wildfire

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Living With Fire Program team received the “Great Basin Fire Mitigation, Education and Prevention Award” at the Great Basin Fire Mitigation, Education and Prevention Conference held last month in Boise, Idaho.

You can probably take ‘beach day’ off of your agenda. Spring has been briefly usurped by a blustery chill. Grab a coat and hit the town anyway. The early spring farmers market downtown, the Cops and Kids event at the Sheriff’s Department, and the Annual Relay for Life at Mills Park are still a good time. This weekend is jam-packed full of fun, so take a look at the weekend event summary for your options indoors and out.

SATURDAY:

The Nevada state capital has seen its share of natural disasters and citywide emergencies.

From wildfires to flooding and all-too-common high wind events, Carson City Manager Nick Marano says local government is ready to respond at a moment's notice.

"The city has an emergency operations plan," Marano said. "We've gone through several rounds of modifications to it."

There is an emergency operations center, he said, that enhances communication between public safety and public works departments during local emergencies.

Registration is open for the Northern Nevada Wildfire Awareness Half Marathon and 5K Trail Run in Reno, hosted by University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Living With Fire Program in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and Desert Sky Adventures. All proceeds from the race will be donated to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.

While they provide shade and are considered ornamental landscaping around homes, juniper trees are also highly flammable and are discouraged around homes where there's a high risk threat of wildfires.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Weather permitting, the U.S. Forest Service, the Nevada Division of State Lands and the Nevada Division of Forestry may conduct prescribed fire operations next week beginning Monday, May 2, 2016. 

On the East Shore, operations may take place in the Rocky Point area near Tunnel Creek Road, Montreal Canyon near Spooner Summit and south of Glenbrook near Camp Galilee.

Restoring and conserving our environment at Lake Tahoe means setting our aspirations at the right scale. That’s what the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and many partners are working to do through strategic initiatives to ensure the health of our basin’s forests, streams, and lake, and to improve our communities and transportation infrastructure.

At Lake Tahoe, we know our natural resources are one of our most valuable assets, and that’s why we have worked for decades to conserve and restore them. The natural wonders of the Jewel of the Sierra and the opportunities they afford are why we live here, and why millions of visitors travel here to enjoy the Tahoe Basin each year.

The latest round of funding through the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act includes more than $3 million for projects to help reduce wildfire risk in Lake Tahoe communities.

The Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2015, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, passed the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Wednesday. The legislation, created alongside senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Harry Reid, D-Nevada and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., provides federal, state, and local partners important tools to reduce wildfire threats, improve water clarity, jumpstart innovative infrastructure projects, and combat invasive species.

The New Year is getting off to a phenomenal start with snow falling at Lake Tahoe. It seems long ago since we’ve had snow around the lake, but as California and Nevada continue to grapple with four years of drought and water shortages, the snow couldn’t be falling at a better time.

More than 17,500 earthquakes were recorded in 2015 by the University of Nevada, Reno’s Nevada Seismological Laboratory. That includes the 231 recent quakes in south Reno and the magnitude 4.8 in Caliente that shook Las Vegas in January 2015.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension welcomes Lindsay Chichester to its statewide team of Extension educators. She will begin her new position as Carson City Extension educator Jan. 1.

“I’m thrilled,” Carson City Board of Supervisors Member Karen Abowd said about hiring Chichester. “She’s a local with a vast source of knowledge on agriculture and growing. I also appreciate that she has experience in engaging others within the community, and we look forward to that engagement.”

The Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team, which includes numerous fire and land management agencies in the Lake Tahoe Basin, will begin fall prescribed fire operations as soon as weather conditions are favorable, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

In a training exercise Wednesday, seasonal firefighters joined with recruits and veteran firefighters from the Carson City Fire Department to practice extinguishing wildfire and discouraging its spread.

“By training, we can hone our skills. We work together more efficiently,” said Rodd Rummel, wildland fuels management officer. “Even for seasoned veterans, training is always key to efficient and effective work.”
Crews spent the day at a north Carson home practicing different maneuvers, such as creating defensible space, thinning brush and extending the fire hose.

Carson City Emergency Management and the Carson City Fire Department will host a planning and community hazard mitigation open house and workshop Thursday, marking the 100th anniversary of the historic 1915 Nevada Pleasant Valley earthquake that happened 50 miles south of Winnemucca and considered the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Nevada.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency this week announced and recognized award recipients for its 25th annual Best in the Basin program. The agency created the recognition program to showcase projects that demonstrate exceptional planning, design, and compatibility with Lake Tahoe’s environment and communities.

I think the irony of the Ashley Madison hacking story is probably what prompted me to write this article about personal privacy. While a large number of people desire to keep their personal activities secret, it is amazing to compare the “small number of Ashley Madison users” to the enormous number of us who appear to be conducting much of our lives openly on the web through Facebook and many other sites.

RENO — Federal agencies deciding how to deploy firefighters during one of the West’s worst wildfire seasons are considering a new factor in their deliberations: an imperiled bird that inhabits a vast stretch of sagebr...

San Andreas— A 101-square-mile wall of flames and smoke laid siege to the drought-stricken Gold Country area for a fourth straight day Saturday as an army of firefighters tried to corral California's latest large wildfire.

By late Saturday, the Butte Fire burning in Amador and Calaveras counties had consumed about 65,000 acres, destroyed 15 structures and was threatening another 6,400, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. But firefighters reported progress in battling the blaze, saying it was 10 percent contained despite a thick layer of smoke that kept air tankers and helicopters from flying Saturday.

With the Butte Fire growing to more than 64,000 acres Friday in nearby California foothill counties of Amador and Calaveras counties, fire danger throughout the entire region persists. And with near record high heat stretching into western Nevada through Saturday, the fire danger becomes dire.

Wildfire and invasive species weren't the only topics of this year's Lake Tahoe Summit held earlier this week. The future of transportation at the lake was also addressed with speakers affirming the need for improved roadways and access to alternative methods of transportation.

When Sen. Dean Heller, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and California Gov. Jerry Brown all met up on the shores of Lake Tahoe for their annual Tahoe Summit, attention started with protecting the deep, blue waters of the pristine lake. But this year, attention turned quickly to wildfire.

“Lake Tahoe isn’t going to be blue if the forests are gone,” Graham Kent, director of the University of Nevada, Reno’s Nevada Seismological Laboratory, said. “You actually want to keep the Lake Tahoe Basin green — and protected from wildfires.”

Lawmakers from Nevada and California met Monday on the shores of Lake Tahoe to discuss how to protect a national treasure as it faces continued threats to water clarity, invasive species, wildfire and drought.

Ever since President Bill Clinton held the first meeting in South Lake Tahoe in 1997, the annual focus of the Lake Tahoe Summit is to protect what Mark Twain called "the fairest picture the whole world affords."

Sierra-at-Tahoe will hold a candlelight vigil Wednesday for Michael Hallenbeck of Shingle Springs, Calif. The 21-year old U.S. Forest Service firefighter died Saturday fighting a lightning-caused fire south of Echo Summit.

Known by friends and family as Mikey, Hallenbeck was a Sierra-at-Tahoe employee for the past two seasons and a local firefighter.

UPDATE: Sierra-at-Tahoe will hold a candlelight vigil Wednesday for Michael Hallenbeck of Shingle Springs, Calif. The 21-year old U.S. Forest Service firefighter died Saturday fighting a lightning-caused fire south of Echo Summit. Known by friends and family as Mikey, Hallenbeck was a Sierra-at-Tahoe employee for the past two seasons and a local firefighter.

UPDATE: A 21-year-old firefighter from Shingle Springs, Calif., died Saturday afternoon as a result of injuries received while suppressing a wildfire on the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit in Northern California.
Michael Hallenbeck was a member of Organized Crew 36 on the LTBMU. Go here for the full story.
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The U.S. Forest Service reports a wild land firefighter died Saturday night after being struck by tree in a remote area in the Lake Tahoe area. The following is from Forest Service spokesman Stanton Florea:

Thick smoke has moved into the Carson City, Carson Valley areas this afternoon. There is no single fire contributing to this, rather many large wildfires and wildfire complexes in northern California, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

The map showing the ongoing fires is courtesy of CalFire. The air quality is now moderate (yellow shading in the image courtesy of Airnow.gov) and those with smoke sensitivities should try to limit prolonged outdoor exertion.

An updated Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan will be presented to the public during the Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit on Monday, August 24.

This new Community Wildfire Protection Plan was collaboratively developed by the 18 member organizations of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team and is the culmination of a three-year planning effort.

Smoke from the Lowell Fire and Willow Fire will continue to impact Northern California and western Nevada through early Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Reno. West winds will transition to northeast winds on Monday afternoon, allowing for areas of dense smoke to push west of the Sierra crest.