department of wildlife

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Spring is in full swing in the Tahoe Basin and Tahoe black bears are searching for food. Intentional or unintentional feeding of bears results in unwanted bear behaviors, increased human-bear conflicts, and public safety issues as well as fines and possible jail time for violators. Each year, local law enforcement and state wildlife officers respond to hundreds of calls in which bears may pose a public safety threat or are damaging property. In some cases, the bear must be euthanized.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - For the first time ever, the Lahontan National Fish Hatchery will release 5,000 large Pilot Peak Lahontan cutthroat trout into their home waters of Lake Tahoe.

Over three days, the 12"-14" sized trout will be placed in the water, and the public is invited to two of those historic, interpretive stocking events during the Fall Fish Festival at Taylor Creek.

6/4/19 4:00PM Update: Details have been updated in Monday evening's incident on Lake Tahoe. The two people were in a canoe that took on water for unknown reasons about 3/4 of a mile off the shore of South Lake Tahoe. They ended up in the water and were there for about ten minutes before a local boater got to them and pulled them out of the water. The Nevada Department of Wildlife had a boat on the water that reached the group, followed by the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) boat. SLTPD got the pair off the local boater's boat and returned them to El Dorado Beach.

UDPATE 1/13/19 - The second drowning victim has been recovered from Topaz Lake. The recovery efforts resumed today on at 9:00 a.m. by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Marine 7 and search and rescue units, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Specialized Vehicle Unit (SUV) and their HASTY Dive Team, and Wardens from the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

At approximately 1:30 p.m. Marine 7’s ROV located the body of Jesse Gregory, 50, at a depth of 22 feet.

The surviving fisherman, Scott Wise, has recovered and was released from the hospital.

Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (LTWC) is known for their loving care of wildlife from beavers and owls to bears, but an arrival this week is unusual even for the non-profit based in Meyers near South Lake Tahoe.

Thousands of shore and water birds from Virginia, Carson and Swan Lakes in Nevada were recently stricken by Avian Type C Botulism. Most of the ill birds are Avocets and Ibis, and over 100 of them were brought to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care for needed attention.

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) will host the eighth Wild Tahoe Weekend 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on Saturday and Sunday, June 23-24, 2018 at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center, located three miles north of South Lake Tahoe on Highway 89. The weekend event consists of the Native Species Festival on Saturday and the Lake Tahoe Bird Festival on Sunday.

Hello fellow anglers, it is that time of year to celebrate the new year and the Topaz Lake opening day fishing season. On Monday, Jan. 1, 2018 at precisely 6:46 a.m. will be the official starting time for anglers to begin fishing on Topaz Lake.

For those of you driving out that morning, be careful and mindful of other drivers on the road that have might celebrated to much the night before.

On September 15, 2017 the annual Nevada bear hunt season opens, and this year 45 hunters have been issued tags to participate in the season that lasts until December 1, or until the quota of 20 black bears has been met. The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) calls this the "Black Bear Harvest."

In protest of the hunt, a "peaceful, educational" demonstration has been planned by NoBearHuntNV.org and Compassion Works International on September 16 in Reno. Participants will be meeting at the intersection of South Virginia and McCarran in front of Reno Star sculpture at 11:00 a.m.

With recent water tragedies in Lake Tahoe we are republishing this 2016 article.

The most common misunderstanding about swimming in Lake Tahoe is that people can suffer from hypothermia, which leads to death. The real truth is that "cold water shock" will kill much quicker than hypothermia ever will.

"The sudden lowering of skin temperature on immersion in cold water represents one of the most profound stimuli that the body can encounter." Golden and Tipton in Essentials of Sea Survival

A three-year-old female bear was hit by a vehicle early Wednesday morning on SR-28 in the Memorial Point area south of Sand Harbor near Incline Village.

Washoe County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) received a call at 12:40 a.m. by a passing motorist on May 31 of an injured bear lying in the roadway. When deputies responded they found the badly injured bear who was breathing but unable to move.

Jasper, the bear shot by a deputy in Incline Village on Saturday has died as a result of her injuries.

"I am saddened to hear of the passing of the bear from yesterday's incident in Incline Village involving one of our deputies," said Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen. "We appreciate the efforts made by the Nevada Department of Wildlife. The Sheriff's Office will thoroughly review the incident and take whatever measures are deemed appropriate."

It's bear hunting season and that's always controversial. This year, the debate is especially fierce in Lake Tahoe where animal activists are accusing the state of Nevada of trapping bears for hunting.

In the past five years, Nevada wildlife officials have caught and moved more than 20 bears out of the Lake Tahoe area into the desert. The Nevada Wildlife Department says it's got nothing to do with hunting, but its own data raises questions about the timing of the moves.

During the 2014 Kokanee Salmon run at the U.S. Forest Service's Taylor Creek Visitor Center in South Lake Tahoe, many visitors attempted to get a "selfie" with the bears who frequent the area in search of Salmon. This disregard for both the bear's safety as well as the public's prompted USFS officials to issue warnings and threat to close the area.

"Swim Smart, Swim Safe: know the dangers of cold water" is the message coming from agencies responsible for boating and water safety on Lake Tahoe, especially after the recent deaths in the lake of two healthy men.

Drowning incidents from boating, paddling and swimming often share the same cause, "cold water shock," an involuntary gasp reflex caused by sudden immersion in cold water. Swimmers and boaters suddenly exposed to the cold waters of Lake Tahoe may experience rapid breathing, gasping, fainting, muscle failure and immediate risk of drowning.

Nevada Department of Wildlife officials killed a two-year-old bear after it made repeated forays into the Sand Harbor area of Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park.

According to department spokesman Chris Healy the bear displayed troubling behavior that prompted officials to capture and euthanize it.

“It is a tough situation,” Healy said. “Outwardly it looked healthy but the behavior was troubling.”

According to NDOW, the bear entered the parking area at Sand Harbor late Thursday morning. It raided a cooler that was in the back of an open-top Jeep.

A black bear drowned Monday after it was tranquilized by wildlife officials and then ran into a pond in Dayton and slipped beneath the water, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

The bear, an eight-year-old, 300-pound male, was reported to be wandering through the Dayton Valley Golf Club Monday evening, department spokesman Chris Healy said.

Are some bears just born to be bad? Or do they learn from other bears that raid garbage cans, break into cars and homes and eventually have to be killed because they’ve lost their fear of humans?

Scientists have researched this classic debate over “nature” and “nurture” among black bears for decades, from Yosemite National Park in the Sierra to central Florida and the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

A problem-causing black bear that wildlife officials said was becoming increasingly dangerous was killed Tuesday in Incline Village.

The bear, a 9-year-old, 450-pound male, was captured Monday night or early Tuesday morning, tranquilized and subsequently euthanized with drugs, said Chris Healy, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

The bear was determined to be the same one that had been raiding trash, breaking into cars and knocking over fences in the area and was killed as a threat to public safety, Healy said.

A Lake Tahoe woman is suing a longtime bear protection group after she says she got death threats for reporting an aggressive black bear to Nevada authorities, who then killed the animal.

Adrienne Evans, a professional mountain bike racer and high school science teacher, accuses the BEAR League of igniting an ugly social media campaign that turned into a vengeful attempt to run her and her husband out of town. She said she loves bears and wasn't trying to get the animal killed.

Authorities are looking into why a second boat used by the Washoe County Sheriff's Department sank off the shore near Incline Village Thursday.

The 15 year old boat, Marine 10, was brought to Lake Tahoe from it's normal home in Pyramid Lake because it's predecessor, Marine 20, sank off shore in late May.

Normally, Marine 10 is hooked to a trailer at night but was tied to a buoy instead due to the trailer undergoing maintenance.

Both incidents are under investigation.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in the Sierra, Northern California and Nevada. This report is for the week of Aug. 28 through Labor Day. Don't forget, California's second free day of fishing without a license will be Saturday, Sept. 7.

Here’s an advance notice of something very special in the outdoor world that will occur in just a few days: Draw a great big red circle around the date of Saturday, June 8 on your calendar and then plan to have a fun-filled day in the Great Outdoors.

June 8 is Nevada’s Free Fishing Day for the year 2013. On that day, you can fish anywhere you want, and not need a Nevada fishing license or a Nevada Trout Stamp or a Nevada Second Rod Stamp.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California, Lake Tahoe and the Sierra. This report is for the week of Feb. 6-12.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California, Lake Tahoe and the Sierra. This report is for the week of Jan. 2-9: