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Clarity levels at Lake Tahoe in 2014 showed the biggest improvements in more than a decade, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, who have studied the lake for the last half century.

The improvements are in part due to continuous work from the Lake Tahoe community to lower pollutants to the lake. They were also influenced by the drought, as reduced precipitation meant fewer contaminants flowed into Lake Tahoe, particularly during the summer, when clarity levels were the highest recorded since 2002.

Learn how to design and install Best Management Practices (BMPs) for homes and small businesses in a series of workshops being presented by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in coordination with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and Nevada Tahoe Conservation District.

Due to limited grant funding, this will be the last year the workshops for both the contractor and the do-it-youselfers will be held. The workshops will also be the last time businesses can qualify for the BMP Installation Service Providers List by having at least one supervisor per business attend.

There was both good and bad news in the message released by El Dorado County today. For the fifth consecutive year, El Dorado County has ranked among the top ten healthiest counties statewide in an annual report by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The "County Health Rankings" report, released on March 25, 2015, ranked El Dorado County 7th healthiest among the 57 ranked counties in California.

Editorial Note: This opinion piece was originally published in the LA Times.

There were more than 1,000 fires in California in 2014 and, because of the current dry conditions, 2015 is expected to be more of the same.

A newly released scientific study highlights the importance of collaborative work to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species at Lake Tahoe, and confirms what many public and private stakeholders have feared: That the invasive quagga mussel, if introduced, could establish in our mountain lake’s clear, iconic waters.

The El Dorado County Superior Court has announced the appointment of Douglas R. Hoffman as Court Commissioner. Hoffman will be based in South Lake Tahoe but will serve in all of the branches in El Dorado County. He will hear all case types, but will specialize in cases involving family law, child support, domestic violence and civil harassment, juvenile dependency and delinquency, traffic, limited civil cases, as well as overflow matters as assigned by the Presiding Judge.

After five years overseeing nearly 40 percent of Utah's land, Juan Palma retires Friday as the state director for the Bureau of Land Management.

While many state and local leaders would rather evict the federal agency from Utah, they don't feel the same way about Palma.

An easygoing leader who was able to navigate the fraught politics of public lands management in Utah, Palma is respected by environmentalists and oil and gas developers alike.

The Lake Tahoe Community College Speaker Spotlight Series continues on Thursday, March 12 at 6 p.m. in the Aspen/Board room inside the library building. In the spotlight will be Serena Caplins, a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Davis, who is studying population biology.

Across the nation, adjunct faculty at colleges will be walking off the job Wednesday in recognition of National Adjunct Walkout Day. In South Lake Tahoe though, full and part-time faculty at LTCC will host a "Teach-In" to educate students and the public about adjunct positions.

From 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., faculty, students and the public will meet in the Main Building's Commons to discuss part-time faculty concerns nationwide, including fair wages, improved job security, and better working conditions.

The Lake Tahoe Community College Writers’ Series proudly presents an evening with novelist Gayle Brandeis and short story writer Dimitri Keriotis on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. in the Aspen Room, inside the library building. The two writers will read selections from their works, answer audience questions, and sign copies of their books, which will be available for sale. This event is free and open to the public.

With the retirement of Nancy Gibson, the U.S Forest Service started the search for her replacement. It was announced Tuesday Jeff Marsolais has been selected as the new forest supervisor for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

California water agencies are on track to satisfy a state mandate to reduce water consumption 20 percent by 2020. But according to their own projections, that savings won’t be enough to keep up with population growth just a decade later.

A 2009 state law requires urban water agencies to reduce per-capita water consumption 20 percent by 2020, compared with use at the start of the century. Most agencies are on track to reach that goal, and have made even more progress thanks to emergency cuts over the past year triggered by the ongoing drought.

Brad Trexell, a former Opera Colorado and San Francisco Opera administrator was appointed executive director for Lake Tahoe SummerFest (www.tahoesummerfest.org), the classical music concert series in August.

The University of Utah ice hockey team won the Pac 8 Hockey Conference Sunday in South Lake Tahoe with a 5 to 1 win over the Oregon Ducks.

Number 1 Utah was evening matched on the ice with Number 3 Oregon, but penalties ended up being the difference. The two had met in the 2013 finals which ended with Utah on top as well, so Oregon was looking for revenge.

A South Tahoe High graduate once again shines, and this time it was on one of the biggest stages. Scott Boyajan, a 1989 grad, was the special effects producer of a Nissan commercial that aired during Sunday's Superbowl.

Boyajan, who graduated from California State University, Chico, works for a52, a Los Angeles and New York based company that specializes in commercial and television film work.

It's a sunny afternoon at Kelly's Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, and Nikki Esquibel is getting stoned. But you wouldn't know it.

The 19-year-old, who has a medical prescription for marijuana, is "smoking" pot with a handheld vaporizer, or a vape pen. It's sleek, black, and virtually indistinguishable from a high-end e-cigarette.

That's the point, says Esquibel. "I use it mostly around my neighborhood. It's easy to hide." The vapor coming from the device doesn't even have much of an odor.

A first-of-its-kind circuit by scuba divers around Lake Tahoe is complete. Now, experts are seeking to understand worrying changes on the bottom of the landmark alpine lake.

Members of the scuba team that 13 years ago reached the wreck of a famous steamer sunk in Tahoe's frigid depths completed the first circumnavigation of the lake by divers in October. Scientists are examining the data collected to understand why some of the lake's tiniest bottom dwellers and the plants they depend on appear to be disappearing at an alarming rate.

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- At first, Loly Garcia didn't have to travel far to her jobs in the chic hotels of this fabled tourist town. She shared a tiny studio apartment with her father, brother and a cousin after arriving from El Salvador more than 20 years ago.

But after she married and wanted a home of her own, she had to drive 23 miles west, past tracts of empty land and vacant mansions whose owners visit only a couple of weeks a year, to the mobile home park where she now lives.

1980 South Tahoe High graduate Dr. Graham Kent from the UNR Seismological Laboratory will give a presentation on ALERT Tahoe in Incline Village on Thursday, January 8.

ALERT Tahoe is a new, one-of-a-kind, fire camera and multi-hazard tracking system that includes smoke investigation, prescribed fire oversight, wildfire tracking, Earthquake Early Warning, and monitoring of extreme weather events. A prototype of the fire camera system is functioning, scoring early successes during the summer of 2014.

Dr. Kent will present on the existing and planned camera system.

Many of us spend January 1 making resolutions and the other 364 days trying to stay resolved to keeping them. In fact, only 8% of people successfully achieve their resolutions, according to research from the University of Scranton. So, here are the top 10 tips for making resolutions and more importantly, keeping them!

1. Set short-term goals for long-term results.

Are you passionate about gardening in Lake Tahoe and would you like to share your knowledge? Like to get your hands dirty> Become a Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Education training series in South Lake Tahoe.

With the onset of cooler temperatures, Lake Tahoe homeowners are encouraged to take advantage of rebates the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and partner jurisdictions are offering to help people replace older, heavily polluting wood burning stoves and fireplaces.

Tahoe In Depth, the environmental newspaper that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency created two years ago to help improve awareness and understanding of lake issues, was recognized with a Silver Spike award at the Sierra Nevada Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America annual awards ceremony on Thursday.
Silver Spike awards recognize the northern Sierra region’s best public relations and communications campaigns, according to Anne McMillin, President of the Sierra Nevada Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.