SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – When winter snow blankets the streets of South Lake Tahoe, fire hydrants can disappear beneath the drifts, creating a dangerous gap in emergency response. This winter, students enrolled in South Tahoe High’s Forestry & Natural Resources CTE class have been doing something about it, fanning out across neighborhoods including Gardner Mountain, the State Streets, Tahoe Verde, and Apache to shovel out buried hydrants as part of their work-based learning experience.
The effort is more than a good deed; it’s career training in action. The Forestry & Natural Resources class is part of STHS’s Career & Technical Education (CTE) program, and students who complete the pathway earn credentials and/or certificates related to the field of forestry and natural resources. Through hands-on, real-world experiences like this one, students build the skills needed for careers in forestry, firefighting, and environmental science while directly serving the community they call home.
And the work doesn’t stop when the snow melts. Come May, the class will shift its focus to defensible space projects, another critical component of fire safety in the Lake Tahoe basin. The Forestry & Natural Resource classes and STHS Fire & Fuel Club work hand in hand with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District (TRCD) to assist community members with making their lots safe and with helping neighborhoods achieve Firewise recognition. If you know of any individuals in need of defensible space work or would like more information about leading their neighborhood’s Firewise group, please reach out to Michelle McLean at mmclean@tahoercd.org.
In the meantime, instructor Richard Kinnett wants the community to know that they can help. If you spot a fire hydrant in your neighborhood that needs shoveling, reach out to Mr. Kinnett directly at rkinnett@ltusd.org, and the students will add it to their list.
South Tahoe High School’s CTE programs offer students meaningful, hands-on pathways into high-demand careers, and CTE programs like CTE Tahoe Science I and II (Forestry & Natural Resources) are giving students real-world experience, industry exposure, and a pathway to meaningful careers before they ever walk across the graduation stage.The vision for our CTE programs is that we can send every student ready for college and/or a career in the field.
By Erika Mathews, South Tahoe High School CTE Specialist
