Thursday will be the last day of operations for the Northstar and Homewood boat inspection stations. Boat inspections and decontaminations will still be available at the Alpine, Spooner and Meyers stations until Sept. 30.

On Oct, 1, Tahoe boat inspections will move to select launch ramps and winter hours will begin. Tahoe RCD inspectors will be stationed at Cave Rock and Lake Forest boat launches from 6am to 4pm seven days a week, weather permitting. Boats with attached Lake Tahoe wire inspection seals and valid Tahoe inspection stickers will be permitted to launch during these times, but any new inspections are required to take place during daylight hours.

Hot water decontaminations will be available through the month of October from 8am to 3pm for watercraft that are not clean, drained and dry. Additional fees may apply for the decontamination process.

Boats with intact inspection seals will still be permitted to launch at Sand Harbor, Obexer’s and Tahoe Keys Marina, but no inspections or decontaminations will take place at these locations.

Inspection and boat ramp hours are weather permitting, and may be delayed or closed during winter storm conditions.

By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

For the first time, California anglers and hunters can file required harvest reports online rather than by mail.

The California Department of Fish and Game has unveiled a new Internet service that allows hunters and fishermen to report how many fish they caught or results of deer or bear hunts.

The data is required for certain wildlife species to help state officials manage populations and set harvest quotas in future years. But until now, it could only be submitted by the hunter or angler using forms or tags sent in the mail. Fish and Game officials say the new system is faster and easier, though reports can still be submitted by mail.

Such reporting is required for species including bear, antelope, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, abalone, lobster, steelhead and sturgeon. In many cases, regulations require reports for these species to be submitted even if none were taken.

The new service can be found online. Hunters or anglers must enter their name, date of birth and driver’s license number. Then they will find an option to enter harvest data.

The Lake Tahoe Marathon Optimist Kids Fun Run is Sept. 29 at Pope Beach.

Runners 13 years old and younger from all over the country are invited to participate. The distances range from one-eighth mile for those 5 years and under to 1½ miles for the 12-13 age group.

All runners will receive a medal, free hot dog and drink. Free registration starts at noon and the first races begins at 2pm.

For more information, contact Terry Powers at (530) 544.5025.

More than 100 Northstar employees and their family members participated in the third annual Vail Resorts Echo Day, partnering with the Truckee River Watershed Council to donate their time to work on a section of the Truckee River Legacy Trail.

Participants worked Sept. 8 to remove invasive weeds, install irrigation, mulch, and reseed the area with native plants.

Each year, local nonprofit organizations are invited to submit projects to be considered for Echo Day. The project was selected by resort employees as an opportunity to give back to the community. Vail Resorts gives a cash grant to the nonprofit to help cover the cost of tools, supplies and more for the project.

The Truckee River Watershed Council focuses on collaborative solutions for the protection, enhancement and restoration of the Truckee River Watershed.

The Tahoe Resource Conservation District wants to teach all boaters, anglers, paddlers, swimmers and water-lovers! how and why to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species.

Asian clams, zebra and quagga mussels and invasive weeds like Eurasian water milfoil are just a few of the plants and critters that currently threaten your local waters.

These pests could cost millions to the local economy and irreparably damage our environment, affecting everyone in the region.

Staff from Nevada Department of Wildlife will be discussing the NV Watercraft Decal program that will go into effect Jan. 1.

The meeting is Sept. 26 at 6:30pm at REI Reno, 2225 Harvard Way.

Registration is open for the 2012 Tara Llanes Classic at Northstar on Sept. 29-30.

TLC offers cross country, super D and industry cup (a team event for anyone working in the mountain bike industry) events, as well as a Shimano kids race and a screening of “Where the Trail Ends”, a Red Bull media house and freeride entertainment feature-length film by Derek Westerlund.

First held in 2007 to help Tara cover her medical costs after a crash left her paralyzed from the waist down that ended her 15-year racing career, the TLC now raises funds for spinal cord research and for mountain bikers who have suffered life-altering injuries.

In 2011, the event raised more than $40,000 for a variety of groups, including the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, the Center of Restorative Exercise and the Tara Llanes Road to Recovery Fund. The Tara Llanes Road to Recovery Fund provides injured mountain bikers financial grants for equipment, rehabilitation, and long-term disability assistance. The event raises funds through sponsorship, registrations fees, retail sales and a successful raffle each year.

Event descriptions and registration information may be found online.

By Pat Bridges, Snowboarder

On Sept. 12, snowboarding pioneer Tom Sims passed away after suffering a heart attack. Tom’s legacy looms large for anyone who has ever aspired to achieve a sideways descent down snow-covered slopes.

Born Dec. 6, 1950, in Haddon Field, N.J., Tom has often relayed the story of how he conceived of and created the first snowboard while only 13 years old in his junior high school woodshop class.

After traveling to the West Coast, Tom was introduced to surfing and skateboarding and eventually relocated to California and became immersed in what is today known as the action sports lifestyle, going on to create Sims Skateboards and sponsoring Lester Kasai, Jeff Phillips, and Christian Hosoi.

During the early 1980s as the founder of Sims Snowboards, Tom took the initiative of lobbying an apprehensive ski community to allow snowboarders on their hallowed slopes. Given the litigious paranoia of the era, this was no easy task.

Due to the diligence of Tom Sims, Jake Burton, and others, one-by-one, ski resorts began to accept the fledgling sport. According to an interview Tom gave in 1995, “The world has woken up and realized that the best way and most enjoyable way down a mountain is on a snowboard. Prior to 1985, I had to beg a ski area owner to let me on their precious chairlifts. The same guy that kicked me off the hill 10 years ago now begs me for a board for his grandson.”

In addition to his innovative snowboard equipment designs, which include the first kick tails, pro models, women’s specific decks, and folding highbacks, Tom Sims created the world’s first halfpipe of snow at Soda Springs ski area in Lake Tahoe, was featured riding in the opening of the 1985 James Bond film “A View To A Kill,” earned national and world downhill championship titles, and founded one of the most iconic snowboard brands of all time which sponsored influential riders including Terry Kidwell, Shaun Palmer, Chris Roach, Noah Salasnek, Tara Dakides, Marc Frank Montoya, John Jackson, Craig Kelly, Tina Basich, Shannon Dunn, Kurt Wastell, Todd Richards, and an unending list of other notable pro snowboarders.

Nearly five decades after first testing his invention, Tom Sims continued to be an avid snowboarder and the virtues he brought to our sport still ring true. According to Sims, “Riding, just pure riding, is what snowboarding is all about.”

A three-year study in the Lake Tahoe Basin has determined that tilling aged woodchips into the soil is the most effective way to minimize fire risk and preventing erosion.

Integrated Environmental Restoration Services Inc. in collaboration with Tahoe Resource Conservation District, Meeks Bay Fire Protection District, North Tahoe Fire District, and Homewood Mountain Resort, recently completed study. The goal was to find common ground between landscape treatments that are effective at preventing soil erosion and minimizing the risk of fire.

Different materials and practices were used, like pine needles, aged duff, woodchips, composted woodchips, landscape bark purchased in stores, and duff and wood chips tilled into the soil, for erosion and fire risk.

The materials were exposed to a simulated rainstorm. To test for fire risk, materials were set on fire using a drip torch by firefighters and measured for flame height, rate of flame spread and burn temperature of the different materials.

Of all the treatments tested, the study found that mixing 1 to 3 inches of wood chips into soil to a depth of 4 to 6 inches promotes water infiltration.

By Kathryn Reed

“When I took this job three years ago, I was told it was called the Field of Dreams. I think it’s a Field of Nightmares.”

That is what Steve Kolesnik, South Tahoe High School softball coach, told the Lake Tahoe Unified School District board of education Sept. 11.

Consensus was found Sept. 13 about the STHS softball field by a diverse group. Photos/Kathryn Reed

While it may never evolve into what Kolesnik wants, movement came Thursday during a meeting where a diverse group assembled to find consensus. After two hours it was agreed by all in the room that the high school’s physical education program and athletic teams are what matters most when it comes to who uses that field and how it is used.

Also agreed to was erecting a 6- to 8-foot portable fence 200 feet into the outfield and that the staff restroom being built in the concession stand can be used by the public.

LTUSD Facilities Director Steve Morales, at the direction of the group, has been tasked with finding out what the cost of a second restroom, which could contain more than one toilet, would cost. He is also going to evaluate whether putting it next to the concession stand or inside by the restroom under construction or by the portables would be more feasible.

Softball, baseball and tennis have access to the restrooms in the newly built Student Union because they can be locked off from the main building. But there are those who believe walking 140 yards is too far during a game.

It was decided that incorporated into the rental of the field will be the price to erect and dismantle the fence. Mostly likely it will remain up for the high school team from the time snow melts to the third week of June. This will also allow for ASA to finish the spring season.

At the Sept. 13 meeting that was facilitated by STHS Principal Ivone Larson were Morales, Kolesnik, Don Borges (former athletic director at STHS and current PE instructor), Joann Allister (PE, former softball coach), Doug Russell (AD), Julie Cain (PE), Kevin Hennessee (PE), and Marilyn Breisacher (JPA fields committee, ASA softball).

They all signed the paper Larson was writing the agreement on so no one could say later that they disapproved.

Ball field improvements, who uses them and who pays for them has been the subject of much discussion since the South Shore (California side only) Measure R was approved a year ago that changed how Measure S funds could be distributed. Compromise, until Thursday, has been lacking.

Several factors have created the critical mass situation:

• Improvements to the high school softball field – including dugouts, backstop, concession stand, scorekeeper’s booth – were built without the athletic director or softball coach being asked to give input.

• The state Office of Civil Rights involvement because of Title IX equity issues. Those are legally supposed to be resolved this fall – at least a plan for equity is supposed to be completed.

• The Fields Advisory Committee of the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Facilities Joint Powers Authority plays a role because it will recommend to the JPA board how to spend $500,000 in taxpayer money. (This is the Measure R money.) The committee is meeting Monday to discuss funding, but the school district won’t have its request in by then.

• The LTUSD board at the Sept. 11 meeting tabled the item that originally called for $52,300 from Measure R dollars to pay for installation of a PA system, portable outfield fencing, concrete asphalt walkways, and walkway to Student Union. The board told those who spoke about the softball field to get together and come up with another recommendation in time for a special board meeting Sept. 25. (That is how the Sept. 13 meeting came about.)

More issues about the high school field remain outstanding – definitively where batting cages and bullpen go.

And there is no guarantee the fields committee will recommend to fund improvements at STHS or that the board that ultimately makes that decision will do so. The JPA board is slated to meet in January to distribute a portion of the money.

The Office of Civil Rights needs to sign off on plans as well.

——–

Things to know:

• The fields committee next meets Sept. 17 from 4-6pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.

• LTUSD board next meets Sept. 25 at 4pm at the district office.

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The town of Truckee has receive $654,750 in funding from the Bicycle Transportation Account for the Brockway Road Trail.

The Brockway Road Trail would connect two existing Class 1 trail segments which currently terminate at the Truckee River Regional Park (Brockway Road/Estates Drive intersection) and at The Rock (approximately 250 feet northwest of the Martis Valley Road/Brockway Road roundabout).

This trail segment would traverse lands owned by the Truckee Tahoe Airport District (specifically the Ponderosa Golf Course Property) and the Truckee-Donner Public Utility District.

Construction is planned for 2013.