winter

Join Sierra Strings of Tahoe for a morning of music, ushering in winter and the holiday season on December 3, 2016 at 11:00 a.m This locally celebrated group will enchant you with a variety of songs. Free and open to all ages, light refreshments provided.

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Dear Community,

Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless (TCH) would like to thank Caesar’s Foundation and Harrah’s & Harvey’s Lake Tahoe for their support. In September the Caesar’s Foundation awarded TCH with a $10,000 grant to operate the South Lake Tahoe Warm Room. These funds will help provide overnight refuge from the elements to individuals and families experiencing homelessness in the winter months. Additionally, the Harrah’s Employees Reaching Out (HEROs) were very helpful in our pilot season by providing volunteers and donating supplies.

It's that time of year again when the U.S. Forest Service resumes their prescribed burns in the Lake Tahoe basin to reduce fuels in sensitive areas.

Fire restrictions have not been lifted in the basin yet, but it is not uncommon for the Forest Service to conduct operations while those restrictions are still in effect according to Lisa Heron of the USFS Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

Golden Bear Events is holding their second annual Winter Bazaar and Health Fair will take place at the Inn by the Lake Events Center in South Lake Tahoe on Saturday, November 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Admission to the event is free, and each attendee will receive a free door prize ticket.

Vendors will offer a variety of specialty food, candles, home decor, jewelry, art, books, and other gift items for holiday gift giving or home decorating. Health tips and services will also be offered. Drawing prize tickets will be available for purchase for some amazing gifts baskets.

10/16/16 update 7:00PM - The Little Valley Fire is holding at 3,400 acres with 55 percent containment. 667 personnel remain on the incident. More rain forecast tonight which will aid in extinguishing the fire which started on Friday.

22 residences and 17-outbuildings were destroyed with 480 homes saved in the direct vicinity of the fire. Multiple structures remain under threat until 100-percent containment has been achieved.

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10:00PM update - Current acreage burned in the Little Valley Fire has been revised at 3,400 acres with 20 percent containment this evening.

Shoppers and swappers are invited to head to Meyers Community Foundation's 3rd annual Gear Swap on Sunday, October 16 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Westgate parking lot adjacent to the Divided Sky and Downtown Cafe.

For those wishing to sell their quality summer and winter gear, drop off times are from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. They would like to have outerwear, skis, snowboards, bikes, paddle gear, climbing gear, camping equipment, and other outdoor toys. They ask that no equipment over five years old be brought for sale.

Nevada wildlife biologists released a three-plus year old male black bear back into the forest near the top of Mt. Rose Summit on Monday morning after capturing him Sunday in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe.

Nevada Department of Wildlife trapped the young bear while attempting to trap another bear that had caused damage to a building, according to wildlife biologist Carl Lackey. The bear that was captured and then later released Monday wasn't the bear Lackey was looking for.

Lackey says that NDOW had handled the released bear once before in the mountains east of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

California State Parks is looking for volunteers to help them prepareEd Z'Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park for winter. They are holding a work day on October 26 from noon to 3:00 p.m.

Help prepare the park grounds for the approaching winter. Projects may include raking the lawn, weeding in the native plant gardens, and laying new grass seed.

There will be free limited overnight camping for volutneers. If interested in camping, email parkchampionstacy@gmail.com.

All volunteers will be rewarded with a card for a free Chipotle burrito.

Homeowners in the Lake Valley Fire Protection District (LVFPD) area are encouraged to take advantage of their free curbside chipping service through the month of October.

The chipping crew is still actively responding to requests and will be available through the month as long as conditions permit.

All lanes of US 50 through the Cave Rock tunnel are now open to traffic, almost a month ahead of schedule on the $6 million traveler safety and roadside water quality project.

Since May, drivers have had to utilize a single lane of traffic in each direction through one side of the tunnel.

The contractor, Q&D Construction, will earn an extra $300,000 for completing early. Their contract gave them $15,000 for each day prior to the deadline they completed early, with a maximum of $300,000, which they earned.

With winter just around the corner, Harrah's and Harvey's are starting to gear up their staffing needs. They will be holding a job fair on Thursday, Oct. 13, from noon to 4:00 p.m.

They are looking for fun, friendly people to join the team in several areas and are looking for cooks, kitchen stewards, beverage servers, hotel front desk, security officers, food servers, wardrobe clerk, retail clerk and baristas to name a few. .

The hiring event takes place at Harvey's bus reception lobby, located adjacent to the employment office at the rear/southwest entrance of the hotel.

The South Lake Tahoe Endowment has $50,000 to give away to community groups, and are encouraging qualified applicants to apply for grants up to $5,000 each before the deadline of October 15.

At the Lake Tahoe Summit last month, we saw the power of what we can accomplish when we work together. Progress over the last two decades was showcased when President Obama made his first-ever visit to Tahoe and said conservation and restoration efforts like ours are more important than ever as the nation works to adapt to a changing climate and create a more resilient environment.

South Lake Tahoe’s regional adult education network, ADVANCE, will debut a Culinary Boot Camp to help this fall, rolling out its first-ever workplace skills program to align with the beginning of the winter hiring season.

Fall is a time of transitional beauty in the Sierra Nevada - from fish to foliage, winter coats, and lower sun angles, the landscape takes on new colors and appearances. Explore the nature of these transitions with Conservation Biologist Will Richardson from TINS. Learn why so much of the landscape changes color, the mechanisms behind those changes (for example, how and why leaves change color), and a bit about the nature of color and visual perception. Dr. Richardson will of course also show you great places to observe these colors in the Tahoe region.

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South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County police, deputies and CHP officers from the west and east slopes of the county joined together over the holiday weekend to participate in "Avoid the 6," a zero tolerance for impaired driving campaign. Their efforts netted 55 offenders for the deadly drime.

There were roving DUI saturation patrols to find the impaired drivers.

Tahoe Youth & Family Services and the Girls Project would like to say the warmest "Thank you" to the generous donors that contributed to the Girls Project to better help equip girls to meet their future with integrity, self-awareness and will allow this special and much needed program to continue and to grow.

The donations from these amazing community businesses and private donors will allow this program to buy supplies for crafts, snacks, educational field trips but most importantly, help these 150 girls to become future women leaders not only in Lake Tahoe but in our society.

The annual SnowGlobe Music Festival is here to stay, at least for now.

During Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting, promoter Chad Donnelly went before the elected officials, asking them for a three year extension of the annual festival until 2019 (though they would ultimately like a deal until 2027), and more money from the City to help with the costs of garbage pick-up and transportation for the three-day event which runs from December 29-31 each year.

What the City gave him was not quite what he was asking for as he got more cash, but less time.

Millions of people visit our region each year, and the shoreline is where most of them go to enjoy the beauty and the cold, famously clear water of Lake Tahoe.

The shoreline is also where a challenging mix of planning issues converge: Protecting the environment and our lake’s awe-inspiring scenery, managing recreation access, and respecting private property rights.

Despite near average rainfall in much of Northern California this past winter, 60 percent of the state remains in severe or extreme drought. Groundwater basins and many reservoirs are badly depleted as the state’s drought grinds into a fifth year. Those living in, and visiting, South Lake Tahoe, have enjoyed higher water levels to view, boat and recreate in.

Author Mark McLaughlin will speak on his book, Snowbound! Legendary Winters of the Tahoe Sierra, in a free presentation at the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park on Sunday, July 10, at 10:00 am.

Mark McLaughlin’s latest book is not about meteorology, however it is about weather. In his book, McLaughlin focuses on the top ten biggest winters in the Tahoe Sierra based on snowfall measured at Donner Pass since 1879. He will share amazing weather facts and incredible stories of men and women struggling to cope against some of the most powerful storms on Earth.

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Her name in on the list with Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Von Miller, Cam Newton, Kyle Busch and Roger Federer. South Lake Tahoe's Jamie Anderson was nominated this week by ESPN for a 2016 ESPY as "Best Female Action Sports Athlete."

Heavenly Mountain Resort has created Epic Discovery Kids, a program offering free access to Heavenly’s new Epic Discovery summer activities to 2,000 kids from Lake Tahoe schools and non-profits as well as regional non-profits.

Not only have the Girl Scouts from Troop #143 been helping fill bags of food all year for the Bread & Broth 4 Kids program during the whole school year, they also presented the non-profit with a $250 gift card to purchase food with for local children in need. They raised the money from selling Girl Scout cookies this past winter.

The fourth and fifth graders wanted to earn their Bronze Award and decided they wanted to find a community service project that would help other kids and found the Bread & Broth 4 Kids a natural choice.