South Tahoe High has eight students.

The other positions cut include:

• South Tahoe Middle School, 6th-grade teacher

• South Tahoe Middle School, teacher physical education

• STMS, counselor

• Independent Learning Academy, teacher

• Director of Human Resources/Staff Development

• Bilingual Coordinator

For this part of the meeting board members Mike Doyle and Judy Cefalu were absent. Doyle arrived late to the special meeting.

The three in attendance for the whole meeting – Wendy David, Sue Novasel and Larry Green – asked Superintendent Jim Tarwater to bring back a detailed version of what the reorganization of the district will look so they know who will be doing what job.

Questions were brought up about Sue O’Conner, who handles English learners, and what happens with her departure.

Human Resources Director Jim Watson said O’Connor will work a few hours to pay for her health benefits, so it’s not like the position is being eliminated altogether.

“Sue is not going away. She will be able to help us out,” Watson told the board.

CFO Deb Yates said with fewer people it will mean reprioritizing what needs to be done.

“When you talk about reorganization, you look at the duties and pass them out to the administrative team because there is no one else to do it,” Superintendent Jim Tarwater said.

It’s expected the district’s attorney will be in town once a week to handle legal issues that had been handled in house before.

Lake Tahoe Unified needed to cut the positions based on declining enrollment and the threat from the state to keep taking away money. If the June ballot measure does not pass, the ledger will be an even darker shade of red.

In an effort to show its support for the measure, the board passed a resolution Tuesday night in support of continuing with the tax structure that is in place.

Lake Tahoe Unified is not alone in downsizing. Predictions are this will be a record year for teacher pink slips. About 30,000 teachers in California are expected to be notified by the March 15 deadline that their services are not needed for the next school year. This is an increase of nearly 10,000 from a year ago.

If the June ballot measure fails, it will be a $2 billion hit for public schools or $330 for each of the state’s 6 million students. What it will mean for LTUSD is more cuts to people, plus the likely elimination of programs such as class-size reduction, music and physical education starting in 2012-13.

Explore Tahoe Winter Speaker Series continues on March 10 at 6pm with a session on the impacts of water runoff and Lake Tahoe protection.

Kim Gorman joins Robert Erlich from South Lake Tahoe for a stormwater management program to present “Protecting the Watershed.”

Explore Tahoe Visitor Center is located in the Heavenly Village next to North Face retail store.

A special flat rate of $5 is offered in the parking garage after 4pm.

A $5 donation is requested for the program, and refreshments are provided. Information: (530) 542.4637.