The Amador-El Dorado Unit of CalFire lifted the burn restrictions on state responsibility lands within the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Homeowners may burn their debris piles that have accumulated over the summer.

Door-yard burn permits, aka residential landscape debris burn permits, will still be required until the end of fire season has been declared, but burn permits can be obtained for free at most local fire stations.

Daily CalFire will determine “burn/no burn day status”, so call the burn information line immediately prior to burning — (530) 621.5842.

Safety tips for burning:

• Make sure your pile(s) are no larger than 4 feet by 4 feet in size.
• Scrape a 10-foot wide ring around each debris pile down to bare dirt.
• Have a shovel and water supply (charged hose) close by to use in the event the fire escapes from the pile.
• Make sure an adult is in attendance until the pile is completely extinguished.

By Kade Krichko, GrindTV

As far as X Games gold medalists go, Maddie Bowman is about as unassuming as they come.

The 19-year-old halfpipe skier doesn’t flaunt her accomplishments — two X Games medals and a handful of Dew Tour podiums, to name a few — and in many ways has retained a normal teenage identity. She graduated from South Tahoe High School in 2012 after captaining her school’s soccer team to a state championship, and, just like her classmates, went on to college, in Utah.

But while friends are rushing sororities and organizing pep rallies, the California native has stayed busy by pushing for a spot in the Sochi Winter Olympics — the first Olympic Games to include her sport. She is the face (and signature braid) of a young wave of competitors peaking at just the right time for Olympic success, but remains the coolest of customers on the competition circuit.

We got a chance to talk with her about life these days and what a shot at the Olympics would mean to the young skier with the easy smile. Here’s what she had to say:

You grew up in Tahoe; how did growing up in that community shape who you are today?

Growing up in Tahoe was one of the highlights of my childhood. It is a very down-to-earth and fun community. It has really taught me to appreciate the outdoors and take in every aspect of my adventures—something I learned from all my adventures at Sierra-at-Tahoe and throughout the summer.

Tahoe has also taught me to work very hard for my dreams because it has a very strong and successful middle class. I love where I grew up; it is truly the gem of the Sierra.

Read the whole story

By Brian K. Sullivan, Bloomberg

Snow falling over Siberia is raising the prospect for frigid temperatures in New York come January.

Enlarge image Snow in Siberia

The weather half a world from Central Park can set off atmospheric events that result in icy air descending from the North Pole in December and January, driving U.S. temperatures down and natural gas and heating oil use up, according to Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at Atmosphere & Environmental Research in Lexington, Mass.

“It’s the best winter predictor that we have,” Cohen said in a telephone interview. “We haven’t made a forecast yet, but we’re watching it closely and the snow cover has definitely been above normal so far.”

The more ground covered by snow across northern Europe and Asia at the end of October, the greater the chances of triggering a phenomenon known as the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation. That would flood North America, Europe and East Asia with polar air and possibly erect a blocking effect in the North Atlantic that would bottle up the cold in the U.S.

In September, 2.36 million square kilometers (911,000 square miles) of northern Europe and Asia were covered by snow, according to the Rutgers University Global Snow Lab. That compared with the 1981-2010 mean of 1.5 million.

“It’s running well above normal,” said Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC, a commercial forecaster in Bethesda, Maryland. “Through the last week of September, it’s the highest snow total in Eurasia since 1977.”

Read the whole story

U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews will begin prescribed fire operations in Slaughterhouse Canyon, north of Spooner Summit, on Oct. 30.

The total unit size is 30 acres. Fuels management crews may burn as much of the unit as possible, weather and conditions permitting. Operations are likely to continue through the end of the week.

Because of the project size, a significant amount of smoke may be seen rising from the area. Smoke will be visible on Highway 28 and may be visible on Highway 50.

The Forest Service strives to minimize the impacts of smoke on local communities. Smoke-sensitive residents should consider staying indoors and keeping doors, windows and outside vents closed.

Forest Service staff will post road signs around the areas affected by the prescribed fire, send email notifications, and update the local fire information line at (530) 543.2600, No. 6.

Three black bears caught in west Reno were released into the mountains above Spooner Lake on Tuesday, while a bear in Incline Village on Monday was euthanized by the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

A 2-year-old male black bear was positively identified as the bear that broke into the same house on Friday and Sunday nights. Authorities said it was preparing to break into that same house when tranquilized by a NDOW game warden.

“The bear was euthanized on scene because it was a danger to human beings,” Chris Healy, NDOW public information officer, said in a statement.

On Oct. 28, the bear was observed attempting to break into a locked truck. Initial attempts to scare the bear away were unsuccessful.

“The bear was described as ‘fearless’ by the NDOW game warden at the scene,” Healy added.

At the same time another bear in the area was trapped. The yearling female was released Tuesday afternoon in an area southeast of Gardnerville.

The euthanized bear had been handled once before near Dayton in early October. Three days later it was seen in the Incline Village area.

In October, NDOW has released 14 of the 15 bears it has caught.

The three that were released Oct. 29 were a mama and her two cubs that were caught Sunday night-Monday morning in the Juniper Ridge area off of Mayberry Drive in Reno. Mom weighed about 200 pounds and each cub about 50 pounds.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

This fall the Tahoe National Forest plans 1,200 acres of pile burning and 300 acres of underburning on the Yuba River Ranger District within Nevada, Sierra, and Yuba counties.

Prescribed burn operations will begin this week and will extend through the fall, depending on current and predicted weather.

The planned pile burns are located in approximately 40 administrative sites across the district. Sites likely to be most visible include those along Highway 49 adjacent to Goodyears Bar; near Forest City; along Canon Point Road west of Downieville; west of Alleghany; in the Pendola Fire area; near Cascade Shores; and along Highway 20 east of Nevada City. Underburning will occur along Highway 20 east of White Cloud and north of Camptonville.

For questions regarding these prescribed fires, call Mike Cherry at (530) 478.6253.

American Bill Johnson’s stunning Olympic downhill gold in 1984 is iconic in ski racing, having left an indelible mark in the annals of U.S. Ski Team history. ESPN’s news magazine program E:60 will look inside his story of triumph and tragedy in an episode airing Oct. 29 at 7pm.

Johnson was a maverick who captured the attention of the country in one audacious moment of glory. At the 1984 Olympic Winter Games in Sarajevo, Johnson shocked everyone when, seemingly out of nowhere, he took gold in the men’s downhill, the first time the United States had won the event.

But the glory did not last. The brash American talent insisted on living his life the way he skied – on the edge. Eventually, his performance declined and fame deserted him only to be replaced by personal tragedies.

Johnson spent more than a decade in a futile effort to get back to the top. E:60’s Jeremy Schaap recounts the up and down life of this Olympic hero.

By Ed Fletcher, Sacramento Bee

Built to accompany the long-delayed and never-completed Auburn Dam, the unusually long legs of the Foresthill Bridge has teased parachute daredevils for decades.

With its forest-green deck 730 feet above the American River Canyon, the bridge is the fourth highest span in the United States. The bridge’s height, combined with its proximity to a major population center and an interstate highway, make it an extremely desirable site for BASE jumpers worldwide. (BASE is an acronym for the four categories of fixed objects enthusiasts jump from: Building, Antenna, Span, Earth.)

But while the span was immortalized in the action movie “xXx” in 2002 – with an extreme sport athlete played by Vin Diesel driving a stolen Corvette off the bridge and leaping from the car midflight to parachute to safety – there are very few legal opportunities for real life extreme sport athletes to jump from the span.

That may soon be changing.

Read the whole story

By Lois M. Collins, Deseret News

Parents who want their teens to do better in school might want to send them outside to play hard for a bit. Research from the United Kingdom indicates that moderate to vigorous exercise helps teens academically. And it’s especially good at helping girls do better in science.

The study is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Researchers from the universities of Strathclyde and Dundee said the improvements lasted, “with the findings pointing to a dose-response effect — the more intensive the exercise taken, the greater the impact on test results,” they said in a written statement.

The results are based on a sample of close to 5,000 children who participated in the Children of the ’90s study. That study tracked long-term health of around 14,000 children from southwest England, born in 1991 and 1992.

Activity levels were measured using a device called an accelerometer, worn on an elasticized belt by the subjects when they were 11. The duration and intensity of exercise was examined for between three and seven days. On average, boys clocked about 29 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise, while girls racked up about 18 minutes. Experts recommend they get 60 minutes a day.

Read the whole story

By USSA

SOELDEN, Austria – Four-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City) pulled out a historic win at the Soelden World Cup GS, becoming the first man in history to win three World Cup GS races in a row at Soelden.

Ligety beat out Frenchman Alexis Pinturault by 0.79 seconds to nab his 18th victory and open the Olympic season. Two-time overall champion Bode Miller (Franconia, N.H.) skied into the top-20 during his first World Cup race since February 2012. Teammate Tim Jitloff (Reno) finished 20, right behind Miller.

The course was drenched in sun and became slushy during the first run, but high winds, bumps and variable light made for a more difficult second run.

The start was lowered by 10 gates for both runs due to the high winds.

Ligety will be in New York City on Tuesday to receive the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Olympic SportsMan of the Year Award, a part of the 100 Days Out to Sochi festivities.