In Tahoe, aspens are gold—both figuratively and literally. Known for their “quaking” leaves, these trees turn striking shades of topaz in the autumn, eliciting admiration and delight from visitors and residents alike. Aside from their attractive appearance, aspens are also a rare and valuable commodity in...
Anyone who was in the Tahoe region in August 2019 saw butterflies—lots of them. Insects are good at capitalizing on favorable weather and food availability, and last year, conditions were perfect for California tortoiseshells....
The three forks of the Yuba River have been dammed, mined and plumbed, but their beauty still captivates conservationists and recreationists alike...
What I remember most about that hike near Carson Pass is not the tinseled sparkle of snowmelt streams or the icy dip in a mountain lake. It is what I found growing on a swale of granite that appeared to hold a thimble of soil:...
In a nondescript clearing surrounded by a ring of lodgepole pines stands a monument to the humble origins of a conservation powerhouse. The tucked-away sign—often passed without notice by climbers, runners, mountain bikers and campers—memorializes the initial conservation victory of the nascent Truckee Donner Land Trust,...
On June 9, 2015, the El Dorado County Animal Services received an unprecedented call. They were asked to remove a large rattlesnake from underneath the porch of a home in the Bijou neighborhood of South Lake Tahoe, in the core of the city’s population center....
The effort to keep Lake Tahoe scenic, clear and ecologically sound has been taken up by an army of advocates who are determined to allow future generations to revel in Tahoe’s beauty. Tahoe champions like Jesse Patterson, chief strategy officer of the League to Save Lake...
Replacing one tiny critter that doesn’t belong in Lake Tahoe’s waters with an even smaller one that does could offer promising possibilities when it comes to restoring the lake’s threatened clarity. At iconic Emerald Bay, scientists are studying ways to reduce the abundance of mysid shrimp,...
Problems in Lake Tahoe’s forests have been growing for a long time. Now, those involved in solving them are thinking big. A project that’s the first of its kind for the Tahoe Basin is now being pursued by a broad-based coalition of scientists, land managers and...
I almost made it to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back in 2003. My friend and I had packed up her truck and left our Alpine Meadows home for a long road trip to the Land of the Midnight Sun. She was saying goodbye to...