Restoration

The Governing Board of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency today unanimously approved the Tahoe Valley Area Plan the City of South Lake Tahoe created to guide community revitalization and environmental restoration in a district centered around the “Y” intersection of Highways 89 and 50.

UPDATE 7:50AM: Residents around the Dayton area report their power had returned before midnight. No word yet on what the cause of the outage was other than an equipment problem around the Dayton Valley Airpark area.
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UPDATE 8PM: NV Energy reports there are 1,937 customers without power in Lyon County as of 8 p.m.
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More than 2,400 NV Energy customers are without power Thursday night in the Dayton area. The outage began after 5 p.m.

Lyon County dispatch has reported a significant power outage in the Dayton area and law enforcement and fire resources are busy with response to alarm calls and traffic control, said Lyon County Manager Jeff Page.

History shows time and time again our greatest accomplishments at Lake Tahoe are achieved when people work together. In the past, Tahoe was known as a place where unproductive interactions between stakeholders led to a stunning decay in our environment and our economic vitality, creating a region that seemed frozen in time.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on Thursday voiced its strong support for legislation to reauthorize the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act that has been introduced in Congress by Tahoe’s Senate delegation.

Sponsored by U.S. Senator Dean Heller, R-Nevada, along with Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Dianne Feinstein D-California, and Barbara Boxer, D-California, the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act would authorize up to $415 million in federal funding over 10 years to help continue critical environmental restoration work at Lake Tahoe.

The public is invited to attend the presentation of a refurbished automobile to a student veteran at 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 4, at Western Nevada College E.L. Cord Technology Center on the Carson City Campus. A refurbished 2006 GMC Envoy will be presented.

In association with the National Auto Body Council’s Recycled Rides project, WNC’s Auto Body Technology department repaired its second vehicle for donation to a worthy individual. And for the second time, State Farm Insurance donated a vehicle to for WNC to restore. A college committee selected the recipient.

We face some big, daunting environmental restoration challenges here at Lake Tahoe. But helping our environment every day can be as simple as riding a bike, walking, or taking transit. And the hundreds of people who participated in the Tahoe Bike Challenge this June, including many of our employees at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, are showing how big of an impact our individual actions can have.

Thinning of trees for fuels reduction and forest health has resumed on approximately 340 acres of National Forest System lands on the east side of Highway 267 north of Speckled Avenue above Kings Beach, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

If you failed to draw a tag in the main draw or even if you drew a tag but would still love the chance to go on a desert bighorn or bull elk hunt, the Nevada Dream Tag may be just what you’re looking for.

The Nevada Dream Tag Program is a raffle that allows resident and nonresident sportsmen a chance at the hunt of a lifetime while also contributing to Nevada’s wildlife habitat. The tags are similar to other western states’ raffle tags and “hunt of a lifetime” tags.

This week on Nevada Wild, Edwin and Teresa discuss the Nevada Dream Tag, a premier big game hunting opportunity offered through a raffle drawing that benefits habitat restoration.

Guest Dave Cochran, winner of the 2014 Desert Bighorn Sheep Dream Tag tells the story of his hunt of a lifetime.

Guest Tracy Turner of the Community Foundation of Western Nevada who administers the Dream Tag program will provide information on how you can participate in this important program.

Train buffs and dignitaries gathered at the Nevada Rail Road Museum under rainy skies, Saturday for the unveiling of the Glenbrook, a historic locomotive that once hauled lumber from Lake Tahoe sawmills to Spooner Summit.

“Nowhere else can you see an event like this,” said Peter Barton, Administrator of the Division of Museums and History. “We’ve done research before we started restoring, we spent months with historians and researchers. The locomotive has been painstakingly restored, no where else can you find a locomotive that has had so much time spent working on it.”

The Nature Conservancy, working with federal, state and local agencies, as well as a private landowner, are collaborating on a forest restoration project designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, protect onsite and neighboring structures, protect water supplies for people and enhance wildlife habitat near Carson City.

Gold Hill Hotel, Nevada’s oldest operating hotel, established in 1861, and restaurant re-opens May 15 after a three month renovation and remodel of the restaurant, lounge, bar and hotel.

By 1943, it was saved from scrap and donated by the Bliss Family to the Nevada State Museum, where it pleased countless youngsters who crawled all over it outside the museum’s doors on Carson Street for four decades. Restored by the Nevada State Railroad Museum, it is under steam again.

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will resume work on the Carnelian, Incline and South Shore Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration projects in early May. These projects authorize thinning of trees and brush on National Forest System lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin to reduce the risk of severe wildfire and create healthier forests.

The Nevada Division of Forestry will be conducting prescribed burns at Galena Forest Estates within an undeveloped common area, located off of Joy Lake Road, on Tuesday, April 28, and Wednesday, April 29, weather permitting.
Ten acres, with about 30 burn piles, will be burned over the next two days. Signs will be posted on Joy Lake Road and the junction of Joy Lake Road and Mount Rose Highway.

The University of California, Davis and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency recently released their yearly water clarity readings for Lake Tahoe. The good news: Mid-lake water clarity improved significantly in 2014, with an average reading of 77.8 feet. That’s 7.5 feet greater than the average reading for 2013, and almost 14 feet greater than the 64.1 feet measured in 1997, Lake Tahoe’s lowest recorded clarity.

Clarity levels at Lake Tahoe in 2014 showed the biggest improvements in more than a decade, according to researchers Tuesday at the University of California, Davis, who have studied the lake for the last half century.

The improvements are in part due to continuous work from the Lake Tahoe community to lower pollutants to the lake. They were also influenced by the drought, as reduced precipitation meant fewer contaminants flowed into Lake Tahoe, particularly during the summer, when clarity levels were the highest recorded since 2002.

The Nevada Northern Railway, McGill Depot in McGill, Nev., has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Nevada Historic Preservation Office announced Monday. The National Register is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.

The Nevada Northern Railway built the McGill Depot in 1910 in to serve as the passenger and freight hub for the town of McGill during its days as a prominent center of Nevada’s copper mining economy. Built in the Craftsman style, the McGill Depot is nestled against the Duck Creek Mountains in eastern Nevada.

Usually if you were offered the chance at hunting a premier big game species anywhere in Nevada, you would think that’s a pretty good deal. With the Silver State Tag, however, that’s just the beginning.

The Silver State Tag already allows hunters the opportunity to hunt one of four big game species (mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk, Nelson (desert) bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope) anywhere in the state, but this year the winner could also walk away with thousands of dollars’ worth of hunting gear and services.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife named Jennifer Newmark as Wildlife Diversity Division Administrator. The position oversees the division responsible for Nevada’s diverse wildlife heritage through the protection, management and restoration of non-game species.

Newmark has almost 16 years of experience in increasingly responsible roles working with Nevada’s wildlife. In her most recent position, Jennifer served as the Administrator of the Nevada Natural Heritage Program, an independent state agency within the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

UPDATE: NV Energy reports power has been restored to all but 29 customers around Carson City.
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Debris that flew off a roof at the old Copeland lumber building on Stewart Street near the DMV and NDOT buildings in Carson City is causing some problems in the area this morning, including power loss.

Carson City dispatch reports wind scattered a large amount of debris in the area. There are reports of power problems associated with the debris and downed lines, according to Carson City dispatch.

Jim Rackley of Winnemucca, Nev. has won the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioner’s 2014 Wayne E. Kirch Conservation award. Rackley’s commitment to Nevada’s wildlife resources was recognized during the March 20, 2015 Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioner’s meeting in Reno, Nevada, where he received the award.

Rackley was nominated for the award by Nevada Muleys a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the conservation of mule deer and their habitats in Nevada. According to the nomination, in 2014 Rackley had a “very impressive record of time and commitment to Nevada’s wildlife.”

The University of Nevada, Reno Police Services is planning a full-scale active assailant exercise from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, March 19.

The exercise will include agencies from across the region to test the Regional Active Assailant Response Protocol as well as the University’s Active Assailant Plan. With numerous community and regional partners participating, this drill will be the largest in the University’s history.

The State Historic Preservation Office will distribute federal grant funds to nonprofit organizations and local and state agencies throughout the state to support historic building rehabilitation or restoration, public education, surveys, planning and National Register nominations. The funds, supplied by the National Park Service (NPS), come from off-shore oil and gas lease fees.

Carson River Coalition’s Floodplain Management Forum


The Nevada Department of Wildlife Fisheries Division has released a proposed plan to restore the sport fisheries in Comins and Bassett Lakes near Ely in White Pine County by removing northern pike. The plan is available for public comment for 30 days beginning March 5, 2015.

Until the mid-2000s Comins Lake was a premier sport fishery for rainbow and brown trout, supporting up to 35,000 angler days per year. The illegal introduction of northern pike in the early 2000s decimated the trout fishery and angler use is now less than 2,000 days per year.

The Tahoe Fund announced Monday the election of Kevin Marshall, Pete Sonntag and Julie Motamedi Teel to its board of directors. The three new members each bring a strong commitment and love of the Lake to their positions.

They are charged with helping the organization expand its impact by growing support of environmental improvement projects that will restore and enhance the Tahoe environment.

Presented by the Sierra Nevada Alliance, South Tahoe Earth Day Committee and Patagonia South Lake Tahoe, the 10th Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival South Lake Tahoe combines award-winning environmental and adventure films with the energy of local activism. Featured films will include exciting outdoor adventures, environmental battles and inspirational stories of people making a difference. The Film Festival will take place on Thursday, March 26, 2015 at the MontBleu Showroom.

LAS VEGAS — A Utah congressman is reviving an effort to ban online gambling throughout the United States. Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz Utah reintroduced his Restoration of America’s Wire Act bill on Wednesday. The measure wou...

LAS VEGAS — A Utah congressman is reviving an effort to ban online gambling throughout the United States. Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz Utah reintroduced his Restoration of America’s Wire Act bill on Wednesday. The measure wou...