North Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Douglas fire protection districts, California State Parks, and the U.S. Forest Service plan to continue prescribed fire operations this week.

If conditions are favorable, operations may take place near Sugar Pine Point, Brockway Summit, Incline Village, Glenbrook, Lower Kingsbury Grade, Ski Run Boulevard, Fallen Leaf Lake and Meyers. Operations may continue over the next several weeks, weather permitting.  To receive prescribed fire notifications, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us.

Smoke from prescribed fire operations is normal and may continue for several days after an ignition depending on the project size and environmental conditions. Agencies coordinate with state and local county air pollution control districts and monitor weather conditions closely prior to prescribed fire ignition.

Registration for South Tahoe Adventure Recreation Camps opens May 1.

STAR Camp’s mission is to provide an active, healthy, and safe environment for youth to learn and play by focusing on inspiring a love for the outdoors through authentic Tahoe recreation experiences in the natural playground of the Tahoe region.

The structured programs include a strong emphasis on promoting and recognizing positive behavior, fostering meaningful friendships, and developing children’s self-confidence and leadership skills. 

Camps will begin June 26. Space is limited. Drop-ins are welcome on a space available basis only.

The camps are for those entering grades 1-6.

To register, go online. For more information, call 530.542.6056 or email RecreationInfo@cityofslt.us.

By Kathryn Reed

Knowing why to hit which stroke when and how to execute those strokes are important to becoming a better tennis player.

Dave Nostrant believes what sets his tennis program apart from others is teaching more than just strokes. He adds a bit of philosophy. It’s not just the “how to” but explaining the “why” that differentiates him from so many other pros.

Nostrant has been a tennis pro for decades, but it’s being a student of the sport that allows him to continue to grow. And that growth is then passed on to his students.

He will be bringing his brand of tennis to Tahoe starting in mid-May as he takes over as the head pro at Zephyr Cove Tennis Club.

Dave Nostrant will bring video analysis to Zephyr Cove Tennis Club. Photo/Provided

Nostrant will be offering a variety of lessons for all ages and abilities – from the newbie to veterans of the game.

“With private lessons, something more unique is that I will be able to offer video analysis. This will be for anyone who will work with me consistently over the summer,” Nostrant told Lake Tahoe News. “Video bridges that learning gap. It makes learning so much faster.”

He doesn’t have a set schedule yet, but foresees being at the courts possibly seven days a week, maybe 10 hours a day if there is the demand.

So many pros are like a human ball machine – feed the ball, make the player run and call it a day. This is a good way to stay at the same level. This isn’t what Nostrant is about.

Nostrant learned from one of the greats – Vic Braden. It was Braden who started the tennis college concept. Nostrant uses many of those same techniques.

“I worked for Vic in Germany. I wanted to keep learning. So often in this industry you just work,” Nostrant said. That job led him to St. George, Utah, where he started the Vic Braden Tennis Academy. He then branched out on his own with Court Think Tennis, still based in Southern Utah, but with camps all over the country. In the last week he has renamed it Dave Nostrant Tennis.

(This reporter has twice been to his Utah camps and is a member of Zephyr Cove Tennis Club.)

A welcome party is being thrown for Dave Nostrant on May 27 starting at noon at the Zephyr Cove courts. The Viva La Tennis doubles mixer and barbecue is the club’s season opener for all levels and ages. Match play is free for members, $10 for guests. Memberships are available online or available that day.

Nostrant said it’s having worked with several players from Zephyr Cove that led him to want to pursue working in Tahoe. His contract is for one year, which is a way for both sides to see if it’s a good fit.

“”Dave is passionate about helping adults and juniors improve their tennis. We are lucky to have someone of his caliber as our teaching pro,” Carolyn Wright, president of Zephyr Cove Tennis Club Foundation, told Lake Tahoe News. Wright has been to two of Nostrant’s camps in Utah.

The foundation is the nonprofit group that oversees the six courts in Zephyr Cove through a multi-year contract with Douglas Club.

Nostrant is still a pro in Utah, but with the indoor courts there having been turned into a basketball facility, the summer heat is not conducive to enjoyable tennis.

In addition to his daily job, Nostrant is hoping to put on multi-day camps at Zephyr Cove that would be for locals and out-of-towners. His goal is to resume having camps in multiple locations.

“I would like to train some pros, especially for the junior program. Some pros are accepting to new info and some aren’t,” Nostrant said.

Nostrant is still an avid player, having won the 2016 Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, and the open doubles championship in the 60- to 64-year-old bracket. 

By Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times

Running may be the single most effective exercise to increase life expectancy, according to a new review and analysis of past research about exercise and premature death.

The study found that compared to nonrunners runners tended to live about three additional years, even if they run slowly or sporadically and smoke, drink or are overweight. No other form of exercise that researchers looked at showed comparable impacts on life span.

The findings come as a follow-up to a study done three years ago, in which a group of distinguished exercise scientists scrutinized data from a large trove of medical and fitness tests conducted at the Cooper Institute in Dallas. That analysis found that as little as five minutes of daily running was associated with prolonged life spans.

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Placer County and Truckee are working to secure funding to build two sections of the Resort Triangle Trail Network. This would connect North Lake Tahoe and Truckee. 

Truckee and Placer County are jointly submitting a funding application to the California Federal Lands Access Program for money to build the two multiple-use, paved trail segments. Now about halfway completed, the system will eventually be a continuous 62-miles of trails running from Truckee to Northstar, then to Kings Beach. From there the trail will continue to Tahoe City before returning to Truckee along the Highway 89 corridor.

The proposed trail segments meet federal funding requirements by enhancing public access to federal lands and providing an economic driver for the region.

Placer County’s trail segment will be the continuation of Truckee’s Legacy Trail from the county line west to the intersection of West River Street and Highway 89. This section of trail will include a bridge to cross the Truckee River and possibly a trailhead parking area at the intersection. The Truckee portion will run from the county line east to Brockway Road near the intersection with Palisades Drive.

The estimated cost for both trail sections is $4.75 million. The county and the town would each need to provide an 11.5 percent match to the federal funding for their respective trail sections.

By Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette-Journal

Reno’s bringing out the big guns as it makes its final push to land two major trade shows.

A delegation from the Biggest Little City is set to meet on May 1 with representatives of Emerald Expositions, which operates the Outdoor Retailer and Interbike trade shows.

Getting even just one of the events would be a major coup for Reno.

The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2017 that was held from Jan. 10-12, for example, attracted 1,075 brands and about 20,000 attendees, according to event organizers. Interbike, the largest bicycle trade show in North America, saw an attendance of 22,802 with more than 1,400 brands exhibiting at its 2015 event.

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By Sage Sauerbrey, Moonshine Ink

Two of Truckee/North Lake Tahoe’s nearest west slope Sierra watersheds are on track for a profound change in the coming years, with the planned construction of a 275-foot dam about 45 miles down the road from Donner Summit.

The Centennial Dam project is an effort by the Nevada Irrigation District to create more water storage and combat climate change, and would dam the last 6 miles of publicly accessible, free flowing water on the Bear River.

The dam’s environmental and cultural aftereffects would not only be felt on the Bear River — where it would inundate 25 homes; many important cultural sites for the local Nisenan tribe; a popular campground; and habitat for more than 100 rare, threatened, and declining plant and wildlife species — but also on the South and Middle Forks of the Yuba, which currently lose up to 80 percent of their total volume to diversion canals that bring water into the Bear River watershed.

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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will start releasing pilot peak Lahontan cutthroat trout into Truckee area waters to give Sierra Nevada anglers the opportunity to catch some trophy-sized trout in a year or two. 

Last week CDFW received a shipment of cutthroat trout eggs from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s hatchery complex in Gardnerville. This is the second shipment of eggs in the last two years and is part of a joint effort between the agencies.

The pilot peak Lahontan cutthroat trout is a lake form of cutthroat trout. This particular strain is native to the Truckee River basin and is known for their aggressive feeding behavior and large size. 

Stocking of the sub-catchable size fish from last year’s eggs will begin as early as next week and will continue as the snow melts. Lakes to be stocked include Echo, Fallen Leaf, Donner, Boca, Prosser, Stampede and Webber.

By Jay Caspian Kang, New York Times

In the early 1990s, Bill Bradley, the New Jersey senator and former New York Knick, argued several times in front of Congress that legalizing sports betting would dehumanize athletes and lead to the rampant corruption of children. This was no cynical political crusade; Bradley was a true believer.

Bradley helped push through the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 1992, all but banning sports betting outside Nevada and driving a growing industry that employed hundreds underground.

As it turned out, the country’s millions of sports gamblers didn’t share Bradley’s concern for the sanctity of athletes like Bill Bradley or the children who might grow up to be just like him. In practical terms, the Sports Protection Act has mostly failed, and gambling has effectively grown to be an inescapable part of big-time sports.

Sometime in the next four months, the Supreme Court is likely to decide whether to hear an appeal by Gov. Chris Christie and the state of New Jersey that would essentially let states determine whether to allow sports betting within their borders.

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By Darlene Superville and Jill Colvin, AP

WASHINGTON — Slamming what he called “a massive federal land grab,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing his interior secretary to review the designation of dozens of national monuments on federal lands.

The action could upend protections put in place in Utah and other states under The Antiquities Act of 1906, which authorizes the president to declare federal lands as monuments and restrict how the lands can be used.

The president’s order covered national monuments in California and Nevada.

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