The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will begin forest thinning operations on National Forest System lands on the west side of Fallen Leaf Lake on Friday.

Operations will take place south of the dam and will move closer to the dam in a couple of weeks.

The Forest Service will issue a forest order to close a portion of the area from 7am until 6pm daily from Aug. 19-Oct. 11 for public safety due to heavy equipment operations and the felling of trees. Hazards may be present even when operations have ceased for the day and the closure is not in effect. Individuals disregarding the closure order may be cited, with subsequent fines or jail time.

The treatment method for this area will be cut-to-length thinning, in which trees are cut and processed on site by a harvester which removes the limbs and tops and cuts the tree into lengths for transport by a forwarder to a landing location. Also, there will be some roadway vegetation and tree clearing off of Cathedral Road to facilitate the access and safety needs for the road.

The forest thinning is part of the South Shore Fuel Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project, which will treat approximately 10,000 acres between Cascade Lake and Stateline.

The black bear and cub that were caught in the Foothill Road area of Carson Valley were released tonight in the foothills of Douglas County near Kingsbury Grade by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

The two bears were caught early Aug. 15. A trap had been set in the area 10 days ago because there were complaints of bears doing damage to beehives.

The mama bear wondered into the trap at about 2am Thursday. But her cub wanted nothing to do with that “den” and decided to stay in a tree with her eye on mom.

This black bear and her cub were returned to the wild tonight. Photo/Provided

NDOW officials tranquilized the female, dragged her out of the trap and placed her under the tree. The cub came down to check on mom. That’s when the little one was tranquilized.

“We’ve used that technique successfully before,” Carl Lackey, biologist with NDOW, said in a statement. “By luring the cub from the tree, we can dart it without the bear falling out of the tree and possible getting hurt or killed.”

Lackey said the female bear was caught years ago in about the same area. She is estimated to be 14 years old.

“We performed aversive conditioning before and she stayed away seven years. We’ll do it again to her and the cub when we release them and they should get the message to stay away from human activity,” Lackey said.

In addition to capturing the two bears, Lackey also is working with the owner of the beehives to strengthen the electric fence that was already in place when the bears first started coming into the area.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

The Dirt on Your Garden Soil is talk that will focus on understanding your garden soil and how to improve it to make your garden more productive.

This is part of a series of talks and demonstrations on gardening in Tahoe presented by the Lake Tahoe Master Gardeners.

The free soil talk will be Aug. 19 at 5:30pm at the demonstration garden at Lake Tahoe Community College.

• The highly regarded Squeeze In restaurants with locations in Truckee and Reno are about to start offering franchise opportunities.

• The Yardbirds original lead guitarist Top Topham has rejoined the band because founding member Chris Dreja is ill. The Yardbirds will be at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe on Sept. 14.

• Squaw Valley and Mammoth Mountain along with other ski resorts in the Mountain Collective are partnering with Protect Our Winters to deal with climate change. POW was established in 2007 by professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones of Truckee to reduce the impacts of climate changes on winter sports.

• South Lake Tahoe author Todd Borg’s latest release “Tahoe Chase” was an immediate Amazon Bestseller in multiple categories in the Kindle Store.

• Due to an illness, Dickey Betts & Great Southern have been forced to cancel several dates including Aug. 17 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

By Neela Banerjee, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — A decade after a vast power outage shut down the Northeast, the electricity grid remains “highly vulnerable” to blackouts because of extreme weather fueled by climate change, a report by the White House and the Energy Department concludes.

Sagging and downed power lines in Tahoe. Photo/LTN file

The Aug. 14, 2003, blackout occurred when an alarm failed in an Ohio utility control room, leading to a cascade of blackouts that affected 50 million people from Michigan to Massachusetts. More recent power outages have been caused by severe weather, such as storms in the East and wildfires in the West.

Between 2003 and 2012, 679 blackouts occurred because of weather events, each affecting at least 50,000 customers. Over the same period, weather-related outages cost the economy between $18 billion and $33 billion annually, depending on the number and severity of events.

Read the whole story

By Sumathi Reddy, Wall Street Journal

It isn’t just the beer that contributes to beer bellies. It could also be the extra calories, fat and unhealthy eating choices that may come with moderate drinking.

A recent study found that men consume an additional 433 calories (equivalent to a McDonald’s double cheeseburger) on days they drink a moderate amount of alcohol. About 61% of the caloric increase comes from the alcohol itself. Men also report eating higher amounts of saturated fats and meat, and less fruit and milk, on those days than on days when they aren’t drinking, the study showed.

Women fared a bit better, taking in an extra 300 calories on moderate-drinking days, from the alcohol and eating fattier foods. But women’s increase in calories from additional eating wasn’t statistically significant, the study said.

“Men and women ate less healthily on days they drank alcohol,” said Rosalind Breslow, an epidemiologist with the federal National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and lead author of the study. “Poorer food choices on drinking days have public-health implications,” she said.

The findings dovetail with controlled lab studies in which participants generally eat more food after consuming alcohol. Researchers suggest that alcohol may enhance “the short-term rewarding effects” of consuming food, according to a 2010 report in the journal Physiology & Behavior that reviewed previous studies on alcohol, appetite and obesity.

Read the whole story

The 4,958-acre American Fire is at 35 percent containment.

Smoke from this fire in the Tahoe National Forest continues to fill the skies east of Foresthill, including the Lake Tahoe Basin, Truckee and Reno.

The fire is about 10 miles northeast of Foresthill in rugged terrain. Because of the heavy fuels in the area and low humidity officials anticipate the fire could continue to grow.

The cause of the blaze that started about 4:30pm Aug. 10 is under investigation.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

There will be a sustainable landscaping workshop on Aug. 27 from 6-8pm.

Tahoe RCD, South Tahoe Public Utility District, and the Master Gardeners will teach people about water-wise landscaping techniques, turf removal and relandscaping ideas, water-saving technology, turf irrigation scheduling and maintenance, healthy yard fertility practices, and more.

The free workshop is at the STPUD office, 1275 Meadow Crest Drive, South Lake Tahoe.

For more info, email Jennifer Cressy at jcressy@tahoercd.org.

Saint Joseph Community Land Trust is sponsoring a workshop on identity theft and fraud prevention Aug. 21.

Sgt. Pat Brooks of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department is leading the discussion.

The class will be at the Douglas County Senior Center on Highway 50 and Warrior Way in Zephyr Cove. The event is free. It starts at 7pm.

For more info, call (530) 541.8930.

The Aces are in their fifth year playing in Reno. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

RENO – It felt a bit like being back at spring training – a warm night that never required long sleeves, grass beyond the outfield fence to sit in, beer prices that don’t break the bank and an intimate ballpark.

Now in their fifth season, the Reno Aces are developing players for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But this year more parallels can be drawn between the Aces and San Francisco Giants than the Aces and Diamondbacks.

Aces  outfielder Brad Snyder signs autographs.

The Aces and Giants both have impressive ballparks. (Walk around each one to take it all in.) Both have interesting food. (The veggie burger in Reno is homemade and yummy, while the mac ’n cheese bites need some work.) Both won their respective championships in 2012. Both are in last place in their divisions this year. (And that probably won’t change.)

Oh, and both can be a ton of fun to watch. The fact that the Aces won 14-3 on Tuesday helped with the fun factor.

But there are major differences as well. Prices are much less expensive at this triple-A ballpark. There is grass seating in Reno. Reno seats 9,100 and San Francisco more than 40,000. The announcer in SF is superb; the one in Reno needs to be replaced. The parks define jumbotron much differently.

While the team from Nashville was winning through the first three innings, the Aces took a commanding 8-3 lead after the sixth. But based on the fans, it would have been hard to know the Aces were winning. Or maybe they were Nashville fans.

(The announcer said there were more than 4,000 in attendance, but that was more likely the number of tickets sold because there were a ton of empty seats.)

It’s the announcer’s job to play fun music and get the crowd into the game if the players aren’t doing it. It didn’t work.

Still, if baseball is the main reason to be at the ballpark, then an Aces game is the place to be. There are future Major League players on the field and some who want a return trip to the Bigs. Eugenio Velez who used to race around the bases as a Giant was playing the other night — and still running fast — but for the Nashville Sound now.

Grass seating beyond the outfield.

The Aces’ season ends Sept. 2. There are six home games left, including tonight. And as the days tick away, more transactions are likely to occur. On Wednesday, pitcher Blayne Weller was transferred to Hillsboro, outfielder Tony Campana was recalled by Arizona, outfielder Ryan Stovall was transferred from Visalia and pitcher Tyler Skaggs was optioned to Reno.