27 Jun California’s Lurking Lava
California is no stranger to natural disasters. Between earthquakes, mudslides, floods and wildfires, the Golden State had been handed the short end of the stick by Mother Nature countless times....
27 Jun Restoring Lake Tahoe’s Natural Filter
In the decades since the Tahoe Keys housing development in South Lake Tahoe was built on sensitive marshland, it has vexed environmentalists as a problem without an easy solution. The 250-plus-acre area, which once acted as a sort of filter for the meandering Upper Truckee River...
27 Jun Nature’s Calling
Just past the break of dawn in early May, Will Richardson is in the parking lot of Aspen Grove in Incline Village, preparing to lead a group of birdwatchers into the woods. Coming from Truckee, Reno, Carnelian Bay—and even as far away as Oregon—each member...
25 Apr California’s New Wolves Stir Old Divisions
Throughout history, the fate of wolves has been tied to the attitudes and actions of humans. This long history is filled with thousands of years of deification and reverence for the animal, and vicious killing campaigns and demonization that nearly wiped the species off the...
25 Apr Preserving a Wildlife Haven
Less than an hour’s drive north of Lake Tahoe lies the wide expanse of Sierra Valley—a land of endless vistas, marshes, sagebrush, tiny towns and sprawling ranches that have operated for well over a century. It is a place to watch for sandhill cranes and antelope,...
22 Feb A Giant Problem for the King of Trees
It is a clear, crisp day in mid-December, and I am visiting the northernmost sequoia grove in California, located in a remote patch of conifer forest outside the small town of Foresthill. Sunbeams filter through the thick forest canopy onto a thin layer of snow...
06 Dec When Fire Moves Higher
Brian Newman was standing on Echo Summit when the Caldor Fire crested the ridge and moved into the Lake Tahoe Basin on August 30. At approximately 7,382 feet, the summit does not have a reputation as a path for wildfires. Instead, the Sierra pass and its...
06 Dec Thacker Pass: The Crossroads of Lithium, Wild Snow and Sacred Land
Local ranchers call it Thacker Pass. The native Paiute people call it Peehee Mu’huh. We have no clue that this uninhabited expanse of desert land even has a name. It just looks like a good spot to pull the truck off the road for the night...
06 Dec Connecting With Tahoe Through Nature
Spend enough time in Tahoe, and you will undoubtedly encounter opinions about what it means to be a “local.” This designation seems to carry a tremendous amount of weight, at least for some, and the necessary requirements to attain such status is a topic of...
25 Jun The Bravest of All Mountaineers
Humans love to consider themselves “king of the mountain.” But the claim is really just an ego trip. The true king of the mountains in North America is without a doubt the bighorn sheep. Watch a bighorn climb a steep mountain slope, and you’ll see why....