Tahoe Forest Health System celebrates $1 Million gift to advance surgical care and patient experience

by n Staff Report Follown editor@tahoedailytribune.comn | Jun 12, 2026 | Uncategorized

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – The Incline Village Community Hospital Foundation is proud to announce a transformational $1 million gift from the Offerdahl Family Foundation in support of the Surgery Enhancement Project at Incline Village Community Hospital (IVCH). This extraordinary contribution, made possible through the generosity and leadership of Richard and Linda Offerdahl, helped the Foundation successfully reach its $10 million fundraising goal.

The Surgery Enhancement Project will improve operational efficiency at IVCH, modernize critical infrastructure, enhance clinical and support spaces, and ensure the hospital is well-positioned to meet current and future community needs. The project will also include the addition of a new patient registration window designed to improve patient flow, increase comfort, and help alleviate pressures created by growing patient volumes.

In recognition of their extraordinary generosity and longstanding commitment to the community, the Incline Village Community Hospital Foundation is honored to name the Patient Registration area after the Offerdahl Family.

“Richard and Linda’s belief in the importance of strong community healthcare is truly inspiring,” said Karli Bunnell, Executive Director of the Foundation. “Their generosity ensures that patients and families will continue to receive exceptional care close to home for generations to come.”

The Offerdahl Family Foundation joins the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation and many generous community donors in making this milestone possible. Richard and Linda Offerdahl’s commitment to local healthcare spans decades and has left a lasting impact on Incline Village. From helping save the hospital following its closure in the 1980s to supporting the expansion of the Emergency Department, their leadership and philanthropy have played a vital role in sustaining and advancing healthcare in the community. Their dedication extends beyond healthcare through their longstanding support of local businesses and organizations, including the Incline Village Crystal Bay Association.

“As full-time residents of Incline Village, we are incredibly grateful to have access to such high-quality healthcare close to home,” shared the Offerdahl Family Foundation. “Our hospital is an essential part of this community, and supporting the Surgery Enhancement Project is an investment in the long-term health and well-being of our friends, neighbors, and future generations. It is so important to us that exceptional care continues to remain available right here in our community.”

Truckee-Tahoe – Pet of the Week: Danny

by Special to the Tribune | Jun 12, 2026 | Uncategorized

Looking for a loyal companion with a big heart and an even bigger personality? Meet Danny, a sweet and affectionate boy who is ready to find a family of his very own.

Danny is a smart dog who loves learning new things, especially when treats are involved. His eagerness to please makes him easy to train, and he enjoys working on new skills and building confidence with positive reinforcement.

While Danny can be a little nervous when meeting new people, he simply needs a bit of patience and a gentle introduction. Once he realizes he’s safe, his goofy and lovable personality quickly shines through. In fact, Danny is quite the conversationalist and isn’t shy about sharing his thoughts once he feels comfortable!

This handsome pup enjoys going for walks, playing with his toys, and spending time with other dogs. He would thrive in a home that can offer consistency, understanding, and continued training to help him continue blossoming into the confident dog he’s meant to be.

If you’re looking for a devoted best friend who will make you smile every day, Danny just might be your perfect match. Come meet Danny and discover why everyone who gets to know him falls in love with this special boy.

If you are interested in meeting Danny or learning more about him, please get in touch with one of HSTT’s Adoption Specialists, 530-587-5948 or adoptions@hstt.org. He is neutered, vaccinated, and up to date on his vaccines. To view more adoptable pets or to learn more about the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, visit, www.hstt.org.

New stars join 2026 American Century Championship lineup

by n Staff Report Follown editor@tahoedailytribune.comn | Jun 12, 2026 | Uncategorized

STATELINE, Nev. – The lineup of stars just got brighter for the American Century Championship with an influx of first-time NFL participants featuring All Pros Drake Maye, New England Patriots quarterback, and Kyle Hamilton, Baltimore Ravens safety, plus a trio of head coaches: Mike Macdonald of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, Robert Saleh, new head coach of the Tennessee Titans, and Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings.  

NBA star Payton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics and former coach Doc Rivers will also be making their initial appearances, as will four-time NHL All Star Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators. Brett Young, country music singer and songwriter adds to the entertainment side of the celebrity ledger, while sportscaster Sean McDonough enhances the media component.

The 37^th annual American Century Championship, celebrity golf’s most popular tournament with more than 80 sports and entertainment superstars, is July 8-12 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course and aired on NBC Sports. The three-day, 54-hole event includes a $750,000 purse, with $150,000 going to the winner, plus a charity component for local and national non-profits.

The tournament’s “rookies” will join favorites Stephen Curry, Charles Barkley, Jason Kelce, Nate Bargatze, Colin Jost, Tony Romo, Miles Teller, Ray Romano, Rob Mac, Larry the Cable Guy, Anthony Anderson and Jack Wagner, who along with Jim McMahon, are the only two players who’ve competed in every tournament.

Current NFL stars include Baker Mayfield, Davante Adams, Trevor Lawrence, and Kyle Juszczyk. Hall of Famers feature soon-to-be-enshrined Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Charles Woodson, Brian Urlacher, DeMarcus Ware, Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Marcus Allen and Dwight Freeney. Drew Brees is also making a tournament comeback since his last appearance in 2007. 

Defending champion Joe Pavelski returns along with top players Annika Sorenstam, MLB Hall of Famer John Smoltz, former Red Sox pitcher Derek Lowe and NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen.

For fans looking to take in the action, daily general admission tickets and week-long Grounds Badges are available online at: www.eventbrite.com (Tickets are only available online through the official American Century Championship channel.)

Tickets for Wednesday’s and Thursday’s Celebrity-Amateur play are $50 each day with Tournament rounds Friday, Saturday and Sunday at $60 daily. A Grounds Badge for all five days – Wednesday through Sunday – is just $175, a savings of $105. The number of daily tickets is limited with Friday/Saturday sellouts typical, so fans are encouraged to act now to secure their spot among the stars. All ticket purchases will be online in advance – same day tickets will not be available at the gate.

For active duty and retired veterans, a limited supply of complimentary tickets for one person plus a guest for either Wednesday or Thursday rounds is available beginning April 1, two tickets maximum. Visit https://acc.spinzo.com for instructions.

The 2026 American Century Championship will utilize the Modified Stableford format whereby points are awarded by score per hole. Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, a George Fazio design, has been rated by Golf Digest Magazine as one of “America’s Top 100 Golf Courses.”

American Century Investments, the title sponsor of the championship since 1999, continues its role in partnership with NBC Sports, theLake Tahoe Visitors Authority, Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course and the South Tahoe community. The tournament’s host hotels are Caesars Republic (formerly Harveys) and Harrah’s along with community partners including Bally’s, Golden Nugget and Margaritaville. American Century Investments offers $1 million for an ace on No. 17 during the three competitive rounds split with the Stowers Institute for Medical Research; Mastercraft Boats will be offering a $325,000 X24 speedboat for an ace on No. 12, Friday through Sunday (Jimmy Rollins sailed home last year with an ace and Tim Brown, the former Raiders wide receiver, also won a boat in 2024), and Travis Mathew provides giveaways, interactive games and items for purchase. For a list of all 2026 tournament sponsors: americancenturychampionship.com.

Since its inception in 1990, the American Century Championship has donated more than $8 million to local and national non-profits.

For the latest details, photos, celebrity tweets use #ACCgolf and follow @ACChampionship on Twitter and Instagram, and Facebook. For tournament information and updates: AmericanCenturyChampionship.

For destination information, accommodations, and events explore: VisitLakeTahoe, Facebook, Instagram use #VisitLakeTahoe #AweandthenSome to share posts.

Stay Informed. Stay Protected. 

by Sponsored | Jun 12, 2026 | Uncategorized

Southwest Gas employees and authorized contractors may need to access your property as part of the essential work required to safely deliver natural gas. Whether entering a yard or knocking on your door, this access is often necessary, even without a scheduled appointment, to inspect, maintain, or upgrade utility-owned infrastructure that supports safe and reliable service for your home and community. 
 


To further support safe and reliable service, Southwest Gas owns and is responsible for maintaining all natural gas infrastructure up to the meter on a customer’s property, while anything beyond the meter is the customer’s responsibility. Understanding this distinction can help clarify why employees or authorized contractors may need to access your property. 
 


Because this work can sometimes bring individuals to your home unexpectedly, it’s important to stay aware and informed. The Federal Trade Commission reported that impersonation scams consistently rank among the most reported fraud categories. So, it’s important to stay vigilant and in the know of who is on your property and why.  
 

Why Would a Southwest Gas Employee Be on My Property? 

Southwest Gas employees are present throughout our communities, working to provide customers with safe, reliable natural gas service. This work requires them to regularly: 

• Read, maintain, or replace natural gas meters 
• Conduct leak surveys to ensure system safety 
• Locate and mark underground utility lines before digging projects 
• Perform system upgrades or routine maintenance 

To help ensure your safety and peace of mind, it’s important to know how to identify legitimate Southwest Gas employees and authorized contractors. The following tips can help you confirm that the person on your property is properly credentialed and there for official work. 

How to Verify a Southwest Gas Employee or Authorized Contractor 

Here are some key ways to verify an employee or authorized contractor: 

• Ask to See Identification. Every Southwest Gas employee and most authorized contractors carry an official ID badge. This badge will feature: 
  • The Southwest Gas logo or an authorized contractor logo 
  • The employee’s name and photo 
• Look for the Uniform or Vehicle. Southwest Gas employees typically wear a tan-colored uniform with the Southwest Gas logo. Some employees or authorized contractors may not be in full uniform, but many will wear clothing featuring the official Southwest Gas logo. Official vehicles will display either a Southwest Gas logo or an authorized contractor logo. 
• Call to Confirm. Call Southwest Gas at 877-860-6020 to verify the person’s identity. The team can confirm whether someone from Southwest Gas or one of its authorized contractors is scheduled to work in your area. 

For additional details on identifying legitimate employees, visit swgas.com/verifyemployee. 

Stay Safe: What Southwest Gas Won’t Do 

Whether in person, over the phone, or online, scammers often try to create panic and urgency by threatening to disconnect gas service or demanding immediate payment. Know the signs-here’s what Southwest Gas will never do: 

• Send someone to your home demanding immediate payment in cash or through means not accessed via Southwest Gas’ website 
• Demand payment via Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, or Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrency) 
• Ask for personal or financial information in an unsolicited email 

Always remember, if your account is past due, Southwest Gas will notify you in writing. 

Customers should make payments only through the official Southwest Gas toll-free number 877-860-6020 or Southwest Gas’ secure online portal at swgas.com. They should also always verify their account status by logging into their Southwest Gas account through swgas.com or the Southwest Gas mobile app. 

What to Do If You Suspect a Scam 

Scammers use sophisticated tactics to steal personal information or money, including making threats or pretending to know you. If you encounter a suspicious email, phone call, or in-person individual, follow these steps: 

• Hang up or shut the door immediately 
• Do not share any personal or financial information, log in details and passwords 
• Call 877-860-6020 to verify any contact claiming to be from Southwest Gas 

Stay Alert, Stay Safe 

At Southwest Gas, safety is a top priority. By staying vigilant and knowing what to expect from official employees and contractors, you can protect yourself and your community from scams. 

For more tips on scam prevention, visit consumer.ftc.gov or explore safety resources at swgas.com.  

Writers in the Wild: Dancing my way into belonging

by n Petra Molina Follown pmolina@sierrasun.comn | Jun 12, 2026 | Uncategorized

Beneath the glow of disco lights at Truckee’s Queer Prom, I danced through a crowd of familiar faces. I sang along to Britney Spears as a drag queen strutted through our local brewery, drawing cheers from every corner of the room. I sat among climbers watching films about queer athletes, some of whom I’m proud to call friends, pushing the limits of what seemed possible. My favorite time of the year arrived last weekend, and somewhere between the dancing, the laughter, and the stories on the screen, I realized I hadn’t stopped smiling once.

That feeling isn’t something I take for granted.

For the past five years, I’ve made it a point to celebrate Pride Month every June. I like to think of it as my own little holiday. No matter where I am, I make time to find queer community and connect.

I’ve celebrated Pride in many different places. After coming out to my family, I attended my first Pride in Lima, Peru, where LGBTQ+ people still cannot legally marry and where Pride remains as much a protest as a celebration, with thousands taking to the streets each year to demand equal rights.

I celebrated in Madrid, home to one of the largest Pride festivals in Europe, where I witnessed a scale of community I had never seen before. I spent a Pride in Milan, where, for all the stereotypes it fulfills, it seemed as though the soundtrack from Mamma Mia! was playing on every street corner. And now, for the second year in a row, I’ve celebrated Pride in Truckee.

My first time here was a year ago, when I packed my car and drove eight hours from Southern Nevada to a tiny town I had never even heard of before. Arc’teryx, in partnership with Truckee Pride, was hosting its annual Pride climbing weekend, and I had found a reasonably affordable ticket to a trad clinic. I spent my days climbing in Donner Pass and my nights sleeping in my car.

“I think I might stick around here,” I remember saying to some of the people I’d met that weekend. I had fallen head over heels for Truckee.

Within three weeks of that clinic, I ended up applying for a reporting job, getting hired, and moving my life to Truckee-Tahoe. Now, I sit at a desk beneath a Sierra Sun sign, writing stories about a town I’ve learned to love deeply.

So, as I danced the night away this year in the same place where I celebrated Pride last summer, I felt incredibly lucky. What started as a weekend pride climbing trip had somehow turned into a new home, a new job, and a community that continues to surprise me with how deeply people care for one another.

Every year, Pride reminds me of the importance of community. This year, it also reminded me how grateful I am that I found mine here.

One day, I’ll have to choose between returning home to Peru and the ability to get married and build a family protected by law. I don’t look forward to that day. But for now, I’m endlessly grateful for this town, and for everyone who continues to show up, take space, and remind the world that love is beautiful.

TAMBA to host 14th annual Tahoe Mountain Bike Festival

by n Staff Report Follown editor@tahoedailytribune.comn | Jun 12, 2026 | Uncategorized

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA), in conjunction with The Divided Sky and South Lake Brewing Company, is hosting the 14th annual Tahoe Mountain Bike Festival from Friday, June 19, to Sunday, June 21, 2026.

The weekend-long event will kick off with a festival fundraiser at Cascade Kitchens, where community members can fuel up for the big weekend ahead while giving back to Tahoe trails. From 5 p.m.- 9 p.m. that evening, Cascade Kitchens will donate a portion of food and beverage sales to TAMBA in support of the Tahoe Mountain Bike Festival.

The festivities will continue on Saturday, June 20 at the Demo & Skills Day at the Corral trail network. Registered riders will have the chance to try a range of demo bikes from participating brands and local bike shops, including Marin Bikes, Specialized, Turner Bikes, Apogee Bike Dirte.bike, Cannondale, Pivot, Santa Cruz, Canyon, Ibis, Trek, and Mondraker, and enjoy exclusive shuttles along Fountain Place Road. Dirte.bike will be launching their brand new Maxon-powered bike and offering exclusive festival discounts for attendees. The skills portion of the day will include intermediate skills clinics hosted by A Singletrack Mind, advanced skills clinics hosted by local coach Tasha Thomas, and free Trail Design 101 sessions hosted by TAMBA, new to this year’s event.

Community members are also invited to join TAMBA and South Lake Tahoe local bike brand Apogee Bikes at South Lake Brewing Company from 6 pm-8 pm, on Saturday, June 20 for a free Meet the Builders event, offering an exclusive look at the engineering behind the Apogee One bike. The event will also feature a short film debut by First Tracks Productions, followed by a Q&A with Apogee’s founders.

The final day of the festival will see the return of the signature rides on the morning of Sunday, June 21. The Tahoe Triple Crown will return as this year’s advanced ride, while intermediate riders will be able to enjoy the TAMBA Paradise Loop route. Registered riders will enjoy access to TAMBA rest stops, an exclusive t-shirt designed by RISE Designs, and a beverage and meal voucher to be redeemed at the Tahoe Trail Jam. These special rides are made possible thanks to the support of the US Forest Service and California State Parks.

The weekend will conclude with the free, family-friendly Tahoe Trail Jam at the stunning Tahoe Paradise Park on Sunday, June 21 from 12 pm- 6 pm. Local Tahoe band the Dead Winter Carpenters will headline the live music stage alongside food trucks, a beer garden, a vendor village, shenanigans competitions, a kids’ zone, and a free bike valet hosted by the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition.

Riders interested in participating in bike demos, skills clinics, or rides are strongly encouraged to pre-register for these events at www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-tahoe-mountain-bike-festival as spots are limited. Entry to the Tahoe Trail Jam on Sunday, June 21 is free of charge. All proceeds from the event go directly towards building and maintaining multi-use trails in the Lake Tahoe area. TAMBA would like to thank Visit Lake Tahoe for their significant support for this year’s festival, as well as the following 2026 Tahoe Mountain Bike Festival partners and sponsors: The Divided Sky, South Lake Brewing Company, US Forest Service, CA State Parks, A Singletrack Mind, Zero Declination, The BackCountry, Marin Bikes, Cascade Kitchens, Tahoe Luxury Bathrooms, Apogee Bikes, Shoreline Tahoe, BlueZone Sports, Tahoe Sports LTD, Dirte.bike, Ride Tahoe, evo, Specialized, Turner Bikes, Tahoe Gear Exchange, Barton Center for Orthopedics & Wellness, Desolation Athletic Fitness, Flylow Gear, RISE Designs, Emerald Bay Bikes, Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition, Tahoe Trail Bar, Dead Winter Carpenters, and Lake Tahoe KOA.

Obituary: Maria T. Zeid

by Tahoe Daily Tribune | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

November 16, 1935 – March 9, 2026

Beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend. Survived by her two sons, Victor Khaled Zeid, (Pamela) and Richard Rashed Zeid, grandchildren, Alisha Harding (Ade), Melonie Ruvalcaba (Chuy) and great grandson Zion; Michael Spinola, her devoted and loving longtime partner of 35 years.

Maria, was the youngest of seven children. Born November 16, 1935, in the Bavarian village of Passau Germany where hard work was her hallmark.
A single mom with two boys and $65 in her pocket, she landed in America, took a job at Harveys Resort Casino, providing a living for her two sons.

Maria Zeid, full of grace, she was the epitome of resilience, strength, wisdom and generosity.

Maria retired at age 62 and loved all things Tahoe. She was an avid hiker of the Sierra Tahoe back trails, mountains and loved boating Tahoe’s clear blue waters.

Long live the memory of Maria Zeid, a legacy of love, generosity, compassion and dedication to her family. She will never be forgotten.

Maria was a member of Sierra Community Church and loved her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Her wishes are that no memorial services be held. The Zeid family appreciates all your thoughts and prayers.

Obituary: Mike Heil

by Tahoe Daily Tribune | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

April 18, 1958 – May 5, 2026

Mike Heil, 68, of Minden, Nevada, passed peacefully at his home on May 5, 2026. He was born on April 18, 1958, in Glendale, California.
An accomplished athlete, Mike starred as a football quarterback and flame-throwing left-handed pitcher at Foothill High School in Tustin, California. He played baseball for two years at Saddleback Junior College in Mission Viejo before earning a baseball scholarship to the University of Oregon in 1978. After graduating, he moved to South Lake Tahoe, where he lived for most of his adult life. He worked as a pit boss at Harrah’s for 18 years and later sold timeshares at The Ridge Tahoe and Walley’s Resort.
Mike was an avid skier, golfer, and fitness enthusiast who loved going to the gym. With his infectious smile, he was known as the happiest and most positive person in any room — always on time and never arriving empty-handed. His simple life philosophy was one he often shared: “Be good, be kind, be careful.” Above all, Mike loved his Oregon Ducks and took immense pride in being a Ducks alumnus.
Mike is survived by his father, Coach Bill Heil; his sister, Sue Rice, and her husband Jack; his brothers, John Heil and his wife Michelle, and Tommy Heil and his wife Stephanie; along with many loving nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his mother, Joan (Murray) Heil.
He will be deeply missed by his many good friends and all who knew him.
A celebration of life will be held in Minden, Nevada, at a date to be determined.
For more information please contact brianchene@yahoo.com

Obituary: Virginia Thelin

by Tahoe Daily Tribune | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

January 23, 1936 – March 1, 2026

After struggling with declining health for two years, Virginia Herman Thelin passed away at her home in South Lake Tahoe, California on March 1, 2026. She was 90 years old. In her youth, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from MIT and spent time in Türkiye, Poland, Finland and Greece. Virginia met and married her husband Mark Thelin, and spent many years living in Taiwan with him where they raised two sons, Carl and Eric who have survived her. In the 1980s she began working for the Fulbright Foundation, which she continued to do until her retirement in 1999. She and her husband left Taiwan, and earned master’s degrees in Archeology from Durham University in England. While there, Mark’s health declined, and the couple moved to Grinnell Iowa, where Mark passed away in 2014. Since then, Virgina became a resident of South Lake Tahoe, where she frequently spent several hours a day hiking with her dog.
She was co-author of The Good Life(1975), author of Taichung Harbor Area Land Use Survey(1978) and a master’s dissertation entitled “Were Burnt Mounds Derived from Prehistoric Copper Production Activities?”(2008). She was preceded in death by her brothers Fred Hermann Jr, and Robert Hermann. Donations may be made in her name to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine or the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A memorial service will be held at Hope Lutheran Church of the Sierra on Saturday June 20th, at 10am. (930 Julie Ln, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150)

Obituary: David Condon

by Tahoe Daily Tribune | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

January 31, 1958 – April 3, 2026

Obituary: Mae Rose Kuentz

by Tahoe Daily Tribune | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

May 11, 1929 – May 31, 2026

Mae Rose died on May 31, 2026, in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Mae Rose was born to Joseph and Mae (Lawrence) Morrison on May 11, 1929, near Bethlehem PA. She graduated from Bethlehem High School in 1947, and attended Moravian College until 1950 when she married Craig Kuentz, soon after he graduated from Lehigh. They lived in Pittsburgh PA and Montclair NJ before polio interrupted Craig’s professional career in 1953. They subsequently lived in North Plainfield, NJ for 42 years before moving to Manahawkin, NJ in 1995.

Mae Rose and Craig raised 4 children: David, Virginia, Howard, and Karen, who, except for Virginia who died in 2022 due to multiple sclerosis, survive her. They were married for 60 years until Craig died in 2010. They enjoyed traveling together all around the country and Canada, visiting friends and relatives and many national and state parks. After Craig died, Mae Rose and Karen traveled to Switzerland, Austria, Hawaii, Alaska, the Canadian Maritimes, and many locations in the southeastern and western US.

Mae Rose maintained an active life outside raising the kids and caring for Craig. She kept up gardens in both North Plainfield and Manahawkin, enjoyed cooking (interesting meals for the family, large-scale feasts for family gatherings, amazing variety of Christmas cookies and candy) sewing, knitting, and needlepoint. She volunteered at local hospitals, taught nursery school, played tennis and volleyball, enjoyed social outings with their many friends, and crashed toboggans on the hills of nearby golf courses. Mae Rose was a fan of dogs but not cats, and her favorite magazine was The New Yorker, which she continued to read even into 2026.

Mae Rose moved to South Lake Tahoe in 2021 to live with Karen, and although she always considered herself an East Coast girl, she greatly enjoyed Tahoe’s beaches, mountains, snow and low humidity.

Glyphosate Has its Foot in the Door. What’s Next?

by Addison Wingate | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

The latest environmental controversy in Tahoe isn’t a development project, a wildfire, or a fight over lake clarity.

It’s a weed killer.

A proposal to use glyphosate in portions of the Caldor Fire burn scar has triggered mounting concern among residents and environmental advocates, opening a broader conversation about the herbicide’s health risks, ecological impacts, and growing presence throughout the region.

It all started with nonprofit news outlet Mother Jones’ yearlong investigation into the expanding use of herbicides in California forests. Released in May, the article dove deep into the worlds of wildfire management and recovery, industrial pesticide production, and complex federal bureaucracy. Among other projects, the article highlighted Forest Service plans to use herbicide as a vegetation management tool in the burn scar of the 2021 Caldor wildfire.

The final environmental assessment and decision notice for the Caldor Fire Restoration Project — to be spearheaded by the Forest Service’s Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) — was released in March of this year. The project will thin tree stands in and around the burn area, remove damaged trees, and reforest burned areas, all within an approximately 11,700-acre project footprint.

Part of that preparation and reforestation is slated to include potential herbicide treatment. In the environmental assessment, LTBMU notes that “herbicides may be used to aid site preparation before tree planting and to manage competing vegetation after planting when manual treatments are ineffective or expected to be insufficient.”

At the top of the list of intended herbicides? Glyphosate.

Public reaction to the Caldor Restoration Project

The Mother Jones investigation analyzed more than 5 million California pesticide-use records, finding that approximately 266,000 pounds of glyphosate were applied in California forests in 2023 — nearly five times the amount used two decades earlier. The article characterized forest applications as the fastest-growing use of glyphosate in the state.

Public opposition to the use of the chemical in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin has quickly mounted, and pressure is on for local agencies.

In response to public outcry around the use of glyphosate in the Caldor Fire Restoration Project, a change.org petition began to circulate. It quickly garnered well over 22,000 signatures by the time this article was written, with public comments and support pouring in from across the country. Conspicuously absent from the body of this petition, however, are any concrete demands to address the titular demand, “Stop glyphosate spraying in the Tahoe Basin.”

This missing piece may be a reflection of the confusing decision-making associated with this project — in this particular instance, it seems few people know exactly how to effect change within our local bureaucracy.

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Frustrated, concerned, and confused, the public has swarmed to social media and rallied at Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) governance meetings to demand regulatory change. But that’s just not how it works, Jeff Cowen, public information officer at TRPA explained to me. At least, not anymore.

To understand the decision-making process behind environmental projects like this one, one must go back to the start. In 1969, TRPA was formed to help manage the two states, five counties, and three national forests that all wanted decision-making power over Lake Tahoe. Soon after, LTBMU was formed to consolidate national forest management in the region.

“It’s … been a partnership from the start,” Cowen said of the relationship between TRPA and LTBMU. But with 79% of land in the Basin owned and managed by the Forest Service, there are limitations on TRPA’s influence.

Those limitations have shifted over time, perhaps the most notable of which came as a result of the 2007 Angora wildfire. Inefficiencies, silos, and redundant regulatory procedures, Cowen explained, were identified as sticking points in the fire’s cause and magnitude. To address these hindrances, about 20 agencies came together to streamline environmental decision-making in the Basin.

Among the outcomes of this streamlining was an expanded memorandum of understanding between TRPA and LTBMU. For major projects like the Caldor Fire Restoration Project, TRPA is no longer a permitting authority, but instead an advisor to the decision-making process.

Cowen emphasized the efficacy of this decision, sharing that he feels that a “regulatory framework is really ineffective and not needed,” between the two agencies. “Because the Forest Service has very similar goals … they basically get to the point where they’re just adopting [our] goals and implementing them through their own plans.”

Together, the agencies have treated 80,000 acres across the Basin for wildfire prevention in the past two decades. But he also acknowledged there are “big, federal, overarching principles and direction that they also have to follow.”

As of late, these overarching principles seem somewhat murky.

How we got here: A noxious government love affair

In February of this year, the Trump administration made a sweeping move with the issuance of an Executive Order unambiguously named “Promoting the National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Elemental Phosphorous and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides.”

This explicit prioritization of glyphosate production and use by the executive branch is a conveniently-timed declaration of support for the lawsuit-ridden Bayer company — and it’s no mystery as to why, Nathan Donley from the Center for Biological Diversity explained.

Our government has and continues to validate the use of glyphosate and other pesticides — despite the widely documented risks — because of the immense lobbying power of agricultural and agrochemical industries, Donley said. And it is far from isolated to the Trump administration.

“It’s been an absolute full court press from Bayer on all levels of government,” he explained. “Not just the executive and legislative branches. I mean, Clarence Thomas was a former Monsanto employee.”

And he’s not the only agrichemical-employee-turned-political-appointee. As of President Trump’s first year in office, all four of the top positions in the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention — the Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Assistant Administrator, Deputy Assistant Administrator for New Chemicals, and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticides — have been filled by former executives or lobbyists of chemical and agricultural companies. The EPA and most other pesticide regulatory agencies continue to assert that glyphosate does not pose a health risk when used according to its label.

As Donley said, “the tendrils run deep … in the levels of influence that this company, Bayer, has in our government.”

Just how deep they run on initiatives like the Caldor Fire Restoration Project remains somewhat opaque. In the project’s environmental assessment, the herbicide use is identified as a way to expedite reforestation and “achieve silvicultural objectives.” These objectives? Conifer stands.

The assessment names three target species that, if not for herbicide use, could otherwise outcompete reforested conifers: western whitethorn, greenleaf manzanita, and ceanothus, or California lilac.

These native, fire-adapted species are known as pioneer species, meaning they are often the first to appear after wildfire events. Their fast-growing roots help to stabilize fire-impacted soil and prevent excess erosion, while also providing species-specific benefits like returning nutrients to damaged soils and quickly regenerating important habitat for pollinators and other species.

But while targeted elimination of native species may raise eyebrows, the Forest Service has an explanation. They are “not taking a wholesale targeting approach to these shrub species,” but instead targeting them only in the immediate vicinity of conifer seedlings. This will help ensure the area includes enough established trees to prevent full conversion to a montane chaparral environment, which could otherwise ignite easier and burn faster in future fire seasons.

Still, there is time before glyphosate use is slated to begin in the Basin.

“No herbicide application is planned for 2026 or 2027,” the Forest Service’s Region 5 media team stated. “Reforestation is an activity that will occur after initial entry (such as mechanical or hand treatments to remove overhead hazards and perhaps prescribed burning or mastication as site preparation) and occurs later in the project implementation timeline.”

Of the 11,700 acres of Forest Service land included within the project area, herbicide treatment is only proposed on a portion of the 2,400 to 3,600 acres where reforestation efforts will take place.

It’s a common pesticide. What’s the big deal?

Well, ain’t that the $11 billion question.

Health and environmental concerns associated with glyphosate use and exposure have been bubbling up for over a decade.

And despite being the most widely used herbicide globally, glyphosate wasn’t originally poised to become a pesticide at all. The chemical was first developed as a boiler and pipe cleaner agent. It wasn’t until 1974 that Monsanto, an American agrochemical and biotechnology company, discovered its efficacy as a herbicide. Monsanto quickly patented the discovery and sold glyphosate as the active ingredient in its crown-jewel herbicide product — Roundup.

For over 25 years, Roundup products filled shelves at hardware and home garden stores, farming co-ops, and major industrial retailers as the sole glyphosate-based product. Touting its unique success as a versatile weed-killer, products were marketed and sold in a variety of forms, from ready-to-use herbicides for home gardens to commercial-grade concentrates designed for agricultural, industrial, and heavy-duty landscaping use. The substance was applied with everything from handheld bottles to backpack devices to large-scale aerial sprayers.

In 2000, Monsanto’s patent for exclusive use of the chemical expired in the United States. Other manufacturers began to flood the market, introducing their own glyphosate-based herbicides. Public use skyrocketed and, for the better part of two decades, glyphosate products flew off shelves.

Then in 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), published a scientific evaluation of the carcinogenicity of several market herbicides, glyphosate among them. As a result, glyphosate was designated as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

Months later, the first lawsuit to allege Monsanto’s Roundup products were causing cancer proceeded to trial in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a groundskeeper for Benicia Unified School District argued Roundup had caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The case, Johnson v. Monsanto, became the first of approximately 125,000 similar claims filed by 2020, with the California court ultimately ruling in Mr. Johnson’s favor. The jury awarded the plaintiff $289 million in compensatory and punitive damages, an amount that was later reduced by the judge to $78 million and then $21 million.

At the same time, proponents of glyphosate products began to vehemently defend both its safety and usage.

One such advocate named Patrick Moore, a former environmentalist turned TED-talking-climate-change-skeptic, even went so far as to claim Roundup was safe to drink. Moore was featured on air in a CBC News segment on the 2015 WHO findings, where he stated that “you can drink a whole quart of [Roundup], it won’t hurt you.” However, when offered a glass of the chemical by his interviewer, Moore declined to substantiate his claim in real-time, repeatedly saying “No, I’m not stupid.”

In 2017, a multi-district litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California consolidated the surge of federal lawsuits against Monsanto for its Roundup products. The litigation revealed a body of evidence that the leading study cited to defend Roundup’s safety for human exposure — Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans, published in 2000 by Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology — was in large part shaped and steered by Monsanto employees. The suit exposed email exchanges between Monsanto employees offering congratulations to one another for their “hard work” on the study and hopes that it would become “the reference on Roundup and glyphosate safety.”

Ultimately, the journal retracted the study, citing significant ethical concerns. But the damage was done, and the study still ranks among the top references justifying glyphosate use and claims to its safety.

In 2018, Monsanto was acquired by Bayer, a German pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical company. Bayer continued to sell Roundup but quickly discontinued the use of the Monsanto brand name, which was becoming increasingly tied to unfavorable litigation.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California found Monsanto liable for another case of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Hardeman v. Monsanto Co. in 2019, initially awarding Mr. Hardeman $80 million in damages — a total subsequently reduced to $20 million. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the decision in 2021, finding that the EPA’s approval of a pesticide label does not immunize a manufacturer from being held liable. This case ultimately became the first (and at this point, only) federal decision on the issue.

Despite Bayer phasing out glyphosate as an active ingredient in its residential Roundup products in 2023, it remains present in commercial and agricultural formulas. Lawsuits have continued to arise, with substantial damages and fees awarded to plaintiffs whose exposure to Roundup resulted in non-Hodgkin, follicular, T-cell, or other forms of lymphoma.

As of the time this article is being written, Bayer has paid over $11 billion in settlements for Roundup-related lawsuits and proposed a nation-wide class action settlement that would cap current and future claim payouts at $7.25 billion, to be used for declining payments for up to 21 years. The class action is heavily opposed by plaintiffs and environmental and public health organizations who have described it as a liability “shield.” A decision from the federal Supreme Court on its constitutionality is expected later in June. If approved, it will become one of the largest legal fee awards to date.

Public health and environmental impact

Cancer is far from the only public health risk posed by glyphosate use and exposure.

Studies have found potential ties between glyphosate exposure and various medical conditions such as liver disease and reproductive disorders including PCOS, endometriosis, and disruptions to fertility. What’s more, a growing body of research is finding that glyphosate exposure may be a trigger for various gastrointestinal diseases and conditions, including celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

But despite these alarming associations, it remains unclear how much exposure is required to pose a real health risk to humans. In the vast majority of legal cases, affected plaintiffs are groundkeepers, farmers, or dedicated recreational gardeners — folks routinely subjected to highly concentrated forms of glyphosate.

In all likelihood, the exposure any individual may experience as a direct result of a relatively remote use such as the Caldor Fire Restoration Project would not cause substantial human harm. According to the National Pesticide Information Center, the half-life (time needed for a chemical to reduce to half of its initial amount) of glyphosate is particularly variable, landing somewhere between 2 and 197 days in soil, and between “a few days” and 91 days in water.

The chance of human exposure narrows further upon consideration of where the Caldor Fire Reforestation Project’s proposed herbicide treatment areas lie. In an email, the Forest Service’s Region 5 media team noted that “for the Caldor Fire Restoration Project, herbicide use is proposed only on a subset of the area proposed for reforestation, where other reforestation site preparation methods will not work. For example, manual removal equipment is not permitted in project areas with steep slopes, locations far from existing roads, [or] sensitive soils.”

But the questionable human health impacts of this project are not the sole consideration in this instance. An even greater risk is the ecological devastation that glyphosate wreaks on habitats, plants, and wildlife.

Donley at the Center for Biological Diversity noted that so long as glyphosate is present, it poses an environmental risk. This is particularly true after any precipitation, where stormwater runoff “goes into the nearby river, lake, or stream of that watershed and contaminates it with high pulses of pesticide.”

Donley emphasized that most animals do rely on these waters, whether they are woodland animals seeking drinking water, wetland species like migratory birds, or aquatic animals that then have no choice but to suffer through 24/7 exposure to contaminated water. While this can be lethal, he added, there are other effects as well. “It can lead to chronic harms like reduced reproductive capability or developmental defects, so it can affect subsequent generations and ultimately lead to population decline or even collapse for certain species,” he explained.

The Environmental Protection Agency found that glyphosate use was likely causing harm to 1,676 of the approximately 1,700 plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Where the Caldor Fire Restoration Project is concerned, LTBMU will be taking some precautions to prevent this catastrophic runoff. “Herbicide applications will not take place within six hours of predicted rainfall that has a high probability of producing measurable runoff, or as requested by the Forest Service aquatics biologist,” the Forest Service shared via email. Additionally, the project will use backpack sprayers or other low-volume methods, as opposed to aquatic or aerial application, which produces greater concern for pollinator species.

But slip-ups or insufficient margins of time between application and precipitation could be catastrophic for some species that call the Tahoe area home.

In 2021, the federal Environmental Protection Agency found that glyphosate use was likely causing harm to 1,676 of the approximately 1,700 plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. Impacted species include the Sierra Nevada red fox, California spotted owl, and Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog, all of which are listed in the federal Endangered Species Act and live in our area.

Hitting close to home

While proposed glyphosate use in the Caldor burn scar has created quite a stir for the public, it appears as though our community remains blissfully unaware that glyphosate made its debut in the Truckee/Tahoe area long ago.

According to its most recent annual data, California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) ranked glyphosate the sixth most used pesticide in the state in 2023. Of herbicides (plant-specific pesticides) used statewide, glyphosate ranked number one both by pounds applied and total acres treated – 10.7 million and 4.8 million, respectively. About 270,000 pounds alone were used to spray California’s forest land, a figure that has been steadily increasing each year.

Agriculture remains a top use, with glyphosate the pesticide of choice for a variety of crops, from cotton to nuts to citrus and even — put down your glass of pinot here — wine grapes. Neighborhood gardens also pose a risk; DPR data excludes residential use, but despite Bayer’s 2023 phaseout of glyphosate from its residential products, the compound remains the active ingredient in competitor products. Nationwide, the EPA estimates residential and non-crop glyphosate use at several million pounds per year.

While glyphosate is most closely associated with agriculture, it is also widely used in non-agricultural settings, including rights-of-way corridors, landscape maintenance, parks, athletic facilities, golf courses, utility infrastructure, and other managed public spaces.

Individual county reporting provides insight into current uses regionally. El Dorado County, which encompasses the Eastern side of Folsom to the California-Nevada state line in South Lake Tahoe, applied over 9,500 pounds of glyphosate in 2023 for forest and timberland applications, and just over 6,000 along rights of way areas like roads, highway corridors, sidewalks, and curb areas. Placer County, on the other hand, reported over 9,000 pounds used for rights of way areas, just over 4,600 pounds for forest and timberland areas, and just under 4,000 pounds for landscape maintenance. Nevada County clocked in with significantly lower rates, at  just over 2,000 pounds used for rights of way areas and a similar amount for landscape maintenance topping the list in 2023.

These numbers encompass more than public agency use. Private landowners are also obligated to report use to DPR, and glyphosate has become industry-standard for a number of vegetative fixtures. For example, on its website, NV Energy notes herbicide use as a mechanism for vegetation management under its power lines.

A recent follow-up article from Mother Jones opened with investigative journalist Nate Halverson standing in the middle of a run at Sierra-at-Tahoe that “clearly had been doused in glyphosate,” pointing to the area being “devoid of spring flowers; the bushes leafless, brittle, and dead by all appearances.” Sure enough, Halverson had found that the “Forest Service posted maps online showing it had sprayed glyphosate around and within Sierra-at-Tahoe in spring 2025.” This spraying was a part of a separate Caldor Fire Restoration Project, managed by El Dorado Resource Conservation District and taking place outside of the Basin, with a much larger footprint approved for herbicide use.

Patrick Lacey, public relations manager at Palisades Tahoe, said the resort does not use any chemicals, herbicides, or pesticides for vegetation management. Instead, he explained, its vegetation management crews use the mechanical removal of smaller trees and bushes to focus on “reducing ladder fuels on the forest floor and skier safety; the combination works synergistically.”

Marc McMullen, the golf course superintendent at Northstar California Resort, told me he does use glyphosate as well as fungicide to manage vegetation on the Northstar course. While total use during the season is relatively low, McMullen emphasized that the compound used is a harsh enough product that it is not available off the shelf and requires a pesticide applicator license through both the state and county.

University extension publications and turf-management literature routinely identify golf courses as a significant use category for the herbicide for vegetation management, cart-path edging, weed control, and renovation projects.

Moonshine Ink reached out to other land managers of community spaces, but many did not respond to the inquiries.

While debate continues over where and when glyphosate should be used, its presence in the modern landscape is difficult to avoid entirely. That reality raises a practical question for residents: What steps, if any, can individuals and communities take to reduce exposure?

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot

Options range from personal choices to participating in public discussions.

First and foremost, eating food grown using organic practices whenever possible is one of the leading ways to reduce glyphosate exposure and mitigate its harms to human health, researchers say.

A 2020 study published in Environmental Research found that diet is a main source of glyphosate exposure for humans. What’s more, researchers found glyphosate levels in children prior to making the switch to organic foods were approximately five times higher than adult levels. The good news? Transitioning to organic food had a near-immediate impact on the amount of glyphosate in subjects’ systems, reducing levels by over
70 percent.

Water, too, can be a potential source of glyphosate exposure. In the Basin, where most household drinking water comes from surface waters, regional water purveyors regularly test for pesticides. Sarah Vidra, the Executive Director at Tahoe Water Suppliers Association, confirmed that “pesticides are … monitored as part of the Synthetic Organic Chemicals (SOC) program.” Currently, she added, “the Association is not aware of any pesticide detections exceeding drinking water standards in Lake Tahoe source water supplies.” Vidra confirmed the SOC testing TWSA uses detects glyphosate.

Truckee tap water is substantially more removed from potential contamination, as the Truckee Donner Public Utility District (TDPUD) sources all water from deep underground aquifers. “The average age of our drinking water predates many modern chemicals,” Alex Spychalsky, TDPUD Communications Program Manager, explained via email. “For example, the rain we saw fall in our region last week won’t reach our aquifer for decades.”

But Donley said there’s more to be done than relying on water purveyors. “Regardless of how clean you think your water is, everyone should have a good water filter in their house,” he advised. “Because I don’t care how clean you think your water is, it’s not.”

While limiting glyphosate exposure in private spaces like kitchens, yards, and gardens can help mitigate risk, navigating more public areas that are outside of one’s control can be more complex. A simple rule of thumb, Donley suggested, is don’t play — and don’t let your loved ones play — where dandelions don’t grow. Weeds and other landscaping imperfections are natural. Allow them to be a sign of safe, glyphosate-free spaces.

Locally, questions about herbicide use may be addressed through existing regulatory and planning processes. As for the standards by which TRPA advises projects, those can be changed, though Cowen noted that “the path to what action [TRPA] can take is a relatively long one.” While it typically responds to emerging issues through scientific review, Cowen suggested the level of public interest surrounding glyphosate may warrant further examination. In the case of herbicide use in the Tahoe Basin, he said, “public concern is probably enough for us to start looking at it.”

Whether glyphosate is ultimately used as part of the LTBMU Caldor Fire Restoration Project remains to be seen. What is already clear is that the proposal has sparked a broader conversation about forest management, wildfire recovery, herbicide use, public health, and environmental stewardship — one that is likely to continue well beyond the boundaries of the burn scar itself.

Truckee Fire Sues Placer County Over Decades of Unpaid Property Tax

by Alex Hoeft | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

For decades, Truckee Fire Protection District has provided fire and emergency medical services to some of the region’s most affluent neighborhoods. According to the district, however, it has never received the full share of property tax revenue that should be tied to those responsibilities.

Now, after years of unsuccessful negotiations, Truckee Fire has taken Placer County to court, arguing that a decades-old property tax allocation error has deprived the district of roughly $40 million since the mid-1970s. The lawsuit could reshape how millions of dollars in property taxes are distributed among local agencies, drawing 10 other districts into the dispute.

Property tax collection for select special districts across Truckee/North Tahoe play a significant role in revenue streams. Some, like Truckee Sanitary District and Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, rely on property taxes for more than 60% of their operating revenue.

This is common in California: Revenue from the 1% property tax is the foundation for most jurisdictions, from counties and cities down to schools and special districts.

Which means if there’s a piece of the highly precious property pie tax missing, it doesn’t go unnoticed.

Nearly 75% of the Truckee Fire Protection District’s 2025/26 revenue comes from taxes, or $14.1 million of its total $19.8 million budget. That number, alleges the district, should be $4 million more.

The district officially brought a case before the Sacramento Superior Court in February 2025 to right a “historic wrong,” according to court documentation.

Placer County, through outside counsel, has so far called into question the legal validity of the entire case, disputing each of the four causes of action submitted by Truckee Fire that make up its argument. Judge Jennifer K. Rockwell ruled against the county’s claims as recently as May 14.

As of press deadline, the ball is in Placer’s court: it has until July 6 to file a formal response to Truckee Fire’s demand for court action and a legal ruling.

Because of the active litigation, both entities provided brief statements to Moonshine Ink:

“Truckee Fire looks forward to having our day in court and to an expeditious, fair, and complete resolution to this matter,” Chief Kevin McKechnie said.

“The county disputes the claims brought by the district and will defend its position in the litigation,” shared Steven Wilson-Maggard, public information officer.

How did we get here?

The red tape that’s causing so much back and forth stems from California’s Proposition 13, passed back in 1978.

This ruling put a 1% tax rate cap of a property’s assessed value and limited yearly assessment increases to 2%. (Prior to ’78, the state’s average property tax rate was 2.67%.) Further, property reassessments bringing up a property to current market value can only take place when there’s a change in ownership or new construction.

Assembly Bill 8 (AB 8), enacted in 1979, determined how that 1% tax was divided up among local governments. County auditors were required to base this distribution on the average property tax revenue received by local governments in the few years preceding Prop 13.

The crux for Truckee Fire is that a few years prior to Prop 13, the district began providing fire protection and medical services to a piece of land known then as the Woolverton Property and known now as Zone 7, annexed into the district in 1974.

Zone 7 currently comprises Martis Camp, Schaffer’s Mill, part of Lahontan off Snowshoe Thompson Circle; a portion of Sierra Meadows off Pine Cone and Ponderosa drives, and Golden Pine Road; as well as a section of Ponderosa Palisades on Silver Fir Drive west of Thelin Drive.

The Woolverton agreement limited taxation to the value of improvements (or development), not the underlying land, and allowed property owner Bertha Joerger Woolverton “to continue to live on her property unburdened by taxes but to support the District’s services as she sold her land for development,” as stated in Truckee Fire’s complaint.

In board meetings, Placer County supervisors have called this deal of taxing Zone 7 at a reduced rate as a mistake made by Truckee Fire, leading to the district receiving only partial property tax from that area during three critical years before Prop 13. That taxation level was locked into place in 1978 — and has stayed that way through today.

During the 2024/25 tax year, across the TRAs in Zone 7, Truckee Fire received between 0.60% and 0.75% in AB 8 property tax allocation. A nearby TRA shows Truckee Fire receiving 11.58% of the distribution.

There have been some negotiations in the intervening years. Truckee Fire formally requested its share of AB 8 funding in 1997, 2011, 2018, and 2023. In 1997, Placer’s Auditor Controller Jayne Goulding sent a letter to Truckee Fire stating the revenues had been corrected, but that change never took place.

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In 2019, the county allocated the district funding from an adjacent bucket: Placer County executed a voluntary tax share agreement allowing Truckee Fire to receive a portion of fire control fee collected from Zone 7 property taxes, amounting to about $300,000 annually. Truckee Fire considers this agreement irrelevant to the larger situation, according to court documentation.

In June 2024, the Placer County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation about the fire control fund and whether to continue with a subsequent funding method or not.

Placer County Supervisor Jim Holmes pointed out in June 2024 that Truckee Fire could have corrected the issue in part during the county’s 2003 general plan update but did not do so: “This sets a precedent … This takes money out of our general fund to supplement a district that failed to take action when the opportunity was there for them.”

The item was not up for action, and ended with unclear steps for the future. Eight months later, Truckee Fire filed its case.

What specifically is being asked for?

Truckee Fire’s legal reasons for suing Placer fall into two camps: three focus on the failure of property tax allocation (as described previously), while the fourth focuses on the county’s failure to comply with the Placer County General Plan and Martis Valley Community Plan.

This second camp claims the county approved real estate developments such as Martis Valley, Schaffer’s Mill, and part of Lahontan neighborhoods in Zone 7 without funding fire service in conjunction.

In early 2024, Truckee Fire alleges in the complaint, the district stated on an early building permit for a townhome development in Schaffer’s Mill that as the serving fire protection district, it would “withhold approval of a Certificate of Occupancy until it received adequate funding to provide fire services to the development.” The district also requested that the county restrict further development in Martis Valley until the funding issues at hand could be rectified.

On March 26 of that year, Placer amended its county code to allow fire-protection district approval to come from either Truckee Fire, Placer County Fire, or Cal Fire.

Over a year later, the Placer County Planning Commission modified the Schaffer’s Mill Conditional Use Permit language to allow either Truckee Fire or Placer County Fire’s signature for plan approvals.

Placer demurred to the district’s complaint on all causes of action. A demurrer essentially means that even if, in this case, Truckee Fire’s claims are true, they do not warrant a lawsuit. Judge Rockwell overruled two of the three demurrers, while sustaining the third demurrer on the fourth cause of action, but allowed the district time to amend its legal stance.

Truckee Fire did so, submitting an amended complaint — to which Placer demurred once again on the fourth cause of action. The judge overruled this demurrer in mid-May, leading to the current wait for Placer County’s response, due by July 6.

From there, the case will likely enter a discovery phase, during which both sides will exchange information, evidence, and witness interviews.

Among its requests for ruling, Truckee Fire hopes for legal mandates to the county to allocate and pay the district its AB 8 share of Zone 7 property tax revenue; a permanent injunction from denying Truckee Fire its AB 8 share; and a declaration that Placer’s decision to approve development in the Martis Valley area without general plan compliance violates the law.

What other districts are involved (and whose side are they on)?

If Truckee Fire is allotted any amount of AB 8, which is a limited pot of money, other entities receiving property tax from Zone 7 will take a hit.

When it first filed its complaint, Truckee Fire did not include other taxing entities involved in Zone 7 who could be impacted. Placer called this out in a demurrer, requiring an amended complaint to include the following as real parties in interest:

Truckee Tahoe Airport District, Placer County Resource Conservation District, Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, Sierra Community College District, Placer County Office of Education, Placer County Water Agency, Tahoe Forest Hospital District, Tahoe Truckee Sanitation Agency, Tahoe City Public Utility District, and Truckee Sanitary District. All 10 are listed as parties on the side of Placer County.

Of the parties, the airport district, Tahoe City PUD, Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, Placer County Office of Education, and Truckee Sanitary District have filed joinders at some point, formally aligning themselves with Placer’s arguments. For the latest set of demurrers, the school district and office of education did not file joinders while the remaining three did.

Why other parties of interest didn’t file a joinder can be for many reasons, including being able to benefit from a decision without the cost or exposure; different interests than defendant’s strategies; and taking a wait-and-see approach.

“While the core of this dispute is between the fire district and the county, the legal remedy sought, a reapportionment of ad valorem property taxes, carries an outsized potential impact on a broad coalition of local public agencies that provide essential services to our community,” TTAD General Manager Robb Etnyre wrote in an email. “Because property tax revenue is a ‘zero-sum’ system under California law, any significant shift in these percentages means the funding must be drawn from the existing shares of other local entities.”

In its 2026 budget, TTAD anticipates receiving about $10 million in property tax revenue — about 55% of its revenue for the year.

Etnyre added that the airport district’s participation in the case, as well as the other parties with interest, “is intended to ensure that the pursuit of fire protection funding does not inadvertently destabilize the budgets of our schools, our hospital, or our regional infrastructure.”

Truckee Fire has said in public statements about the case, “Placer County would prefer we ask taxpayers districtwide to approve a new property tax so that the district can have sufficient funds to fund services in Lahontan, Martis Camp and Schaffer’s Mill … Placer County has already collected substantial tax revenue, they just need to allocate it.”

In the current court case, the district is requesting its AB 8 share from the date of the final court order forward. Meanwhile, it is also asking for historical records of what it received from 1975 to 1978, which would play a role in determining the full amount Truckee Fire might have collected since the mid-1970s.

Soccer, Songs, International Relations: The Story of the Home Team String Band

by Jon Grant | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

It’s midnight in the middle of nowhere on the Trans-Siberian Railway but sleep is far from mind. Russian train-riders are gathered in the bar car, laughing and dancing around the ragtag string band that’s swigging vodka and making up funny songs on the spot.

The bandmembers are a bunch of Americans, in-country for the 2018 World Cup, and rather than geopolitical hostilities there’s a warmth of human connection forged around global sport and the universal language of music.

“We ended up being the house band on the Trans-Siberian for a week,” guitarist Ryan Salm remembered. “It was before the war [in Ukraine]. We ended up befriending generals and regular people, just singing songs and staying up all night.”

Salm is a founding member of the Home Team String Band, the Tahoe/Truckee-based group that’s traveled to the last four World Cups — bringing an open-armed vibe of music, good times, and cross-cultural connection as they celebrate the unifying power of soccer’s biggest stage.

This year’s World Cup will be played in North and Central America from June 11 to July 19, with the bulk of the matches taking place in the United States.  

“We’ve been welcomed wherever we’ve gone,” said Dan Hurley, the group’s unofficial musical coordinator who, along with Salm, also plays in the Tahoe-based band The Inappropriators. “I’m most looking forward to hosting, and to giving back to the world what they’ve given for us. We are going to show a welcoming spirit.”

To do so, the band bought an old Bluebird school bus and undertook a group-effort, custom build-out, readying their “Schoolie” to be a traveling home, fan-zone (with two TVs and a projector screen), music venue, and cultural welcome center. They’ll make and hand out grilled cheese sandwiches and throw parties, aiming to be a gathering place where people from all over the world can hang out before, during, or after the games and have a good time.

“We’ll play a bunch of songs and hope to get people to join our band along the way,” Salm added.

Folks may join the band forever, for a day, an hour, or even just one song. After all, impromptu additions to the group are what created the Home Team in the first place. The band is now 12-plus humans strong, but it all started back in 2010 with three Tahoe locals who just wanted to go the World Cup in South Africa. 

Salm arrived on the continent before the event began and traveled overland from Ethiopia (guitar and harmonica in tow) to South Africa. He knew Paul Raymore and Hurley independently, and they all made plans to meet up before the matches began.

Prior to linking up with them, Salm was checking out of a bungalow in Malawi just as another guy with a guitar was checking in. He was from L.A., and Salm told him he lived in Tahoe. The guy’s first question was, “Have you been to High Sierra Music Festival?”

Salm smiled. “I go every year,” he said. The connection was instant and the two made sure they’d reconnect in South Africa — and boom, Jeremiah Kent was added to the roster. 

Similar serendipity ensued at the USA vs. England game in Rustenberg when an American approached the group and it was discovered they had a mutual friend in Tahoe. He introduced himself as Pete Blanchard and they all hung out that night. “We had an empty spot in our car,” Salm said, “and the next day Pete was part of the crew.”

They met Tahoe-ite Trevor Husted at the USA vs. Algeria knockout match and the group of travel-seeking, soccer-loving musicians started writing funny songs about their World Cup experiences. The bond was tight, and the Home Team String Band was born.

Everyone has a nickname. Someone who joined eight years ago will always be New Guy (Dane Halter). Added in 2014 were Hulké (Martin Cavada), Hylando (Rylan Cordova), and Maximus (Kurt Beckering). Then there’s Godfather (Paul Raymore), Captain Jebbers (Kent), and Handsome (Hurley), among others.  

The nicknames are written on the back of the bandmate’s personal Sweatsedo — a sweet, custom-made velour track suit — in the local language of whatever country they are in. Sometimes the names get lost in translation. In Russia, for example, Trevor Husted’s “T-Bone” read as “T-Steak.” 

Eight years later, Husted is still T-Steak.

Blanchard earned his original nickname, Granada (Spanish for grenade), due to his proclivity for explosive late-night antics, but on the Trans-Siberian he turned sweet. On a short stop, he ran out and bought flowers for the Russian bartendress. She received them well and started calling him Pupsik — a term of endearment either romantic or maternal meaning something akin to “cutie.” The boys couldn’t resist that one either, and his nickname forever changed to Pupsik.

There’s an origin story, of course, for the nicknames. In 2010, the original crew was driving on a dirt road in Lesotho, the small, mountainous nation landlocked by South Africa, when a couple of locals boys threw a small rock at the vehicle. “Stop the car!” boomed Salm’s voice. In a flash he was running into the African plains after the half-laughing, half-screaming perpetrators. 

The team was beyond impressed by Salm’s speed. Right then and there he became “Cheetah” — and the naming began. 

The young-adult sons of Raymore and Halter, Ethan and Nathan respectively, will hop on the bus for their first Home Team action this World Cup. “They’re good kids but they haven’t done much yet,” Hurley said. “They’ll be known collectively as JV until they prove themselves worthy of joining the varsity and earning a nickname.”

Not your typical band

The group’s gigs aren’t pre-booked shows in concert halls, rather impromptu busking-type sessions played in crowded subways, outside stadiums, and on bustling city streets. 

“My favorite thing about it is that most of our material is written in the moment,” Hurley said, noting that the chord progressions are made up on the spot and the lyrics freestyled. “You write a song about a new person you’re hanging out with or the score of the game, a funny time at the bar or the street scene in Brazil we’re looking at.”

Many of their stream of consciousness songs, in a nod to true art, only ever exist once. Some, however, are played again and refined over time to become part of the band’s growing catalogue. 

“We want people coming into it to feel welcome. It’s about the fun, the merriment, the global soccer-sports-music brotherhood that we’ve all come to know and love so much.”

~ Dan Hurley, unofficial musical director of The Home Team String Band, on the 2026 World Cup

And while they’ll mix in some covers — “California Dreaming,” “Hotel California,” and “Born in the U.S.A” are oft-requested when overseas — there’s never anything like a planned-out set list, which appeals to Hurley’s artistic sensibilities. “It’s total musical freedom,” he said.

In addition to the soccer and the music, adventure is a big part of the Home Team’s overall gameplan. On their World Cup-focused trips, they’ve hiked in national parks in Africa, explored the Amazon in Brazil, and embarked on multi-day, self-guided paddleboard trips around Russia’s Lake Baikal (the largest freshwater lake in the world and Tahoe’s sister lake), and the Arabian Sea, including in the Strait of Hormuz. 

When Beckering joined the band for the 2014 Cup in Brazil, he brought along his banjo. The circular part of the instrument was white. One day he drew black markings on it to make it look like a soccer ball, and The Soccer Ball Banjo came to be.   

“If there was a symbol of our band, that would be it,” Raymore declared.   

The band was hitting their stride, but four years later the unthinkable happened: The U.S. failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. “It was shocking,” Salm said. “We didn’t know what to do.”

After some debate, the performers decided the show must go on — a decision that led to perhaps the band’s greatest moment, those days and nights of song and merriment as the house band on the clickety tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The 2022 World Cup, held in Qatar in Nov. and Dec. ’21 to avoid the region’s stifling summer heat, featured another changeup: The vodka-swigging, beer-crushing Home Teamers found themselves in a dry country. So, they traded booze for bikes and began cycling to the games, oftentimes two matches a day, and from place to place with their instruments and antics. “A lot of people over there hadn’t seen anything like us,” Salm said.  

So, what do these 2026 home games mean for the Home Team String Band?   

“We want people coming into it to feel welcome,” said Hurley, who recently wrote a song called “Host the World,” which can be found on YouTube. “It’s about the fun, the merriment, the global soccer-sports-music brotherhood that we’ve all come to know and love so much.”

The Tahoe kickoff party takes place on June 12 at Alibi Ale Works in Truckee to watch Team USA’s opening game against Paraguay. The match starts at 6 p.m., with the pre-party starting at 4 p.m. The bus will be on site for tours and photos, and the boys will play tunes. All ages are welcome and bringing instruments is encouraged. “We’d love to see the biggest street band we can make in downtown Truckee,” Raymore said. 

After that game, the Home Team will put the bus in gear and start attending matches in person. First, it’s down to San Francisco where Levi’s Stadium hosts Qatar vs. Switzerland on the 13th and Austria vs. Jordan on the 16th. Then it’s up to Seattle for Team USA’s highly anticipated June 19th match against Australia. 

But the true destination is the journey — being on the bus and spreading the vibe like some version of the Merry Pranksters with a Pelé predilection and well-tuned instruments. 

“We’ll stop anywhere from a town square to a dive bar or a trailer park,” Salm said. “It doesn’t need to be a million people. We’re not an arena band, it’s about intimate.”

From Seattle, the Home Team dips north of the border to catch New Zealand vs. Egypt on the summer solstice in Vancouver. Then the bus will turn around and meander south to get to L.A. in time for Team USA’s final group match June 25 at Sofi Stadium against Türkiye. 

After group play the teams with the best records will advance to the knockout stages, the details of those matches being unknown until the completion of the first round. “We don’t have any idea yet where we’ll go,” Salm said, the band perhaps leaning into its ability to play things by ear. “We’ll try to follow the USA if we can.”

The Beautiful Game 

Estimates are that 5.8 billion people, roughly 75% of the world population, will view the 2026 World Cup in some form — making it the most watched sporting event in human history. 

Soccer, like music, is truly a global language. While there have been historical instances of violence breaking out between different fanbases, the majority of the sport’s power lies in unification. 

“We may be enemies on the pitch, but before and after let’s put the differences behind us and hang out,” Salm said. 

Not every minute of the band’s travels, however, has been filled with kumbaya. In Qatar, the boys were on a bus before the USA vs. Iran game. The bus was pretty much all Iranians. Some back-and-forth jarring started up that quickly turned heated, the fans at each other’s throats. “For a minute, you thought there was going to be a brawl,” Salm relayed. “But then we came together, like ‘hey, we’re all just human beings here.’”

The two countries are now at war. 

There was a similar time on the Trans-Siberian Railway. “We met this guy who looked like a giant ogre, and we were all kind of intimidated,” Hurley recalled. But that mean-looking Russian played the guitar. And the guys bought him some beers. “By the end of the night he was kissing us on the forehead,” Hurley continued.

The Home Team is about getting past stereotypes, about breaking down barriers of preconceived notions of this country or that culture. 

“Our adventures are a good chance to be face-to-face with people you don’t think you’ll get along with,” Hurley said. “Then you watch some soccer together and play some tunes and see what happens next.”

Mark Twain wrote that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” It seems like the Home Team String Band has picked up on what the author was putting down. Over the past 16 years, the group has set out across the globe to take in four World Cups, creating innumerable moments of beautiful connection between humans of different cultures.  

They have always been visitors in a foreign land, yet wherever they have gone the Americans have been welcomed. This summer, they play host — ambassadors of our nation, doing what they can for international relations and having a good time doing it — one goal, one song, one new member of the Home Team at a time.  

The Sawmill Off Highway 50 Has Been Quiet. Here’s Why.

by Alex Hoeft | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

A Moonshine reader recently mailed us a letter, asking if we could figure out why Tahoe Forest Products (TFP), the relatively new sawmill facility in Carson City just off Highway 50, wasn’t producing. “They’re well stocked with Caldor Fire trees but no sawdust,” he wrote. “I’ve heard rumors, but what are the facts?

Indeed, the facility opened on Dec. 18, 2023, to quite a bit of fanfare — local publications, as well as Bloomberg, reported on just how critical Tahoe Forest Products would be in supporting healthy forests, fire recovery efforts, the local economy, and more.

But our reader is right. Two and a half years later, and TFP is sitting silent. I reached out to Kevin Leary, CEO of Hallador Investments, which is the primary investor in the facility, to understand the latest. ~ AH

There were rumors in late 2025 that the facility was closing and/or reporting bankruptcy. A Carson Now article reported that wasn’t the case, and that the facility was in the process of “retooling and upgrading” operations and machinery. Is that still the status, and how far along are those updates? Will the facility operate at full capacity soon?

Kevin Leary, CEO of Hallador: TFP did pause production in mid-2025 and it remains paused. The sawmill facility was originally designed using the lowest-possible cost machinery, meaning old and heavily used, which was a mistake. Too many breakdowns and too slow a production pace meant the initial facility was not financially sustainable. We also paused construction of the planer mill (which will sit to the north of the sawmill building, closer to Highway 50), to avoid making the same mistake twice. We expect to commence upgrades in June, and to be in production a year from now. More modern improvements will enable the facility to operate sustainably.

“Too many breakdowns and too slow a production pace meant the initial facility was not financially sustainable.”

~ Kevin Leary, Hallador Investments CEO

How is the facility funded, and are there concerns for ongoing financial support?

The company is funded by local private investors who care deeply about our region’s forest health, water quality, recreation, and cost of living (including home insurance costs), and who want to support the local economy. TFP will continue to have the support of the owners as long as the prospect of sustainable operations remains.

How is TFP working to address complaints by neighbors, including noise and bright lights?

Several of our neighbors have direct communication access to on-site management at TFP. In the past, we have worked with neighbors to address specific concerns, including repositioning lights and replacing diesel generators with fixed power. We engaged a local landscaping company to install several hundred thousand dollars [worth] of trees and plants along Bucks Way to the south and west.

We should add that occasionally complaints are directed at us that are not of TFP’s making. There are other tenants on the same parcel, and we have received complaints (e.g. dust) that are outside of our lease area or control. In other cases, loud nighttime noises or truck lights might be attributed to TFP but have nothing to do with the mill.

Is the facility feeling impacts from national changes to the U.S. Forest Service, which is undergoing massive restructuring?

TFP tries to maintain close relationships with the USFS at both the local and national levels. In our view, the goal of the changes underway is to move decision-making to the local level and empower local leadership, accountability, and action. There are layers of hierarchy and bureaucracy that probably should go away, like there are in any organization that has been around over a century. (If the readers want an analogy, they can listen to Jon Stewart interview Ezra Klein, co-author of Abundance, on the rollout of rural broadband, administered by a different federal agency. [Editor’s note: Listen to Why We Can’t Have Nice Things with Ezra Klein on The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart wherever you listen to podcasts.])

Locally, we have seen some disruptions, and certainly some over-extended and tired USFS friends picking up more responsibilities. But our hope and expectation are that the changes result in a localized, commonsense approach to forest management. To that end, the USFS recently awarded our partner, the Washoe Tribe, a 20-year Master Stewardship Agreement to empower the tribe and partners to take on a larger role in planning and implementing forest health treatments.

Are trees from the 2021 Caldor Fire still on site?

Yes, but very few. The logs received in the past two years are from fuels reduction treatments (i.e., green trees, not burned or salvaged) in the Tahoe Basin and surrounding national forests (Inyo, Humboldt Toiyabe, Eldorado, Tahoe) plus a smaller number from neighborhood and HOA fuels reduction projects.

Operating on Moonshine Time

by Alex Hoeft | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

One of the biggest shocks to my system when I — a type-A queen all about quick turnarounds and addressing issues exactly when they arise — joined Moonshine Ink back in May 2019, was adapting to what we at the office call “Moonshine Time.”

As our readers likely know, we are a free, independent monthly print publication with a (again, free) website that includes both print content as well as online exclusives. We put out a roundup of news briefs every Friday, touching on various happenings during the preceding week, from special district decisions to free events to key hirings or departures and so on.

But what we really sink our teeth into is the print edition. The news articles especially are where we dive deep, exploring topics critical to our Truckee/North Tahoe community in ways that haven’t been addressed by any other news organization.

As Mountain Gazette editor and owner Mike Rogge wrote in 2023, “[Moonshine Ink is] holding up a mirror to who we are as a community.”

But as a primarily monthly focused newspaper with a core staff of eight, we have the tricky challenge of considering each edition’s timeline. For example, this edition, June 2026, runs June 11 to July 8. That means we’re planning for July 4 content in early May, when we sit down to discuss the June edition.

When news stories capture the nation’s interest, like the Liberty Utilities and NV Energy debacle earlier this year, we end up in an odd limbo state of watching approximately 1 million other outlets cover the situation while we’re working in the background to pull as many pieces together as possible for a publication date a few weeks out. My story, A Shock to the System, came out a few weeks after said 1 million outlets reported on the situation.

There’s also the controversial herbicide glyphosate being used to treat forests and more in our region. Again, this has been reported on by broader outlets — but we offer an in-depth lens on Truckee/Tahoe impacts.

It can be frustrating, yes (especially for this type-A queen), but I actually don’t mean for it to come off that way. It’s more so an opportunity to educate our readers about how our brains at Moonshine operate. About 80% of the time, we are thinking about what will come out the second Thursday of each month (except January; collective relaxation time for staff), and how our articles will both be as up to date as possible and highly informative.

Does that mean we don’t produce breaking news content? Not at all. We turn out articles on timely information quite often. Most recently, there was the approval of the Village at Palisades development, and the tragic Castle Peak avalanche. In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were constantly updating our readers with daily online updates on the situation. But we only have so many staffers, and as much as I wish otherwise, there are only 24 hours in the day.

To keep up and even expand our ability to cover more and increase publication of those online-exclusive stories, I urge you to consider becoming a Moonshine Ink Member. Like I wrote in a November 2023 Membership update, we want to cover more stories in-depth, but we need help to get there.

Moonshine Ink Vintage 24 Nip 4

by Moonshine Ink Staff | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

To view the PDF of the print edition, click here

The Earth and Stars: 11 June 2026 – 8 July 2026

by Aurora Wellise | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

ASTROLOGY

We jump right into the proverbial pot on June 12 with Uranus — the revolutionary, technology oriented outer planet now in Gemini — squaring the lunar nodes in Virgo and Pisces. Notice collective conversations about technology, communication, and change.

On June 13, Venus moves from the cardinal water sign of Cancer into the fixed fire sign of Leo, bringing warmth, confidence, and heart-centered connection. The Gemini new moon on June 14 holds a light, inquisitive energy that is perfect for socializing, for adventure, and for general connection.

A major collective shift happens on June 19 when Chiron, the “wounded healer asteroid,” moves from fiery Aries into grounded Taurus. This transit asks each of us to deepen our relationship to self-worth, earthly resources, and to what holds true beauty and meaning in our lives.

June 21 marks the summer solstice and the sun’s entrance into the nurturing sign of Cancer. On June 29, Mercury goes retrograde in Cancer and will bring our attention to how we emotionally process and communicate our feelings. This same day, we have a Capricorn full moon; this is a great lunation to revisit long term goals.

Mars conjoins Uranus in Gemini on July 3, generating a potentially volatile and impulsive charge to the collective field. Stay grounded and consider a meditation that morning to help you respond rather than react.

NATURAL MAGIC

The somewhat tense square between Uranus and the lunar nodes invites us to examine our relationship with technology and its impact on our nervous system, our creativity, and our future. It’s an ideal time to commit to a two-week digital detox.

Start simply: create a phone-free hour each day and designate one tech-free space in your home. As you commit to your fast and grow your time away from devices, pay note to what arises. In the beginning, you may feel restless or disconnected, or even a craving for your screens. But stay curious, observing what shifts you notice by day five? By day ten? 

During your detox, keep a journal of your thoughts and emotions. It is also good to start or further draw into an art project, to stretch and move your body more spontaneously, and to catch sunsets (and even sunrises) simply for the sake of their beauty. Notice how the deepness of your sleep will tend to improve, as will the engagement of your conversations. This type of fast will not only offer real, observable change but also gift valuable perspective on your relationship to technology.

Five Generations on Burnham Hill

by Megan Ramsey | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

Three sequoia trees, once 3-foot-tall saplings planted by Clark Burnham in the 1930s on the hillside between Olympic Valley and Alpine Meadows, now tower among the trees of Burnham Hill, marking the passing of time for the family who played and fished and lived below them.

Five generations of Burnhams, and some Hills, have summered at Burnham Hill, when Olympic Valley was known as Bear Valley and Alpine Meadows as Deer Park, and the railroad ran along the river. Purchased from the railroad and lumber companies by Clark Burnham in 1914 after years of visiting Tahoe for summers of flyfishing, the hill on which the cabins are scattered still feels like old Tahoe.

Burnham had considered land in Olympic Valley even before the Poulsens became the first to purchase property there in the 1940s, but opted for the natural springs and proximity to the river his plot provided. The family built its first log cabin in 1915 where Highway 89 now runs by the river and called the land Burnham Ridge. Back then, the children would sleep on fir bough beds in tents.

Barely 10 years after the original cabin was built, the state highway department condemned it along with the river frontage road, leaving the family with no access to the land and cutting the highway across it in the late ’20s. As a result, access to the property is up a steep driveway off Highway 89 between Olympic Valley and Alpine.

The property came to be known as Burnham Hill when Burnham’s daughter married his junior partner in medicine, Harold Hill, and the two families purchased more plots of land to connect a total of 20 acres where the standing cabins still rest. The Hill houses, considered by Clark’s great-grandson Chris Burnham to have been the fancy cabins with a butler, are currently boarded up with no one to care for them.

Though the original cabin is long gone, the others have remained through wartime drafts, wood stove fires, attempted burglaries, further highway easements, Bud Jones’ reign in Olympic Valley, bear attacks, and the first Tevis Cup, the annual endurance horseback ride founded in 1955. Decks and doors have been rebuilt, but Chris still pulls his bed onto the sleeping porch each night to lie under a blanket of stars.

1 of 2

“When my dad was a kid, nobody slept inside,” Chris recalled. “Everybody slept outside. I’m the only one who still sleeps outside.”

Chris grew up just like his ancestors, running through the brush, fishing in the river, and fetching newspapers in the early morning for each cabin in exchange for blueberry squares from a bakery once located where the Olympic Valley 7-Eleven is.

He considers the “Hill” akin to camp in the way it brings people together and holds memories. Each summer, Burnham Hill gathers family, friends, and strangers.

“This is what Tahoe used to look like,” Chris said. “Now it’s fancy houses and weekend homes and that, and this property was designed really for a fishing camp and to keep the history alive of the property.”

Chris’ father, named Clark like his grandfather, is the current patriarch of the Hill and three cabins known as lower, upper, and tent cabins. Everything at Burnham Hill is chock-full of history and hand-built, from the swimming pool fed by spring water to the stonework. The chimney is made from Truckee River rocks, built under the watch of the elder Clark’s wife, Eula, who had broken her neck that summer and lay on a cot outside to oversee construction.

“My dad’s up there,” Chris said. “He’s 84 and he was just painting the rails because of the legacy of it.”

Clark sat on the upper cabin’s deck, wearing painting clothes and the scars of a fluke bear attack. The father and son sat with their dogs and jointly told the story of a summer when Clark was opening the cabins as a bear wandered through the front door following the scent of dog food. Clark didn’t even realize he was bleeding from gashes on his face and arm until he cleaned up after the bear. At the time, the hospital had never treated a bear victim.

“And the funny story was that I figured I won the thing because I was cleaning up the bear poop in there,” Clark said. “I startled and so he pooped, I didn’t.”

These days, Chris is the primary caretaker of Burnham Hill, opening it from Memorial Day to Labor Day and welcoming family and friends throughout the summer, just like his relatives.

“There have been hundreds of people, family, and friends that have come to this property and it left a meaningful thing for them,” Chris said.

The Burnham’s big event, started by Chris’ great aunt Betty, is Fourth of July, when Betty would throw a junk food party for the kids. It wasn’t a good party if there wasn’t a kid that threw up, Chris shared. That standard still holds today as Betty’s legacy continues on.

Market Watch | June 2026

by Dietz Group at Tahoe Luxury Properties | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

Brought to you by TLUXP.com

May marked a decisive shift in the Tahoe market, with sales volume and buyer activity climbing sharply across the board. The Tahoe Sierra MLS recorded 64 total sales — up 49% from April and ahead of the 57 sales logged in May 2025. Truckee had 33 closings at a $1,251,000 median — up from $1,075,000 a year ago. The California Tahoe Basin saw volume nearly triple compared to March, with 31 sales closing at a $1,250,000 median.

Incline Village and Crystal Bay continued to strengthen their position at the top of the pricing ladder with a $2,442,500 median on 18 sales compared to $1,805,000 on just 10 sales in May 2025. The lakefront segment returned, with two sales at a $16,331,500 median. Inventory expanded across all submarkets, and June is shaping up to be an active month.

The Price of Stalled Redevelopment

by Melissa Siig | Jun 11, 2026 | Uncategorized

On a sunny day in mid-May, around 50 volunteers gathered to clean up and beautify the empty lot in Tahoe City that once housed the dilapidated Henrikson building. Demolished in 2019 to make room for the Tahoe City Lodge — a 118-room boutique hotel that was approved with widespread community support in 2016 — the lot has been sitting empty ever since. For seven years, it was a vacant parcel filled with weeds and dirt surrounded by an ugly chain-link fence at the west entrance to town. Many considered it blight.

When the retail store California 89 moved in across the street this past December, owner Lisa Gotts decided she had to do something about the eyesore. She and her two adult children, who run their three stores together, did something that no one — not Placer County, not the Tahoe City Public Utility District — had been able to do: convince the landowner, Kila Properties, to agree to beautify its property.

Gotts put out a volunteer sign-up sheet and a GoFundMe to collect money for what she is calling the Tahoe City Yard — “a grassroots community effort to transform the vacant lot in Tahoe City into a vibrant outdoor gathering space.” She raised $4,300 — $1,000 of which came from Kila Properties CEO Samir Tuma — for cleanup, grading, basic landscaping, and to purchase picnic tables, shade structures, and lawn games. In 24 hours, half the parcel was transformed from an uninviting space into something that resembles a community park.

Despite the good intention of the cleanup, there have been mixed reactions from community members and business owners. Frustrated by the fact that 10 years have gone by since the project was approved with nothing built, some are angry that volunteers are doing work they say the property owner should have done a long time ago. In essence, Kila got free labor (one estimate put it at $12,000 in labor, excavation, and crane work) to improve its property.

To be fair, the development has faced setbacks. In addition to Covid delays and cost increases, it was sued twice — once by the Davis-based California Clean Energy Committee (CCEC) and again by the project’s neighbor, who owned the Bechdolt building. To help settle the second lawsuit and move the hotel forward, Placer County purchased the Bechdolt building for $4 million in 2021, which is another reason why community members are upset — that was a big chunk of taxpayer money that has, so far, not succeeded in moving the needle toward the hotel being built.

There are many ways to look at this issue — is the property owner derelict in his responsibilities or is it too challenging to build in Tahoe? Did volunteers come out to do something good for their community, or were they giving free labor to a negligent landowner?

Either way, there is no doubt that Tahoe City has a redevelopment problem. The other major project, the Boatworks Mall, is facing foreclosure proceedings after MJD Capital Partners failed to pay its property taxes and the service on its $14 million loan. MJD may have been overly ambitious with its plans to build a 79-room hotel, 7,000-square feet of commercial space, and underground parking in a highly regulated and protected area like Tahoe.

And then there is Homewood. Approved in 2011, the ski resort was sued the following year by the CCEC, as well as by the Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore. This delayed the project for multiple years as the cases wound their way through the courts and subsequent appeals. The development is now finally slated to move forward, 15 years after its original approval.

For the first time in years, Tuma recently agreed to speak with Moonshine about the status of the Tahoe City Lodge. He said it has a new joint venture partner and will begin construction next summer. (When I mention this, people point out that we’ve heard this before.)

“I’ve worked in a number of different jurisdictions around California, and Tahoe is the most challenging,” he said. “Had we not had those lawsuits from the environmentalists and from a gold-seeking next-door neighbor, we would have had a hotel there years and years ago. The expense and the real cost to the community of just this endless litigation — there’s a price that gets paid.”

There is indeed a price that is being paid for the delay in redevelopment that the community sorely wants and needs. The question is — who should foot the bill? The developer or the public?