Tahoe Legends 10K/5K Run is June 16 at 8am starting in the Lake Tahoe Community College parking area.
The 5 kilometer and 10 kilometer runs snake through rolling hills, forests and meadows on single track trails and bike paths. Competitors start at LTCC and finish on the track at the South Tahoe Community Sports Complex.
The Tahoe Legends Challenge also pits local fitness clubs in head to head competition for the Fast and Fit Trophy.
Money paid to the federal government by energy companies drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf is helping Lake Tahoe area entities.
It was announced April 6 the national forest system received $41.6 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Regionally the money will go to:
• Eldorado Meadows, Eldorado National Forest: The $1.5 million will be used to leverage non-federal funds to consolidate a checkerboard pattern of land ownership in the Sierra Nevada.
• Sierra Nevada Inholdings, Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests: The $2 million leverages a large land donation to purchase areas threatened by development. Purchase will preserve an ancient petroglyph and conserve meadows, wetlands and streamside areas at the headwaters of the American and Yuba rivers.
• Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, multiple national forests: California, Oregon and Washington will collectively receive $1 million to protect key sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, stretching from Mexico to Canada, as well as migration corridors for wolves, grizzly bears, elk, deer, coyote and moose.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
By Kyle Wagner, Denver Post
Olympic gold medalist and World Cup alpine ski champion Lindsey Vonn said she thinks it’s important for young girls to have “general strength” and be healthy overall, but when it comes to working out and weight-training, moderation is crucial and hard-core weightlifting is unnecessary.
“Push-ups, sit-ups, body-weight squats,” Vonn said, “when they want to and they’re ready.”
Vonn was back home in Vail last weekend to get an MRI on her knee to assess whether she’ll need surgery and to meet with a few of this past season’s participants in the Ski Girls Rock program at Vail Resort that Vonn inspired and designed.
“I love kids,” she said. “They’ve got so much energy and potential.”
Vonn said she wanted to be involved in a program like Ski Girls Rock — which offers ski and snowboard lessons to girls ages 5-15 in groups of no more than four per instructor, with a focus on creating opportunities to bond, build confidence and develop teamwork and social skills — because she thinks that having good role models makes a difference.
One of her idols was fellow World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street, who also was in Vail to help welcome Vonn back.
By Cheryl and Tom Millham
What should you do when a bird hits a window? The first thing to do is to place the bird into a brown paper sack or shoe box and close the container securely.
Get the bird in its container to some place warm and dark. If you have a heating pad, place the container half on and half off of the heating pad and set the heat on low.
After two or three hours, take the bird (and the bag or box) into a bathroom in your house, shut the door and the toilet lid and open the bag or box.
If the bird flies out and around the room, catch it again, take it outside and release it. If it is past 7pm, keep it in the bag (or box) until morning.
If, in the morning, the bird still shows signs of not wanting to fly, hopping around, is holding its head at an angle, or its second eye lid is rapidly opening and closing, then call Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (530.577.2273) because the bird needs additional help — and soon.
Orphaned baby steller's jays brought to LTWC and raised by volunteers. Photo/LTWC
A bird has a high normal temperature. Robins are 106 degrees, hummingbirds are 115 and most raptors (hawks, owls, falcons, etc.) are 104 to 108 degrees. If the bird is allowed to sit in the snow or on the ground for any amount of time, its body heat will drop rapidly.
Birds hide their illness and injuries well. They can appear normal, even with a slight concussion. If you have a window that birds hit regularly, put up a flag or a pretty swirly decoration that twists and turns in the wind.
As always, should you have any questions when dealing with wild birds and animals, please feel free to give us a call at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (530.577.CARE).
Cheryl and Tom Millham run Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care on the outskirts of South Lake Tahoe.
Natalie Vitalie of Incline Village won the April 5 rail jam at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado.
The U.S. Snowboarding Association’s event is an invite-only competition.
On Sunday, Vitalie won gold in the slopestyle event.
The Carson Valley Trails Association needs volunteers this month to work on the Fay-Luther and Genoa Trail systems.
Anyone who is interested is welcome to participate; no previous trail building experience is required. Volunteers must wear long pants, long-sleeved shirt, hiking boots, work gloves and sunglasses. Tools and hard hats are provided. Bring food and water.
Starting April 10, Fay-Luther Trail system work days will be every Sunday and Tuesday from 9am to 3:30pm. Most of the work will be new trail construction of two short reroutes on the Jeffrey Pine Trail. This work is fairly easy and will fix drainage problems. Meet at the Fay-Luther Trailhead on Foothill Road.
Work on Genoa Trail system will connect and complete the Genoa Loop. Work days will be from 9am to 3:30pm. Meet at the end of Carson Street in Genoa. The Genoa Trail system work days are as follows
April 7
April 9
April 12
April 14
April 16
April 19
April 20
April 23
April 26
April 28.
In addition, CVTA will be helping a local Boy Scout troop complete the 0.7-mile East Brockliss Loop near the Whit Hall Interpretive Center at The Nature Conservancy’s River Fork Ranch on April 21, 9am to 3:30pm. Trail work will include clearing brush and building two short boardwalks.
The Carson Valley Trails Association is a nonprofit, volunteer based organization working with partners to provide access to public lands through a recreational trail system for present and future generations to enjoy.
On April 3, more than 200 people turned out at the Tahoe City Golf Course to honor the Bechdolt family and the legacy they have created, and to celebrate the new public ownership of the Tahoe City Golf Course.
The direct descendants of Carl Jr. and Elsie Bechdolt all received special plaques honoring the family’s contributions and legacy to the Tahoe City Community. All funding partners — Placer County, North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, Truckee Tahoe Airport District and Tahoe City Public Utility District — were recognized for their contributions to the acquisition of the golf course property.
The Tahoe City Golf Course is now under ownership of the TCPUD. A five-year lease has been signed with Duncan Golf Management to operate the golf course, bar and restaurant. The nine-hole public course will open when weather permits.
The annual workshops for erosion control best management practices in the Lake Tahoe Basin are April 20 and April 27 in Incline Village and Stateline, respectively.
The workshops train and update contractors and do-it-yourselfers in proper BMP installation procedures for the Lake Tahoe Basin, featuring outdoor presentations, exhibits and activities in addition to indoor lectures.
The Basic Contractors Workshop on April 20 is at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village from 8am to 4:50pm and will focus on how to interpret a BMP site evaluation and install BMPs correctly in order to pass inspection.
The half-day refresher workshop, which reviews BMP installation and provides regulation updates, will be April 27 at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in Stateline from 8am to noon. To enroll in the Refresher Workshop, participants must have successfully completed either workshop within the past two years.
Registration fee for the basic workshop is $35. The refresher costs $25. To register, go online or call (775) 832.4144.
By Brian Nearing, Times Union
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. — Scuba divers will plunge into the chilly waters of Lake George this month to start the second year of a campaign aimed at eradicating the invasive Asian clam before it spreads through the lake.
Last year, after divers put hundreds of plastic mats over a clam-infested, five-acre patch of lake bottom north of Million Dollar Beach, it proved to be 99 percent effective in suffocating clams by denying them oxygen.
But researchers also found a few clams from under the mats that appeared neither alive nor dead, raising questions whether the creatures may enter a kind of suspended animation in cooler water to avoid suffocation, said Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, director of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Darrin Fresh Water Institute.
“This was not something that we had seen before,” she said. For now, such zombie-like clams are being labeled as “inactive” by researchers. “We are hoping that in surveying by divers this spring, we will find out what happened, if those clams eventually died or were able to recover.”
First found in Lake George in the fall of 2010 and likely brought into the lake by unwitting boaters, the dime-size clams excrete nutrients that can fuel algae blooms. The sharp-edged clams can wash up dead by the thousands along shorelines, making it risky to walk in bare feet.
Capable of self-fertilization, clams can release up to 400 young a day during reproduction in May and August.
Rapidly growing colonies can carpet a lake bottom, reaching densities of thousands per square yard. Infestations have spread out of control in Lake Tahoe.
Sugar Bowl Resort will host its annual Golden Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday.
Colored eggs will be hidden throughout the resort and on the mountain; each containing festive Easter candies and clues to the location of the coveted Golden Egg.
The Easter Bunny will be skiing around the mountain, handing out candy, taking photos with guests and will have additional clues to the location of the Golden Egg. The guest who claims the Golden Egg wins a 2012-13 mid-week season pass.