The CDC estimates about 12% of the U.S. population has diabetes, and although measurement methods differed, when compared to 0.9% in 1958, the increase is striking (CDC, 2017, 2026). Prediabetes also affects more than one-third of U.S. adults.
Although genetics, age, and factors matter, eating habits, excess body fat, and physical inactivity are important modifiable contributors to type 2 diabetes.
As a registered dietitian, many clients with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, particularly those seeking weight loss, ask whether I can design a ketogenic diet for them.
Mediterranean, plant-forward, higher-fiber, calorie-restricted, and moderately low-carbohydrate approaches can all help manage diabetes. However, when someone is motivated toward keto and has no contraindications, it can be a viable option.
With a necessarily high fat contribution of 60% to 75% of calories, 20% to 30% from protein, and 5% to 10% from carbohydrates, people sometimes translate this to mean high bacon, butter, cheese, and fatty meat. However, this type of keto may be counterproductive.
Type 2 diabetes is characterized primarily by insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone that ultimately facilitates glucose’s entry into cells. Replacing saturated fat with monounsaturated fat can improve insulin sensitivity (Vessby et al., 2001). I therefore favor nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, and fish over butter, high-fat dairy, and fatty meats. Many animal fats contain substantial palmitic and myristic saturated fatty acids, which have been associated with insulin resistance (Ebbesson et al., 2010).
If done improperly, ketogenic diets can raise LDL and total cholesterol. So, a poorly designed keto diet could improve one metabolic problem while worsening another. When done properly, however, it can raise the favorable HDL cholesterol and favorably lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
Plant fiber actually reduces cholesterol and supports digestive health and gut microbes. The American Diabetes Association recommends at least 14 grams per 1,000 calories. So, adequate fiber intake should be part of a strategic keto diet.
Substantially reducing carbohydrates can reduce post-meal glucose spikes and the insulin needed to manage them and sometimes produce diabetes remission, particularly short term (Goldenberg et al., 2021).
Lower insulin also releases a brake on lipolysis, allowing stored body fat to break into fatty acids and glycerol. The liver can use fatty acids for energy and convert some into ketones. However, increased fat burning does not necessarily mean greater body-fat loss because keto also provides considerably more dietary fat to burn. Losing stored fat still depends largely on energy balance.
Meanwhile, glucagon, a hormone that counterbalances insulin, helps maintain blood glucose through glycogenolysis, releasing stored liver glucose, and gluconeogenesis, making new glucose from substances including glycerol and amino acids.
As liver glycogen declines, ketone production increases. The brain increasingly uses ketones, reducing, but not eliminating, its glucose requirement and potentially reducing reliance on amino acids for glucose production. Ketones may also reduce the liver’s overall glucose output under certain conditions, although gluconeogenesis continues during ketosis (Miles et al., 1981).
Conclusion
Supervised carbohydrate restriction might reduce glucose spikes, medication needs, and body fat. Nutrient-dense carbohydrates could then be gradually reintroduced while emphasizing unsaturated fats, fiber, physical activity, and weight management to improve insulin sensitivity.
Medical coordination is essential. Insulin and sulfonylureas may require adjustment to prevent dangerously low blood glucose. Combining keto with SGLT2 inhibitors can increase diabetic ketoacidosis risk, a potentially life-threatening buildup of acids in the blood.
Keto is neither necessary for diabetes prevention nor appropriate for everyone. However, when blood glucose remains difficult to manage or someone is motivated to try keto, a registered dietitian trained in diabetes care can help make it nutritionally adequate, heart-conscious, and safely coordinated with medical treatment.
About the Author
Patrick Traynor, PhD, MPH, RD, CSOWM, CPT, is a registered dietitian and founder of MNT Scientific, LLC (MNTScientific.com), an insurance-based nutrition practice serving South Lake Tahoe, CA; Minden, NV; and Ashland, OR. He holds the Interdisciplinary Specialist Certification in Obesity and Weight Management (CSOWM) from the Commission on Dietetic Registration. Virtual appointments are available via telehealth. For inquiries or appointments, visit MNTScientific.com, call (530) 429-7363, or email patricktraynordietitian@nym.hush.com.
When it comes to breast cancer and overall health, early detection and routine care can make a meaningful difference.
Regular screenings are an important part of staying well — not just for breast health, but across your lifespan. This guide highlights recommended screenings for women to help support prevention, early diagnosis, and long-term health.
Care for All Ages
– Annual preventive visit – A yearly checkup focused on prevention. This is also a good time to review and update vaccinations.
– Vision exam – Check with your eye doctor: You may need eye exams yearly.
– Mental health screening – At regular visits, talk openly with your provider about stress, anxiety, or mood changes.
– Diabetes screening – Your provider may recommend testing if you have symptoms or risk factors.
– HIV blood test or saliva test – Everyone should be tested at least once.
Recommended Screenings
by Age 20s and 30s
– Blood pressure: at least once a year
– Cholesterol: at least every 4–6 years
– Pap test and/or HPV test: every 3–5 years, depending on the test
– Breast exam: once a year, starting at age 21
40s and 50s
– Blood pressure: at least once a year
– Cholesterol: at least every 4–6 years
– Pap test and/or HPV test: every 3–5 years, depending on the test
– Colonoscopy: every 10 years, starting at age 45
– Mammogram: once a year, starting at age 40
– Bone density test: after menopause
60s and Beyond
– Blood pressure: at least once a year
– Cholesterol: at least every 4–6 years
– Pap test and/or HPV test: every 3–5 years, depending on the test (you may be able to stop screening after age 65)
– Colonoscopy: every 10 years
– Mammogram: once a year
– Bone density test: after menopause
Pregnancy and Postpartum Screening
– Gestational diabetes: after 24 weeks of pregnancy
– Diabetes: within a year after pregnancy, if you had gestational diabetes
Individual screenings are determined by provider and patient. Check with your insurance to find out what preventive care is covered.
Dr. Elisabeth Nigrini is a board-certified OB/GYN physician at Barton Health. The team at Barton OB/GYN offers services to patients from offices in South Lake Tahoe and Minden. Learn more by calling 530.543.5711 or 775.364.1411.
This past Saturday marked 11 years of marriage for my husband and me and we thought the best way to celebrate would be to enjoy the Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk and Shop.
To avoid looking for parking, we decided to park at my husband’s office off Soaring Way and ride our bikes to Downtown Truckee. We rode along Brockway Rd before cutting into Truckee River Regional Park and enjoying the bike path that takes users down to the Truckee River. The short 3.5-mile, mostly downhill ride was the perfect way to get the blood flowing before starting the event.
The event, which runs from the Old Lumberyard all the way through Downtown Truckee featured 32 stops. A younger version of me would’ve tried to hit as many of those stops as possible but current me wanted to enjoy the festivities more responsibly. We picked up our glasses from the Truckee Welcome Center before heading next door to enjoy our first wine of the day at Engel & Völkers.
We then crossed the street to Bar of America. Our goal was to end at Chase International Real Estate where we could drop off our raffle tickets, while making stops along the way.
While the wine was the main event, many of the stops also served food and those stops were the highlight for me. From spanakopita at Bar of America, bread pudding at Wagon Train Coffee Shop, steak with house-made chimichurri sauce at The Social @ Matices to cinnamon roll popcorn, chocolate caramel marshmallow whisky bacon bark and pumpkin spice pretzels from Cherry Bomb Catering at Piper J Gallery, everything we ate was so delicious.
Because it was October, I dressed for fall weather, however Truckee felt more like summer that day. Luckily, Word After Word had a hydration station where they were pouring electrolytes. So we were able to rehydrate while browsing books and escaping the sun for a bit. I thought one of the coolest parts of the event was that it offered Designated Driver tickets. People who weren’t drinking could still enjoy the food and atmosphere and many of the stops served mocktails, all for half the price. It’s the perfect way to make sure everyone can have fun.
We reached our goal destination at Chase, dropped off our raffle tickets and began walking back to our bikes. We stopped into Drink Coffee Do Stuff to enjoy some iced coffees along the way then we hopped on our bikes and headed back to the car. I’ll tell you, the ride back up the hill was not as quaint and relaxing as the ride down but it was a good way to work off some of the food and wine.
All in all, it was an incredibly fun event. My mom and I have already started planning for a family outing to the wine walk next year.
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — Fall in Tahoe is a time to get outside, connect with neighbors, and enjoy the season before the snow starts to fly. The second annual Fall Fest returns to the Village Center on Saturday, October 17, from 12–3 p.m., bringing together local families, friends and neighbors for an afternoon of live music, great food, fall activities and community fun.
Hosted by the Incline Village Crystal Bay Community & Business Association (IVCBA), Village Center merchants, and Tahoe’s Connection for Families, Fall Fest is a free community celebration with something for everyone.
Live music, local food, beer, and wine tasting will make it an easy afternoon to meet up with friends, catch up with neighbors, and enjoy a fall day in Incline. Local businesses and community organizations will also be joining in with booths, activities, and more throughout the event.
For local families, the Tahoe’s Connection for Families Carnival will be a centerpiece of the afternoon, with games and activities for kids. Families can also stop by the Grocery Outlet Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Decorating, build a scarecrow at Sierra Verde, and enjoy fall activities throughout the Village Center.
Now in its second year, Fall Fest gives local businesses and the community a chance to come together and celebrate fall in Incline Village. It’s a chance to spend an afternoon outside, support local businesses and organizations, and enjoy the people and community that make Incline Village home.
Whether you come for the carnival and pumpkins, stay for the music and food, or meet friends for a beer or glass of wine, Fall Fest offers a little something for everyone. Admission is free, and all ages are welcome.
Event Details
What: Second Annual IVCBA Fall Fest
When: Saturday, October 17, 2026, 12–3 p.m.
Where: The Village Center, Incline Village
Featuring: Tahoe’s Connection for Families Carnival, live music, food, beer and wine tasting, Grocery Outlet Pumpkin Patch & Pumpkin Decorating, scarecrow building, games and more
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Vista Rise Collective is teaming up with South Lake Brewing Company to present Drag Bingo on Saturday, October 17, at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by The Twampsons, the evening pairs live drag performances with rounds of bingo and a raffle. With October officially recognized by City Council as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, now is the time to raise crucial funds for local survivors.
Admission to the performances is free. Guests who want to play Bingo can purchase a $25 package that includes one bingo card for each game and one raffle ticket. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. at South Lake Brewing Company, 1920 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Players must be 18 or older, and guests are encouraged to bring cash to tip the queens.
“Drag Bingo is a chance to gather, laugh and celebrate this community in a space where everyone is welcome,” said Chelcee Thomas, Executive Director of Vista Rise Collective. “Every conversation about safety and healthy relationships starts with connection, and an evening like this helps neighbors show up for each other in a fun, inclusive environment.”
Proceeds from bingo cards and raffle tickets will support Vista Rise Collective’s crisis intervention, advocacy and prevention education programs for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in South Lake Tahoe and Alpine County.
Visit vistarise.org/bingo to pre-purchase your tickets, or scan the QR code on the event flyer.
Event details
Event: Drag Bingo, hosted by The Twampsons
Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026
Time: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:00 p.m.)
Location: South Lake Brewing Company, 1920 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe
Admission: Free to watch the performances
Bingo and raffle: $25 for one bingo card per game and one raffle ticket
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe will celebrate a milestone this October as the 33rd Annual Golf Classic marks 30 years at Edgewood Tahoe. Taking place October 17-18, Golf Classic Weekend will bring together golfers, sponsors, community members, and supporters for two days of comedy, creativity, and golf benefiting local children and teens.
For three decades, Edgewood Tahoe has generously donated the use of its golf course and facilities for the Annual Golf Classic. This longstanding partnership has helped make the event a tradition for the Club and the South Shore community, raising critical funds for local youth year after year. The Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe is deeply grateful to Edgewood Tahoe for 30 years of impact.
Joe Praino & Friends: Comedy Show & Dinner
Golf Classic Weekend begins Saturday, October 17, with Joe Praino & Friends: Comedy Show & Dinner at The Barrel Room in South Lake Tahoe. From 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., guests will enjoy live stand-up comedy, a buffet dinner provided by MacDuff’s Pub, and two drinks included with each ticket.
Joe Praino returns to headline alongside guest comedians Howie Nave, Pete Cestaro, Matt Knudsen, and Andy Lazarus. Tickets are $75 per person, and guests must be 21 or older. Purchase tickets at bit.ly/bgclt-comedy-2026
33rd Annual Golf Classic Tournament
The weekend’s highlight is the 33rd Annual Golf Classic at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on Sunday, October 18. All team spots for this year’s tournament have been filled. Golfers will spend the day on Edgewood’s course with food, on-course bars, raffle prizes, and tournament festivities throughout the day.
Additional opportunities remain for businesses and community members to get involved. Hole-in-One and Tee Partner sponsorships are still available, and the tournament will feature an online silent auction and on-site raffle. Donations of gift certificates, products, experiences, services, rounds of golf, golf packages, and other items are currently being accepted.
Paint & Sip Luncheon
For those who want to spend the day at Edgewood, the Paint & Sip Luncheon returns for its second year on Sunday, October 18. Check-in begins at 11:00 a.m., followed by lunch at Brooks’ Bar & Deck at noon and a guided painting experience with Charlotte Castillo from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Tickets are $125 and include lunch, all painting materials, Lava Cap wine, and the guided painting experience. Space is limited and advance registration is required. Reserve your seat at bit.ly/paint-sip-2026.
Now in its 33rd year, the Annual Golf Classic has raised more than $1.1 million for the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe. The Club is grateful to Edgewood Tahoe for 30 years of generosity and to the golfers, sponsors, donors, volunteers, and community partners who have helped make the event possible year after year.
100% of funds raised throughout Golf Classic Weekend help provide affordable after-school and school-break programs, meals and snacks, academic support, and opportunities in STEM, art, sports and recreation, character and leadership development, and social, emotional, and physical wellbeing.
For event tickets, available sponsorship opportunities, raffle donations, and additional information, visit www.bgcltgolfclassic.com or contact golf@bgclt.org.
In investment circles, we often talk about Roth retirement accounts as the “holy grail.” The combination of tax-free distributions, advantageous inheritance rules, no RMDs in retirement and withdrawals that don’t count towards your MAGI (Modified Adjusted Gross Income) for Medicare purposes is hard to beat!
However, it’s important to remember that there are tradeoffs in every financial decision, and even putting or converting money into a Roth account can involve tradeoffs that you may not want to make. After all, your dollars are subject to taxes before they go into the Roth account—the opposite of a traditional 401(k) or IRA account, where your dollars go in tax-deferred.
How, then, would you determine whether using a Roth IRA or a Roth 401(k) account is a bad idea for you?
One factor is how soon you are going to need to access the money. If you are going to need the money fairly soon, any tax-free investment growth benefits to compensate for the tax you paid up front are minimized, if they exist at all. The time and effort needed to set up your Roth account may not be worth it in that case.
A second reason that a Roth account might not be right for you is if your tax rate is higher now than you project that it will be in the future. For many adults in their 40s and 50s, they may be in their peak earning years and therefore are likely paying the highest tax rates of their lives. That is a great time to defer taxes on part of your income by putting away money in a traditional 401(k) or IRA account. It is generally not a good time to pay taxes on your income so that you can put money into a Roth account.
A third thing to consider specifically involves situations when someone is considering converting dollars from a traditional retirement account to a Roth account. In this scenario, income tax is due on the money that is converted. If you need to use retirement funds to pay those taxes, then you will reduce the amount that gets into the Roth account when you convert the funds, and you might very well lose whatever benefit the Roth conversion was going to give you. Plus, if you are below the age of 59 ½ at the time of your conversion, any retirement funds used to pay taxes may be subject to a 10% penalty.
There are many considerations to make when you are deciding whether or not to use a Roth account for your retirement. Roth IRAs, when funded for the right reasons and under the right circumstances, are a great tool. However, as discussed here, there are times when using a Roth account may not be the best option.
How ever you structure your retirement accounts, invest smartly and invest well!
Larry Sidney is a Zephyr Cove-based Investment Advisor Representative. Information is found at https://palisadeinvestments.com/ or by calling 775-299-4600 x702. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell securities. Clients may hold positions mentioned in this article. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Consult your financial advisor before purchasing any security.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – PT Revolution is launching The Climb Lab, a six-week small-group training series designed to help climbers build strength, improve movement, and perform better on the wall.
Hosted across PT Revolution and Blue Granite, The Climb Lab combines climbing-specific strength and conditioning with on-the-wall technique and capacity work. Josh Foster is a climbing-specialist physical therapist and climbing coach with PT Revolution who curated and coaches the program.
“The six-week program will focus on body tension, power, posterior chain strength, proximal stability, movement efficiency, and applying these concepts to technical movement on the wall,” said Josh Foster.
With a maximum of just eight athletes, participants will receive hands-on coaching and the opportunity to apply their training directly to climbing.
Program Details:
Six-week small-group series
Two sessions per week
90-minute sessions
Mondays at Blue Granite
Wednesdays at PT Revolution
Eight athletes maximum
$500 for the full six-week program
Space is limited to eight participants. For more information or to register for The Climb Lab, visit ptrevolution.com or contact PT Revolution.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe is launching its 33rd Annual Golf Classic Silent Auction, an online fundraiser held in conjunction with Golf Classic Weekend, October 17-18. The auction opens Friday, October 9, at 12:00 p.m. and runs through Sunday, October 18, at 5:00 p.m. Open to the public, the auction allows supporters to participate from anywhere, even if they are not attending the tournament.
Featuring a variety of packages and experiences generously donated by local businesses and community partners, the auction offers something for everyone. Highlights include a lakefront getaway at Edgewood Tahoe Resort with a $200 dining credit, a two-night stay at Forest Suites Resort paired with dinner and a massage, guided fishing trips on Lake Tahoe, and golf foursomes at Coyote Moon and Dayton Valley golf courses. Other packages feature local dining and brewery experiences, family activities in Reno, and a camping experience at VanWood: Campout at Kirkwood.
The auction offers a range of opportunities to bid on unique experiences while giving back to the community. All proceeds benefit BGCLT, helping provide affordable after-school and school-break programs, meals and snacks, and enriching opportunities in STEM, art, sports and recreation, character and leadership development, and social, emotional, and physical well-being.
LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – A key measure in tracking El Niño just broke a record. The multi-year climate pattern is based on water temperature and movement in the tropical Pacific Ocean, but to skiers and snowboarders in the Tahoe region, it’s typically synonymous with a great snow year.
Snow levels almost to the sign at Heavenly Ski Resort.Maya Duhl / Tahoe Daily Tribune
The pattern typically brings heavy precipitation to parts of the world, including the Pacific coast of equatorial South America and the southern U.S. As the Tribune previously reported, it could mean above-average snowfall in the Tahoe region this winter.
According to the Climate Prediction Center, the pattern continues to strengthen, and a strong-to-very strong El Niño is likely through early next year.
“Chances remain high for a historic event that would exceed the strength of previous El Niño events dating back to 1950,” the Climate Prediction Center said. “With an event of this magnitude, the chances of experiencing impacts consistent with El Niño are larger, though not guaranteed.”
Yet, in a record-breaking event, sea surface temperature in a specific region of the Pacific Ocean that researchers use to monitor El Niño’s progress just surpassed prior temperatures, exceeding 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
Researchers say this is very significant because this region is typically much cooler this time of year. It’s “an exceptionally warm state for this part of the tropical Pacific,” Jin-Yi Yu a professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, said to Live Science.
Even accounting for the skew from climate-change-induced ocean warming, the measures are still significant.
“On those measures, the current event is already close to being the strongest [El Niño] on record and will likely soon exceed previous records given that the event is forecast to strengthen further,” Timothy Osborn told Live Science. “For some measures, it is already record-breaking for the time of year.”
Yu explained that the ocean region typically warms by 1.8-3.6 degrees F above average, making the current condition exceptionally large at 6 degrees F above average and rising.
“This indicates that a very strong, or what is sometimes called a ‘super,’ El Niño is developing,” Yu said.
LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Firefighters’ hands are sometimes still covered in soot and ash when Mayzie greets them at fire camps. These first responders are usually just coming off the fire line for food, a shower and whatever sleep they can get after 12 hours overnight fighting a fire—before having to go back out and do it all again.
“It’s super important what she does,” Mayzie’s human, Adrienne Steurer, said, “because she doesn’t ask questions about how you’re feeling. She just shows up, and she just offers comfort.”
With perked ears and tan eyebrows contrasting against her black fur, the first responder therapy dog patiently waits in her red vest. No papers seal her place in a fancy K-9 lineage, but the mutt has found her place at these camps, making all the difference in morale for firefighters who are sometimes away from home for weeks at a time.
“Most of them will say, ‘this is the best part of my day,'” Steurer said.
Mayzie and handler, Adrienne Steurer in a REACH helicopter. Provided / Adrienne Steurer
For her dedication, providing over 230 visits to first responders in Northern California and Nevada, where she has comforted over 3,000 first responders, Mayzie has been nominated for this year’s First Responder Paws Therapy Dog Award. The annual contest recognizes first responder dogs across the nation.
In addition to visiting fire camps, these first responder dogs also stop by fire houses and police stations. For Mayzie, that includes the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, Lake Valley Fire, Cal Tahoe EMS and South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue.
“We just come in,” Steurer said, “and you can feel the stress level drop.”
Mayzie isn’t overbearing, jumping up and down; she’s naturally calm, Steurer describes, and waits patiently, letting people come to her.
Mayzie with South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue.Provided / Adrienne Steurer
When first responders do come to her, she leans into them. And once she has their attention, she won’t let them stop petting her, grunting or leaning harder if they do stop.
“Either for her own personal agenda or because she knows that that’s helping them,” Steurer said, laughing, “but she likes to interact with the first responders that way.”
After visiting the South Lake region on summer camping trips, Mayzie and her family recently made South Lake Tahoe their permanent home and now regularly visit first responder posts in the region.
In addition to her certification as a first responder therapy dog, Mayzie has 3 American Kennel Club titles based on behavior and obedience, from basic manners and staying calm in an elevator, to remaining undistracted at an outdoor restaurant or pet friendly store. She also has earned 3 AKC titles for her therapy dog visits.
Being a rescue dog, Mayzie has a comeback story of her own. She was abandoned at a Sacramento shelter around her first birthday. Then, following her spay surgery, Mayzie became extremely sick, experiencing aspiration pneumonia. She endured coughing and being unable to catch her breath for weeks while on IV fluids.
“She almost didn’t make it,” Steurer said.
Miraculously, Mayzie pulled through, and now, at eight years old, continues to shine, whether it’s at a first responder visit or inventorying her neighborhood’s smells on her daily walk.
A public voting period for the First Responder Paws Therapy Dog Award occurs October 5-19.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – For the second year in a row, the Marcella Foundation is running a food drive to help feed community members and support local food pantries. Throughout the month of November, businesses are invited to host a collection bin to accept non-perishable food donations.
As a lead up to Thanksgiving, they are also sourcing high-demand items to create a holiday meal. The Marcella Foundation’s goal is to fill 500 bags of Thanksgiving sides to match a donation of 500 turkeys from the El Dorado County Community Turkey Drive. For the third year in a row, Kings Meats, a butcher shop located on the west slope, is bringing turkeys to South Lake Tahoe, which is spread between multiple organizations, who then pass them out to families. Together, they plan to provide not only turkeys, but a whole Thanksgiving meal to 500 neighbors.
There are multiple simple, yet impactful ways to participate in the food drive and help get food into the community leading up to the holidays. All materials, including the cardboard collection bin, branded tote bags, and flyers, are provided by the Marcella Foundation to get partners onboarded.
If you’re a business, here are ways to participate:
Host a collection bin at your business to have community members drop-off non-perishable food items that volunteers will pick up and donate
Offer Fall Food Drive tote bags for community members to fill up with Thanksgiving sides and drop-off at your business that volunteers will pick up and donate
Have your staff members each fill up a Fall Food Drive tote bag to help reach the goal of 500 bags filled
Donate surplus food from your business–anything from prepared trays of food to wholesale items you cannot use
If you are a business that would like to participate, please visit the website below to sign up, receive your food drive materials, and start accepting donations!
If you would like to participate in the Fall Food Drive in another way, please come to the Marcella Foundation’s Volunteer Kickoff event on October 22nd at Cowork Tahoe at 10am to explore volunteer opportunities, food rescue logistics, and ways to support this work.
All food donations go to local recipients, such as Christmas Cheer All Year, Family Resource Center, Phoenix Food Pantry, Boys & Girls Club, Tahoe Youth and Family Services, SOS Outreach, Catalyst Community, and many more.
To learn more about the Fall Food Drive and to sign up to participate, please visit the website: www.feedtahoe.org/fallfooddrive
LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Outdoor Angels is an online platform facilitating regular connection to the outdoors, while simultaneously offering donation opportunities to organizations stewarding the places explored. The platform just launched in the Tahoe region.
It aims to bridge the gap between outdoor recreation, local businesses, and environmental preservation, incorporating four components on its website:
Matchmaker: An AI assistant that helps users discover destinations, plan activities, and design tailored outdoor itineraries based on preferences.
Natureward: A progress system that tracks time spent on trails, water, and snow, designed to encourage users to build consistent habits outdoors.
Navigator & Provider Network: A directory connecting users to trusted local guides, outfitters, and outdoor businesses.
Stewards Program: Lets users contribute to local conservation nonprofits directly through the planning experience.
The vision for Outdoor Angels started when founder Guy Mikel identified a societal shift away from the outdoors.
“Growing up, spending time outside didn’t require deliberate effort; it was simply part of daily life,” Mikel said. “Modern life requires us to consciously schedule time in nature. Most people express a desire to spend more time outdoors, but figuring out where to start can get in the way. Outdoor Angels is designed to remove that friction, support local outdoor operators, and channel resources back to the organizations caring for our shared lands.”
With its Tahoe launch, Outdoor Angels is running a contribution match for local nonprofits, including the Pacific Crest Trail Association, Sugar Pine Foundation, and Clean Up the Lake.
“We’re grateful to be part of Outdoor Angels’ launch in the Tahoe region and to be included alongside organizations doing important stewardship work across our region,” said Colin West, CEO of Clean Up the Lake. “We love the idea of connecting time spent outdoors with meaningful action to protect the places that make those experiences possible. Lake Tahoe belongs to all of us, and protecting it takes a community.”
Outdoor Angels is matching up to $50 per user from a $25,000 pool.
“In order to keep Tahoe blue, we need to keep our forests green,” a spokesperson from the Sugar Pine Foundation said. “By encouraging people to spend time in the forest, this platform will foster more nature lovers and forest conservationists.”
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The smell of pine grew stronger with each cut at a sawmill demonstration at Lake Tahoe Community College on Thursday.
A mill operator eyes a log at a sawmill demonstration at LTCC on Oct. 1. Katelyn Welsh / Tahoe Daily Tribune
The demonstration is part of a new initiative, called Tahoe Wood, which aims to boost local wood utilization to bolster forest health, reduce wildfire risk and support the local community. The initiative, which started earlier this year, is a collaboration between the Tahoe Earth Institute, Tahoe Prosperity Center, and Berkeley Wood Lab. Other demonstration organizers include the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), Lake Tahoe Community College, South Tahoe High School, Cody’s Tree Service, Sierra Business Council, and Tahoe Resource Conservation District.
In one of four demonstrations throughout the day, a crescent moon of high schoolers, college students and other participants surrounded the portable sawmill and watched as its operator from Cody’s Tree Service transformed trees into two-by-six-inch boards.
The logs came from the campus’s currently under-construction public safety complex and the resulting boards are destined for a bus shelter not far on US-50 and Modesto Avenue.
As part of the South Tahoe High School’s Career & Technical Education program, students will build a bus shelter planned for completion in the spring. The project is funded through California SB 125, which provides funding for transit capital and operational needs.
One demonstration participant, 18-year-old Breslin Hambel, who was born at Barton and grew up hiking and climbing in the area, said the demonstration opened his eyes to the resources around his hometown.
“It’s a good thing,” the South Tahoe High School student said, “being able to use our resources around here instead of collecting them from other areas, when we have the resources right here [and can] put them to use and make our community better.”
The crowds watches the sawmill in operation. Katelyn Welsh / Tahoe Daily Tribune
Erika Veidis of Tahoe Earth Institute explained that after the age of clearcutting in Tahoe during the Comstock era, “We’re finding ourselves on the other side of the spectrum, where there’s not enough industry to support restoring the forests that now need to be thinned.”
With over 100,000 acres in the Tahoe Truckee area targeted for thinning, the Tahoe Wood initiative aims to make the process more sustainable.
Veidis said what is striking about the current lumber industry is that an estimated 80% of lumber products in California are imported from out of state, “something that’s hard to believe given the scale of forest restoration efforts not just across Tahoe, but statewide.“
One challenge Veidis and Tahoe Wood have identified is the time and expense of hauling wood off the landscape following treatment.
The logs came from the LTCC campus where the public training complex is currently being build. Katelyn Welsh / Tahoe Daily Tribune
“This can bottleneck forest restoration and wildfire risk mitigation efforts,” Veidis said. “I’ve seen forest and fire agencies locally having to apply for grant funding just to cover transportation costs of hauling away forest waste – not to mention the time costs of making these trips.”
Trees felled in the Tahoe region are typically hauled 70 to over 100 miles away.
With diesel prices soaring over $8 in the Tahoe Basin, Mike Vollmer, Executive Director for the Tahoe Resource Conservation District, said at the demonstration, “transportation of this material is getting to be close to impossible, and still be able to recover something on the other end.”
At times, the masses of wood from these treatments are left in piles to burn later.
Vollmer went over all the different uses wood from these treatments can have, and that the “lowest possible use is pile burning in the woods.”
Other uses include firewood, conversion to electricity through bioenergy facilities, and its highest use as material to build products like fences or tables.
But to attain these other uses, it again goes back to transporting wood off the landscape.
Tahoe Wood and partners believe a better way is to keep things close to home, which helps address these challenges.
“Using this resource as close to where it grew as possible is probably the best idea,” Frank Cody said at the demonstration, owner of Cody’s Tree Service. “I think that we can do the right thing for the trees while also using the resource rather than wasting it.”
A shift has started in this direction with a number of new wood and biomass processing facilities developing across the region, including the Tahoe Forest Products sawmill in Carson City, the Alpenglow Timber sawmill in Truckee, and the Northstar Community Services District Wood Energy Facility.
Tahoe Forest Products sits near the bottom of Highway 50 as it enters Carson City.Katelyn Welsh / Tahoe Daily Tribune
“Even so,” Veidis said, “we’re still currently facing an excess of wood that has nowhere to go.”
Challenges in meeting these needs include the costs and start-up timelines of larger industrial-scale facilities, which often take millions of dollars and years to get running. Smaller wood operations are cheaper and quicker to start up but lack economies of scale.
The Tahoe Wood initiative hopes to address this locally through a few strategies.
“First of all, we’re networking and raising visibility for the smaller wood businesses that already exist,” Veirdis said, “from tree to log to end product, recognizing that together, many players can have a large collective impact”
Veidis says finding ways to transform this forest byproduct into locally usable materials not only helps the forests and reduces waste, but also benefits the community in other ways, including creating jobs, supporting businesses, and generating revenue that stays local.
An operator at Cody’s Tree Service handles a log during milling.Katelyn Welsh / Tahoe Daily Tribune
Drawing inspiration from regenerative community food systems, Veidis says, “In the same way that it can be important to ‘know your farmer,’ I think it’s also important to ‘know your trees.’ If we know where our trees are coming from, who’s milling the logs, who’s building with this lumber, who’s making our furniture, and so on, we can support the partners and businesses that are helping keep our forests healthy and our communities resilient.”
To support that goal, Tahoe Wood created a directory where people and businesses can navigate the regional wood economy and find local wood-related businesses, including harder-to-find services like lumber inspection and grading or kiln drying.
“For this work to continue to build,” Veidis says, “our region needs effective collaborations, innovation and entrepreneurship, workforce development, funding, and outreach and communications that tell the story of why all of this is important.”
To learn more about the Tahoe Wood initiative, visit tahoeearthinstitute.org/tahoewood.
The cut two-by-six boards. Katelyn Welsh / Tahoe Daily Tribune
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Sugar Pine Foundation (SPF) has been awarded a $22,000 Community Impact Grant from the Tahoe Community Foundation to continue reforesting the Caldor Fire burn scar near South Lake Tahoe. The funding will support the planting of 5,000 native conifer seedlings across approximately 50 acres over the next year, with work concentrated at three priority locations: Fountain Place Road, Hell Hole Road, and Echo Summit.
For many South Lake Tahoe residents, the Caldor Fire is still a vivid memory: the smoke, the evacuations, and the eerie aftermath of a landscape transformed almost overnight. Nearly five years later, the burn scar is in active recovery. Hazard trees along roads and trails have been cut, piled, and removed by logging contractors, and in steeper areas hand crews have piled the dead trees to be burned. Some areas are recovering naturally with a carpet of young seedlings, but many hillsides are filling in with dense, flammable brush (ceanothus, manzanita, and chinquapin) rather than recovering as forest. These areas may not in our lifetime return to the open, shaded woodland that hikers, mountain bikers, and neighbors knew before the fire.
SPF focuses its reforestation efforts on key recreation areas. Strategic post-fire tree planting accelerates forest recovery, and SPF has already seen this play out locally. Following the 2007 Angora Fire, areas where USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU), California Tahoe Conservancy and SPF planted trees now support a young forest over 20 feet tall. In nearby areas where no planting occurred, head-high whitethorn has taken over, nearly impenetrable and dangerously flammable, right next to residential neighborhoods.
“The Caldor Fire scar is at our doorstep and affected many areas we visit on a daily basis,” said Maria Mircheva, Executive Director of the Sugar Pine Foundation. “This grant from the Tahoe Community Foundation lets us accelerate the forest recovery in areas that people in this community hike, bike, and love and bring them back decades sooner than nature could do it alone.”
The recovery of the Caldor burn scar has been a collaborative effort. LTBMU has planted approximately 15,000 trees in the Tahoe basin, while El Dorado National Forest and American Forests have planted an estimated 800,000 trees across the broader Caldor fire footprint. SPF has contributed more than 20,000 seedlings, working alongside these partners to ensure that reforestation reaches priority areas along roads and trails. By the end of next year, partners expect to reach one million trees planted in the Caldor fire scar, one of the most ambitious post-fire reforestation efforts in the Sierra Nevada.
SPF will plant across three focus areas over the coming year. First is the Fountain Place Road corridor home to the popular Upper and Lower Corral, Sidewinder, Armstrong Connector, and Saxon Creek mountain bike trails. Second is Hell Hole Road, a Forest Service Road that branches deeper into the burn area and opens access to interior sites where no living trees remain as a seed source. Third is Echo Summit, where many families have owned cabins for generations and are eager to see the trees come back. Planting here will help restore the forested character that defines the community and the views that people treasure. All sites have been identified and prepared by the LTBMU through a formal environmental review process.
Species selection is guided by elevation, slope aspect, and soil conditions: Jeffrey pine on warmer, drier, exposed slopes; sugar pine in cooler, moister soils on north-facing aspects; western white pine and red fir at higher elevations. To maximize survival, seedlings are planted on the north side of stumps, logs, and rocks which leverage natural shade and cooler temperatures during the critical early years of establishment. Staff will hand-water many of the seedlings through the summer. SPF has formal monitoring plots to track survival after one year and three years in accordance with Forest Service protocol.
“Through our Community Impact Grants, the Community Foundation invests in organizations that are creating tangible, measurable change in the Tahoe region,” said Aimee LaFayette, Chair of the Tahoe Community Foundation’s Community Impact Committee. “The Sugar Pine Foundation is helping turn recovery into action, restoring areas impacted by the Caldor Fire and ensuring future generations can enjoy healthy, resilient forests.”
Community Planting Events Across the Tahoe-Truckee Region
SPF is hosting free public planting events this October across both South Lake Tahoe and Truckee. No experience is necessary as SPF staff provide all tools and instructions. Everyone is welcome!
You can pick up free sugar pine seedlings for your yard at any of these events or at the Incline Recreation Center to plant before the snow falls.
South Lake Tahoe
Sunday, October 11 — Caldor fire scar at Sierra at Tahoe Ski Resort
Saturday, October 24 — Caldor fire scar at Corral Trailhead
Truckee
Saturday, October 10 — Royal Gorge, Donner Summit
Sunday, October 18 — Truckee River Day planting, Sagehen Summit
Saturday, October 24 — Canyon Springs, Truckee
To view the full schedule, or learn more about SPF’s work, visit sugarpinefoundation.org or follow @sugarpinefoundation on Facebook and Instagram.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Barton Health is holding a Community Health Fair, an inclusive event to benefit members of the Lake Tahoe community. The event offers an opportunity to connect with healthcare providers and explore resources to support health and wellness.
El Dorado County Health & Human Services will provide free flu vaccines. Vaccinations reduce the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60% in adults. The annual vaccine remains the most effective way to protect yourself.
Attendees can also meet Barton Community Health Center providers and access blood pressure checks and health screenings, Covered California enrollment assistance, CPR training, family resources and more. Interpretation services will be available on site.
Barton Health’s Community Health Fair will be held on October 22 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Bijou Elementary School. The event is open to all community members, and no registration is required. Attendees are encouraged to bring their family and friends to make the most of this informative and engaging event. A complimentary meal will be provided by Tacos Por Favor.
For more information on available health care services and events, visit BartonHealth.org.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – For public safety, the parking area for Rabe Meadows and the Lam Watah Historic Trail is temporarily closed while contractors grade and pave Kahle Drive as part of the Kahle Complete Street Project. The closure is expected to last through Friday, Oct. 23.
During the closure, parking will be available in the Douglas County parking garage on the east side of U.S. Highway 50.
Kahle Drive provides access to key connections for the Stateline-to-Stateline Bike Trail and throughout Rabe Meadows and the Douglas County community. The Kahle Complete Street Project began construction in May 2025 and is expected to be completed by the end of October 2026.
This Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Project aims to enhance sustainable recreation and transportation by improving public safety, pedestrian and cyclist access, reducing urban runoff into Lake Tahoe, and mitigating wildfire risks and improving the landscape views by burying electrical and communication lines.
Funding for this project was made possible through the Bureau of Land Management’s Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act in coordination with the U.S. Forest Service.
This project is a collaborative effort by Barton Health, Douglas County, Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, Nevada Division of State Lands, NV Energy, Oliver Park General Improvement District, the Tahoe Fund, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
Tahoe Arts Project presents the 13th Annual Dancing with the Tahoe Stars, returning to Bally’s Lake Tahoe on Saturday, October 10,. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30 p.m.
This year, ten local community stars will team up with professional dancers to take on Heroes & Villains, bringing unforgettable characters, creative storytelling and plenty of surprises to the ballroom. After weeks of rehearsals, each couple will take the stage for one night of incredible performances, friendly competition and community spirit.
Couples will compete for the coveted Mirror Ball Trophy while raising funds for Tahoe Arts Project, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing performing arts and cultural enrichment to students throughout the Lake Tahoe region.
Dancing with the Tahoe Stars has become one of Tahoe’s favorite fall traditions, bringing the community together for an unforgettable night while supporting Tahoe Arts Project’s arts education programs for local youth.
Join Tahoe Arts Project at Bally’s Lake Tahoe and cheer on your favorite stars as our Heroes & Villains take the stage.
Tickets available at tahoeartsproject.tix.com
Donate to your favorite couple at tahoeartsproject.org
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – David Burke’s “What’s Left Behind” opens at Lake Tahoe Community College’s (LTCC) Haldan Art Gallery with a reception Thursday, Oct. 8, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. It marks the U.S. debut of paintings Burke made in Rome 26 years ago.
David BurkeProvided
Burke is an Oakland-based artist. He created the “Building Blocks” series in Rome, Italy, for his master’s thesis exhibition at Tyler School of Art. When that show came down, the paintings went into boxes and stayed there through decades of moves. Burke opened the boxes for the first time this summer.
The exhibition hangs “Building Blocks” next to the later work it led to. That includes forests growing through pipelines, ink drawings of mutated animals, paintings made inside a Montana copper mine, and toxic playgrounds. Burke describes his work as “large scale, fractured landscapes that portray instances where industrial and natural forces coexist harmoniously or collide in destructive ways.”
“I didn’t know it at the time, but this series laid the foundation for everything I’ve made since,” Burke wrote in his artist statement. He hopes the pairing shows students that “the seeds of your practice get planted early, often before you know what you’re growing.”
The reception is free and open to students, staff, faculty and community members. Light refreshments will be served.
Event Details
What: Opening reception for “What’s Left Behind” by David Burke
When: Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Haldan Art Gallery, Lake Tahoe Community College, One College Drive, South Lake Tahoe
SALINAS, Calif. — The Lake Tahoe Community College men’s cross country team captured fifth place out of 15 teams with a score of 134 at the Pink in the Park Invitational.
Sophomore Elijah Gilleland crossed the finish line in sixth place overall with a season-best time of 20:59.1. He was followed immediately by fellow sophomores Kyle Oltmanns and Jacob Manning, who also secured top-10 finishes and season-best marks to form a dominant lead pack. Oltmanns took seventh at 21:14.9, while Manning placed eighth after clocking 21:16.3.
Kenton Girt provided crucial scoring depth in the middle of the field, finishing 52nd overall with his own season-best time of 22:41.5. Freshman Richard Stites rounded out the scoring five for LTCC, placing 69th with a time of 23:13.2.
Shivraj Dhillon also competed for the Coyotes, finishing 83rd with a time of 23:54.4.
Who doesn’t love that cozy autumn feeling of walking to your mailbox, or a drop box, or an in-person voting center to cast your vote for local, state, and national leadership?
2026 is a midterm year, meaning no voting for the U.S. president and vice president. With that spotlight off, local races receive more, much-deserved attention. Ideal, since that’s where voters have the most power to effect change. But without presidential candidates on the ballot, there tends to be considerably less participation. In 2022’s midterm election, 36% of California’s voting age population cast a ballot compared to 53% in 2024’s general. In Nevada for those same years, 41% bumped up to 58%.
The irony isn’t difficult to spot: Rules and codes over local development, utility rates, transportation options — these and hundreds more decisions happen in your neck of the woods and are made by the people you vote into office. But it doesn’t have the same drama or them-versus-us vibe, so it might not feel as critical to participate.
We hope reviewing the answers provided by candidates in the following pages adds a reason to your pros and cons list about voting on or before Nov. 3. There are very real issues at hand and critical decisions being made, and who you vote for could turn the tide one way or the other.
For our election coverage in our October edition, we took a methodical approach to the jurisdictions and special districts featured: Those we questioned in person as part of the Truckee Candidate Forum on Oct. 8 — Truckee Town Council, Tahoe Forest Hospital District, and Truckee-Donner Recreation and Park District — were not included in print. (You can re-watch those forums, which took place Oct. 6 and 8, at ttm.ompnetwork.org.
A North Shore Election Forum took place Oct. 6, where state candidates participated in a Q&A. Find the recording at firsttuesdaybreakfastclub.com.
Incline Village Crystal Bay Business Association is hosting an IV-CB Community Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. in the Duffield Theater at Incline High School. It will be broadcast live and available afterward at youtube.com/@iv-cbcommunityforum9730.
We also touch on Measure P, which goes before all voters within the TTUSD boundaries.
You’ll find three district-specific questions asked of the candidates, who were allowed no more than 125 words in response per answer. Please sit with their answers and mull over who you believe would best fill an empty seat on a board, then responsibly fill out your ballot and cast your vote by Nov. 3. A healthy democracy depends on participation.
For uncontested races and other information, view our 2026 Election Tracker at tinyurl.com/5f4w5j4c.
Residents must register to vote by Oct. 19. Same-day voter registration is possible, but must be done at a county elections office, polling place, or vote center. Visit caearlyvoting.sos.ca.gov for a list of early voting locations.
Residents must have registered to vote in person or by mail by Oct. 6. Same-day voter registration is possible and must be done in person at a polling location. Visit tinyurl.com/mrfcsc7p for a list of early voting locations.
Two years ago, the Incline Village General Improvement District was in a precarious spot. Fraud allegations, financial issues, failed recalls, and a general manager spot that couldn’t seem to be kept filled — interim GM Bobby Magee, who resigned after three months, followed by Kent Walrack, who lasted a similar length of time before being terminated by a new board. That same month, January 2025, the still-current GM, Bob Harrison, was put in place.
Earlier this summer, Trustee Mick Homan wrote a piece for Moonshine saying that at long last, things are looking up. “With key hires in HR and finance to supplement the existing team, focus shifted to three priorities,” he wrote. “Improving organizational health, restoring financial discipline, and advancing long-term capital planning.”
The shape of that progress looks different to different people. There are three candidates running for two seats on the IVGID Board of Trustees, with only one incumbent running for reelection: David Noble. That means there’ll be at least one newcomer, either Harry Swenson, who ran in 2024, or Ryan “RB” Brooks. The candidates touch on cost discipline, transportation, and utility management.
Candidates were limited to 125-word responses per question, and they have been edited for style and clarity. Order of replies determined by a randomizer.
1. Public transportation has been identified as a critical option to reduce traffic, lower pollution, expand mobility, and more. December 2025’s cancellation of TART (Tahoe Truckee Area Regional Transit) Connect’s microtransit services and the Aug. 1, 2026, discontinuance of IVGID’s Senior Transportation Program have created a gap in public transportation needs across Incline Village/Crystal Bay. What do you see as the most critical way(s) IVGID can support or encourage expanded public transportation options?
Brooks: The end of these programs left us without on-demand transit for the residents who depend on it most: seniors, workers, and people without a car. As I see it, IVGID’s most critical role is to restore service quickly and on solid legal footing. IVGID’s counsel has advised that [Nevada Revised Statute] 318 doesn’t allow the district to operate transportation directly. Rather, we should let a local 501(c)(3) run the service and receive state and federal funding directly, including [Nevada Department of Transportation’s] [Federal Transit Administration] Section 5310 and Older Americans Act funds and Washoe County senior service contracts. IVGID’s role would be to convene partners and help prepare grant applications. Any direct financial support would be reviewed by legal counsel first, so we don’t trade one lawsuit risk for another.
Editor’s note: Words in brackets were added by editors and do not count against word count.
Noble: IVGID representatives have been in discussions with county representatives since April to strongly encourage restarting/funding TART, which would assist all residents, including seniors. Those discussions have included the use of at least some of the taxes generated from STRs in unincorporated Washoe County (over 90% of those revenues come from STRs in Incline Village and Crystal Bay), which currently go to the county, Travel North Tahoe Nevada (formerly the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau), and the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. Unfortunately, IVGID is prohibited from providing public transportation service, unless it is tied to at least one of IVGID’s recreation venues.
Swenson: I would work with the board and amend the long-standing contract with Washoe County to ensure senior transportation services are fully funded by the county and are consistent with services offered in other towns/districts of the county. For instance, the county provides discounted Lyft rides and taxi services for seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income residents. We need to ensure our community is aware of the services available.
IVGID has the responsibility of providing transportation according to the contract with Washoe County; therefore, the elimination of services was wrong. The problem appears to be budgetary and due to the services provided by IVGID going beyond what the county provides in other communities. Services should have been reviewed and refined rather than eliminated.
2. IVGID provides essential utilities while also operating an extensive recreation system. How would you determine which responsibilities should take priority when the district faces competing financial, infrastructure, and community needs?
Swenson: Maintaining and updating our water and sewer infrastructure is critical. Much of it is still original and in state of disrepair. We’ve had too many water main and line breaks. We need to budget and execute on a plan to get it upgraded and properly maintained. At the same time, we need to make the maintenance of our existing facilities, such as the recreation center, a priority. We should budget for these things first and then determine what additional projects can be accomplished. Only projects that can be delivered should be contained in the budget that results in your beach and recreation fees. This would resolve the over-collection of fees from our community while keeping our facilities in good repair.
Brooks: Tier 1 – Public health, safety, and legal obligations. Water, sewer, and effluent systems come first because they protect residents and the lake, and regulations aren’t optional.
Tier 2 – Taking care of what we already have. Before paying for anything new, IVGID should fully fund the repair and replacement of its existing pipes, pumps, facilities, and equipment.
Tier 3 – Core recreation at the heart of our community. Each IVGID facility should be evaluated on cost, usage, and how close it comes to covering its expenses. But keep a holistic approach.
Tier 4 – Wants. New amenities, expansions, and nice-to-haves come last.
Three rules would guide me in how I apply this:
Keep the money where it belongs.
Plan on a five- to 10-year horizon.
Show our work.
Noble: Water and sewer services take priority over all recreation venues because those services are essential to daily life. IVGID recently completed the effluent export pipeline project under Highway 28 — a $62 million-plus project finished a year ahead of schedule and $13 million-plus under budget. Looking forward, I believe reinvestment in IVGID’s water service and ski area should be priority. Wildfire preparedness measures (pipe replacement, backup generators, etc.) need to be accelerated for our water delivery system to be better prepared for future wildfire events. Diamond Peak is the only venue that generates a profit for the community ($1 to $5 million/year), yet no meaningful investments have been made in nearly 20 years — lodge, lift, and snowmaking upgrades are long overdue to address declining skier visits.
3. The past few years have seen ups and downs in the facility fee amounts district property owners pay annually. For example, in the fiscal year ending 2023, residents paid $780. In 2024, that amount dropped to $455. In 2026, due to impacted district finances, the annual fee went up to $1,375. The current IVGID board said the latest increase will help ensure district financial stability and the ability to manage current and future capital facilities. Do you think the board and staff have handled the financial instability well? How would you seek to maintain or improve district financial management moving forward?
Noble: The facility fee was kept flat from 2010 to 2023, while construction, labor, and food prices rose considerably over that period. The fee went up to $1,375 to begin addressing years of deferred maintenance and capital projects that languished due to analysis paralysis. I led the effort in early 2025 to hire IVGID’s new GM, who has rebuilt the finance department. We now have the right personnel in place for IVGID to comply with all applicable fiscal and accounting protocols, resulting in a clean (no exceptions or disclaimers) [Fiscal Year] 2025 audit. IVGID will be removed from the state’s fiscal watch list once the anticipated clean audit for FY 2026 is filed in November, which will enable IVGID to access additional financing tools for future projects.
Swenson: IVGID is collecting money for projects without the ability to complete in the budgeted year for many years; it’s resulted in excessive cash reserves. The excessive cash build-ups have also allowed your money to be used where it wasn’t intended or budgeted. The lower-fee years were during a time when the board linked the fees to the ability to deliver projects and services; they didn’t over-collect but collected for what was achievable. Last year’s capital improvement plan was for $30 million of projects and barely executed on $6 million. Now, with the tripling of fees, they’ve collected another $40 million out of your pockets. The board needs to budget and collect only for projects and services it can deliver, nothing more. Apply proper fiscal management!
Brooks: The current board and staff faced the problem honestly. They built a long-term capital plan, ranked the most critical projects, and stabilized the general fund. The effluent pipeline replacement finished a year early and under budget. That’s real progress.
Going forward, I would:
Instead of raising fees, pursue cost savings and revenue generating opportunities. For example, we have a $400,000 line item for the replacement of golf carts. Let’s solicit sponsors like Titleist or Nike to brand and sponsor the golf carts.
Index the fee to construction costs every year with a published formula.
Autumn Color Reflected in the Twilight
Caples Lake, Calif.
Fall is here, and for photographers, it’s the most exciting time of the year. Grab your gear and head to the mountains. Great images may seem easy, but capturing world-class ones is not as simple as it appears. I have five key elements that I look for in a single image:
1. Color: The sky and landscape should be bursting with color. Brilliant blue skies, glowing sunsets, and vibrant fall foliage make images pop.
2. Water: I prefer a one to three-second exposure to soften the water into a creamy flow of motion. Reflections double the foliage and sky color, creating beautiful, mirrored compositions.
3. Strong Compositions: Find a solid center point, such as an is
olated tree or a splash of color. Your eye should wander around without being led out of the frame. S-curves and diagonals make images more dynamic.
4. Old Things: Ghost towns, dilapidated buildings or barns, and remnants of bygone eras are not only enjoyable to discover, but they are often weathered, rusted, or in disrepair, captivating viewers.
5. Weather: Clouds, snow, and rain can all enhance an image. Cloudy days reduce the contrast of shadows. The first snowfall of the year is a must-see, and a gentle rain to wash away dust is always welcome.
I haven’t yet captured a photo that incorporates all five elements, but I’ll keep trying!
It being a midterms year, Moonshine Ink sought to create a political education column, speaking with academics on the state of politics in the country. In this edition of the Politics Brief, Moonshine spoke with Teaching Assistant Professor Owen Fite, Ph.D., from the University of Nevada, Reno’s political science department. Answers were lightly edited for style and clarity.
You teach a class on political philosophy, so I’m wondering if you can define democracy and tell me about how it has evolved since its creation? Why didn’t the founding fathers go with a direct Athenian democracy?
To give the general synopsis of what Athenian democracy was, it wasn’t monolithic, it wasn’t static. It changed over different years in which it existed. But the most radical take … that I think is worth juxtaposing from today is a democracy in which you had 6,000 citizens who showed up to the Pnyx — the assembly. It’s this hilltop in Athens. And the first 6,000 citizens that showed up there got to be essentially congress members for the day.
Those citizens would be voting yea or nay on the various proposals that were submitted by [a] council of 500. This was still restricted to Athenians, even if there were other city-states and areas that were under Athenian rule. This was still a very exclusive form of citizenship that also did not include women or children or slaves. But these people also were paid.
As a way to make this more accessible even to the poor, you could get paid essentially a day’s wage to show up and do your citizenry duties. And so you had a form of citizenship that allowed for such participation and allowed for real engagement, whether it’s because you were picked by lottery to be one of these more deliberative council members in this smaller body of 500, or you always having this right to show up early to this assembly with 5,999 other folks and vote yea or nay on these various proposals. I don’t think I need to explain to you how different that is from democracy today.
Aristotle gives you a theory as to three noble forms of government — what are pure, virtuous forms of government: benevolent kingship, aristocracy, and polity, or what also might be translated to a constitutional polity of sorts.
The perverted forms, or the forms of government that end up taking shape if the noble ones end up being corrupted, are: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Democracy is seen as mob rule, rule of incompetence, rule of those who are subject to material needs. In other words, people are selfishly going into these assemblies looking for what they can get. If they don’t have their needs met, they’re going to be even more desperate and selfish instead of deliberating and thinking of a collective communal good.
And it isn’t until we get to John Locke and what we would call the introduction of liberal democracy that we get kind of this 180, where we get essentially the English Civil Wars, and we get this re-understanding that government is based on consent, individual’s agreement to enter into a social contract and accept legitimate authority.
[The founding fathers] had a lot of liberal ideas to pull from, they draw from Lockean philosophy, and so they have the basis of a liberal democratic government, but one that is still supposed to be based on rationalism, that is still supposed to exclude women, those who are not educated enough, like children, those who are supposed to only be property owning. In other words, still this idea that those who can’t provide for themselves are going to corrupt a public body, seeking their own selfish good if they don’t have their own material sustenance met.
And what one could clearly argue as real skepticism of the everyday citizen, the fact that the Senate was not able to be elected until we get to the 1900s shows that the founding fathers didn’t want everyday people in charge of affairs. The fact that the electoral college existed meant another layer of insulation in which individual people could not express their concerns. By just keeping it in the House of Representatives, it allowed some sort of representation based off citizens, which is still a very exclusive circle.
Not everyone could be a citizen … that would be specifically capped by a Senate. It’d be capped to really make sure that all these warnings made by political philosophers over the last thousand years [about] a tyranny of the masses, a tyranny of the uneducated, would never really take shape.
ZOON POLITIKON: Politics isn’t simply Congress or voting, says Owen Fite, it’s the network of relationships and decisions that shape how we live together. File image
As politics becomes wrapped up in every facet of life, what would you say to somebody who says that they’re not political? How does this tie into Aristotle’s idea of the zoon politikon?
Zoon politikon translates to political animal.
And this is an assumption made by Aristotle that people are political creatures. In other words, politics is not something we should avoid. Politics is the very essence of being human.
The fact that humans have ideas of what is good and bad, what’s better and worse, what is righteous, what is sincere, what is emotion, these are all very human things. And all of this has to do with politics. In order to understand this you have to have a more capacious definition instead of an institutional definition of politics just being Congress or voting.
But politics at its origins is the practice of compromise, of agreeing. Well, that’s what it’s like to be a person. The only way one could avoid politics would be living out on an island by themselves with no interaction with anyone else.
But even that is still the consequence of politics. For example, [if] some different treaties or different governments agreed not to populate this one island,[then] even if someone avoids all politics, the very absence of politics … requires politics elsewhere. And so that’s a different answer, though, to how someone who tells me they’re not political, how I’d respond to them.
I would do a long Socratic kind of back and forth if I had all the time in the world and I was invested in really getting this through. I would ask, ‘What does it mean to not be political?’ I’d throw it on its head. And if someone said, ‘Oh, it’s just I like my job and I like watching my TV.’ I’d ask, ‘Well, how do you have your job? What are the economic forces at play? What are the facts of insurance, the subsidies, the workplace protections, the fact that you have a home, the zoning, the roads that get you from here to there, the fact that you have TV, that you have internet connection here and there, that everything that leads to you being a part of another’s world, that’s political.’
It is interesting because I feel like some of the people I’ve talked to think it’s pointless. They think that they don’t have influence, or maybe they think that there’s no point in voting in the presidential election because they think that the only potential power that they have is within local elections.
What I would call a meaningful distinction of what you brought up is the difference between having agency and influence versus control and masterdom. Yeah, people in the U.S. right now do not have control over their politics.
They do not have a masterdom over politics unless they are one of those few exceptions of a political party elite or Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos-type billionaires. That doesn’t mean someone doesn’t have influence. If I were to have a conversation with individuals, I would probably take it as local, scaled down as possible to think of what influence have you had on friends, on family, on the community, and I would interrogate them or challenge them to say, how is that apolitical? You convincing a friend to watch a certain show over another, going to this event versus another, joining this club, spending their time doing this and that.
Whether they’re subtle or not, they have interconnections with ideas of what is better, what is worse, what are ways that we want to associate, we want to cohabitate, we want to live together, what institutions we want to make, whether they’re formal or informal.
What I problematize about the definition that you cited is that it’s really restricted by an institutionalist type of thinking that, yes, if you only work with institutions and you expect institutions to completely reflect what you want, it’s going to feel like you have no agency, but that’s only one avenue of politics.
The most radical changes over history, the biggest political change happens outside of formal institutions. It creates new institutions over time. You as an individual are not going to do that. You don’t have that control or masterdom, but that’s where you don’t get these big critical junctures until it actually takes up across a large group, a large mass of people.
We go back to the heart of it, which is politics only exists with others. You as an individual are not going to change everything in politics by yourself. It’s all part of a collective action problem, a collective effort.
Three seats of the five seats on the Truckee Fire Protection District board are up for the midterms, but none of them are seeking reelection, which means come Jan. 1, 2027, there’ll be three new faces overseeing the fire district’s budget, policies, and overall services for the community. This is especially notable considering the district’s current legal battle against Placer County over property tax allotment, such impending capital projects as a new headquarters fire station, and the recent union formation.
Candidates were limited to 125-word responses per question, and they have been edited for style and clarity. Order of replies determined by a randomizer.
1. Truckee Fire says a decades-old property-tax allocation problem in Placer County has cost it roughly $40 million since the 1970s. What is your understanding of the district’s claim, and what role should the board play in pursuing a resolution that supports reliable fire and emergency medical services while considering the impact on other taxing agencies? (Read more on this situation at moonshineink.com: Truckee Fire Sues Placer County Over Decades of Unpaid Property Tax.)
McThorn: Unfortunately, there is a confidentiality clause with the legal case, and I do not have all the factual information. Once on the board, I can better understand the issue. From what I know, this should have been addressed many years ago by prior chiefs and boards.
I am not for taking from other special districts within Truckee. This appears to be the threat from Placer County and am not sure that is legal. If the case is won, it should come from the Placer County general fund and not our special districts. Moving forward, the funds should be allocated appropriately to Truckee Fire. If elected, I will share all factual information that is legally allowed so we can move forward responsibly.
Rintala: The district has not been receiving funding from the fire service taxes paid by residents in a portion of Placer County. The district has spent many years trying to resolve this with Placer County. The fire taxes other district residents pay should not have to make up for the funding removed from our region. As a community member, I am not convinced that our local agencies are overfunded by the taxes collected for the TFPD, as the county suggests. The board should seek out and review available information and pursue the case with the entire community we serve in mind. The district should also be ready and willing to engage with other agencies to understand potential impacts.
Witherspoon: Truckee Fire deserves fair, durable funding without destabilizing schools, healthcare, sanitation, or neighboring districts. I reviewed the Zone 7 tax-area records, and the allocation snafu locked into place after Proposition 13 is there for anyone to see. The sanity check is whether Placer County or Northstar [Community Services District] would provide fire protection with those allocations. Quite simply, they wouldn’t. Correcting this historical imbalance will have a financial impact on the county and/or our local special districts. The board should protect the district’s legal position while making settlement the priority. I would require transparent reporting on legal costs, verify the service-cost analysis, and bring Placer County and affected agencies into structured negotiations.
Brown: The lawsuit is active against Placer County by Truckee Fire. This case should be guided by fairness, fiscal responsibility, and what is legitimately owed to our fire district. We have been pursuing a fair resolution with Placer County for decades; with better communication this could have prevented the lawsuit. While retroactive funding may not be recoverable, we should establish a fair path forward. Our emergency services remain unchanged for these areas while local taxpayers bear the costs. I believe there are sufficient resources to reach an equitable solution without negatively impacting other agencies. The court should make a ruling and Truckee Fire will acceptingly move forward. If settlement is needed, I would support collaboration, transparency, and a fair outcome for all involved.
Golden: I completely agree that we cannot take resources away from our schools or healthcare district. A zero-sum fight between local emergency services and education is not the answer.
At the same time, we have to be honest about the problem. Billions of dollars of development have occurred in the Martis Valley, creating more people, more homes and more fire risk, while Truckee Fire remains understaffed. I believe Placer County needs to be part of the solution. We should work toward a long-term agreement that better recognizes the cost of protecting these communities.
My goal would be simple: make sure the tax revenue generated here is helping provide the services needed here, while working with our neighboring agencies rather than taking resources away from them.
2. Significant capital projects are on the horizon for Truckee Fire, including Station 90, a new headquarters fire station, and a regional training facility for Truckee and its partner agencies. What are three specific ways the board of directors might hold the line on fiscal discipline during the planning and implementation of these and other projects?
Golden: Fiscal discipline doesn’t mean saying no to every major project. It means making sure we’re building what our community actually needs and getting the most value for every taxpayer dollar.
I’m particularly supportive of seeing the regional training facility through because I believe it can make Truckee and our neighboring agencies better prepared while sharing cost and resources. I would work directly with partner agencies to make that happen.
Training matters. Firefighters cannot be expected to perform at their best during a structure fire if they can’t regularly practice those skills. Technology, equipment, and fire behavior continue to change, and we have to keep our firefighters current. I would expect strong budgets, accountability, and regular oversight while investing in training that keeps our community safe.
McThorn: The new station 90 is still in the early phase and changes can be made. From what I know, there is not a definitive funding plan. There should be a collaborative effort moving forward with all stakeholders, Transient Occupancy Tax, and community input. Fiscal responsibility is always a priority with public funds. It is a good plan with an attached fire station from what I have seen.
The need for a regional training facility should be a priority. Our goal should be to keep our firefighters within or close to our district when training. Training is a top priority, and Truckee is one of the most uniquely challenged areas in the country. Our firefighters need to be ready at all times.
Rintala: With three new board members, the prospective capital projects should be reviewed starting with a thorough needs and benefits analysis as we look to modernize and grow with our community. The district is healthy and should explore accessible funding options while prioritizing the most important capabilities we can afford to pursue. These are high-impact projects that can improve capability and service quality if well planned. A fire station is a large investment. Community-supported funding must be considered in the context of overall community needs, aging infrastructure, and resource availability. The board needs to honor and protect the existing partnership with voters that brought us wildfire risk reduction through Measure T funding and plan to build forward in concert with other community providers.
Witherspoon: Representing taxpayer interests starts well before construction. Station 90’s 18,000-square-foot concept carries a preliminary estimate of about $24 million. At that scale, the district must validate and prioritize needs, compare smaller and phased alternatives, identify external funding, and show that construction will not weaken reserves or service levels. Any capital plan must address upgrades to aging stations and prioritize the highest needs. For greenlit projects, I would require updated cost estimates and public board approval at design milestones, bid awards, and significant change orders. For a regional training facility, each partner’s capital contribution, operating share, governance rights, maintenance obligation, and exit terms should be documented before Truckee commits. We should fund what crews need, what population growth demands, and what the tax base can sustain.
Brown: I believe a new fire station can be an important investment in our community’s safety, but we need strong safeguards before committing significant taxpayer dollars. I would support a thorough feasibility study, independent cost estimates, realistic construction timelines, and a clearly defined project scope. The board should establish a firm budget with appropriate contingency reserves, require competitive bidding, and have any significant scope or cost changes return to the board for approval.
We should also evaluate long-term operating and maintenance costs, secure outside funding where possible, and regularly review the project against established milestones. Most importantly, the community deserves transparent reporting throughout the process. Good planning means anticipating challenges before they become expensive problems and ensuring we build what Truckee needs while protecting taxpayers.
3. Earlier this year, Truckee firefighters joined the Sierra Nevada Firefighters Local 3800 union. What changes, if any, have you observed in the district’s internal communication, collaboration, or service delivery since then? As a board member, how would you support a constructive working relationship among executive staff, the board, and union members?
Brown: I respect the employees’ choice to go union and encourage good collaboration. The transition and relationship are new and priorities should be open communication to build trust, accountability, and a strong working relationship. We can work together to build a problem-solving partnership and I’m positive the union relations will continue to develop. Since the unionization, the board has approved a change in service for the better with regard to daily minimum staffing levels. The staffing levels are now increased by two personnel, making a mandatory of 10 personnel. This is an important improvement from the previous minimum staffing of eight. There is always room for revision and conversation to increase these levels in the future based on district needs and fiscal availability.
Golden: I believe the most important thing is that everyone remembers we’re on the same team. Our firefighters, executive staff, and board may have different perspectives, but we all have the same responsibility: providing the best possible fire and emergency medical service to our community.
Since firefighters joined Local 3800, I believe the board should embrace that relationship, not treat it as an obstacle. I would make a point of listening to our firefighters and understand what they’re seeing on the ground, while also respecting the responsibilities of the chief and board.
Good organizations communicate openly, address problems directly, and hold each other accountable. I would work to build that relationship: one that’s based on respect, transparency, and a shared commitment to the people we serve.
McThorn: Since unionizing, the internal communication seems to be strained. With my experience in labor and management communications and negotiations, I will bring stability, open lines of communication, and straightforward discussions. I have learned over my career that such communication will always prevail. It will unify and gain trust among labor and management and build a stronger fire district. The firefighters and prevention officers are front line and have the best insight for positive change. As a board member, I would like to see monthly labor and management meetings with set achievable goals, and a monthly report to the board. To be a truly effective union it takes the labor group to be proactive and communicate factually. We must work together to better serve our community.
Rintala: The union relationship is new and all parties still have to learn how to work with each other under a new system. Attending board meetings over the last year and listening to firefighters, I’ve observed difficulty from all sides while individuals remain mission-driven and strive to deliver outstanding service to our evolving rural community. TFPD’s extraordinary firefighters, staff, and leaders work with many response partners for rapid, scalable, and reliable emergency response. The national advocacy from the union promises to bring guidance to our team that helps keep our firefighters, residents, and visitors ever safer in emergencies. The board should actively guide respectful engagement from the boardroom to the front line putting our community and our Truckee Fire team ahead of turf battles.
Witherspoon: I am not inside the organization and will not claim firsthand knowledge of private workplace dynamics. Public statements surrounding the unionization suggest employees wanted a more consistent voice in district decisions. I have seen no evidence that unionization has diminished service, and I support employees finding a constructive way to be heard. I welcome the perspective a regional union can bring from peer fire districts. As a board member, I would support scheduled labor-management meetings, anonymous employee climate surveys and more transparency with staff, e.g., livestreaming board meetings so employees can follow them remotely. The board should respect collective bargaining and the chief’s chain of command while ensuring employees can raise concerns safely. Constructive labor relations are necessary to sustain excellent public service.
Inventory levels are down from 2025 in nearly all Tahoe submarkets. In September 2025, there were 327 homes listed for sale in the Tahoe Sierra MLS compared to 272 in 2026. The homes that sell are moving faster than last year, with average days on market dropping across every market except for the NV Tahoe Basin, where days on market jumped from 70 to 146 along with a 37% rise in median sold price year over year. This suggests a smaller pool of higher priced sales rather than a cooler market. Month-to-month, most submarkets saw sales volume increase into September where prices decreased slightly, consistent with the overall trend of sellers adjusting pricing to move inventory as we move into the shoulder season.
Enter a stand of aspens and all of the senses awaken. Leaves flutter in the slightest breeze, brilliant shades of green fill the canopy in summer, and glowing yellows and oranges emerge in autumn. The forest understory carries the earthy scent of saturated, nutrient-rich soils, while temperatures drop within these pockets of moisture and life. Surrounded by Tahoe’s conifer forests, an aspen stand can feel like an entirely different world, and in the fall, these forests become especially striking, showcasing a vibrant display of seasonal transformation.
Aspens carry a lot of significance for Tahoe, both metaphorically and ecologically. As one of very few deciduous trees native to the region, their dramatic color shift each fall is a reminder of summer’s closure, capturing memories made in the warm months. The transition through autumn prepares us for the cold temperatures and snowfall ahead. Ecologically, aspen habitats are refuges of utmost importance scattered throughout our dominant evergreen forests, creating biodiversity hotspots that support an abundance and diversity of plants, animals, and other organisms.
Meet the Aspen
Quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides) are the most widespread native tree in North America. Their name comes from the way their leaves shimmer and quake in the wind. An aspen’s round, heart-shaped leaf attaches to its flattened leaf stem, called a petiole. This structure helps sunlight penetrate deeper and more evenly into the tree canopy, prevents heat stress, makes it harder for fungal spores to settle, helps shake off insect pests, and even reduces the risk of damage to the tree on windy days.
BACK SCRATCHER: Black bear claw marks scar the trunk of a quaking aspen along the Legacy Trail in Truckee. Photo by Sarah Hockensmith
Some aspen stands consist of genetically identical trees, or clones, connected by a shared root system. Although we don’t have the enormous clones found in Utah or Colorado, pockets of these trees in the Tahoe Basin can also be a combination of individual trees that make up one large organism, spreading through the landscape through new shoots, or suckers. Each new shoot grows from the parent root system and shares identical DNA, creating a genetic clone. Aspens can spread sexually by seed, but most aspen in the western United States reproduce primarily through these connected root systems and clonal suckering. In fall, aspens with the same DNA typically change color synchronously, exposing genetic relationships within a stand to sharp-eyed observers.
From afar, aspens may look as if they have white bark, but a closer look reveals that the outer layer has a greenish tint. That is because the bark contains chlorophyll, green pigments that allow the tree to perform bark photosynthesis, even when leaves are absent in the cold months (so long as temperatures allow water to remain liquid). Unlike most local trees that grow thick, woody outer bark, aspen bark is soft and sensitive, and even a small scratch can create scarring. When visiting aspen stands, look for evidence of bear scratches on the trees and try to ignore the human-caused scars. Aspen trunks tell stories of history and wildlife, holding clues about the animals that live among them, from Tahoe’s largest mammals to smaller creatures like birds, insects, and caterpillars.
Aspen’s Unique Ecological Roles
I spent a summer studying nesting songbirds in quaking aspen stands, and that experience gave me a deeper appreciation for just how much life this habitat can support. Although the Tahoe region is home to a variety of plants and wildlife, large aspen groves are important for the variety of microhabitats they create. Unlike dense evergreen forests, aspens have a canopy that allows more sunlight to reach the forest floor. Their leaves decompose relatively quickly and produce less acidic litter than evergreen needles, helping create nutrient-rich soils that hold moisture better and support a lush understory of grasses, forbs, and wildflowers. Together, these conditions create a mosaic of food, shelter, and nesting opportunities for an impressive range of species.
Aspen communities can be alive with activity. Look closely and you may find mountain beaver burrows beneath the forest floor, incisor marks from American beavers along the trunks, or a sapsucker drilling neat rows of rectangular holes into the bark. During the spring and summer, the leafy canopy provides cover for nesting songbirds such as warbling vireos, dusky flycatchers, and thrushes. The abundance of flowering plants that thrive on the forest floor among the aspens attracts insects, which are an important food source for birds and other wildlife throughout the summer season. Even the bark itself has sugars that provide carbohydrates and quick energy for feasting mammals such as deer, porcupines, and hares.
QUACKING ASPENS reach their full fall glory at Page Meadows, a popular viewing place, where entire stands transform into shades of yellow and orange. Photos by Jennifer Coon
Aspen are highly susceptible to heart-rot, a fungal disease that decays the inner heartwood at the center of a tree, and woodpeckers move right in. Many species excavate a new home each year as the heart-rot climbs higher, and over time large aspens become natural apartment complexes for wildlife that depend on cavities. Old woodpecker holes in aspen are reused by our smallest owl and duck species, swallows, bats, flying squirrels, and many other cavity-nesting birds. In this way, an aspen stand continues to provide habitat throughout the life and death of its individual trees, making these forests some of the most dynamic wildlife places in the Tahoe region.
From Green to Gold: Why Some Trees Change Color
So, what makes aspens turn from green to gold? Chlorophyll is the green pigment that allows most plants to photosynthesize, and when a leaf is packed full of chlorophyll, it appears green. While conifer trees retain their needles through winter, deciduous trees, like aspens, shed their leaves. As days become shorter and temperatures drop, aspens begin preparing to drop their leaves. The tree forms a barrier, called an abscission layer, between the leaf and the rest of the tree, gradually cutting off the flow of water and nutrients. As chlorophyll degrades and new chlorophyll is no longer produced, the green color disappears, revealing other pigments and their colors that have been present in the leaf all along.
The yellows and oranges of autumn come primarily from pigments called carotenoids. These are present in aspen leaves throughout the life of each leaf, but are masked by the sheer volume of chlorophyll during spring and summer. Once the green fades, these hidden colors emerge, creating the gold and yellow hues that make aspen stands so striking.
Bright reds are less common in Tahoe’s aspens. When they do appear, they come from a different pigment called anthocyanin. These red pigments can form when sugars become trapped in the leaf as the tree seals it off from the rest of the plant. Under the right conditions, those sugars trigger chemical processes that produce red and sometimes purple pigments. In many places, the strongest reds develop when sunny days are paired with cool temperatures and at least a little bit of moisture to keep the tree trying to cling to the growing season. Those conditions may be less consistent in Tahoe’s high-elevation climate, which could help explain why our aspens are more often golden than red.
Eventually, the leaves fall to the ground, allowing the aspen to enter a dormant state and conserve energy through the coldest months.
Where to Find Fall Color
For those hoping to experience the brilliant fall colors of aspen, there are plenty of places around the Tahoe Basin and surrounding Sierra to explore. The best place to look for them? Tributaries and water’s edge. On the South Shore, Taylor Creek is a great place to see aspen changing color, with easy, flat trails and beautiful views along the creek. For a more adventurous challenge, some of the largest aspens at Tahoe can be found along the Upper Truckee River in between Christmas Valley and Meiss Country. On the West Shore, Blackwood Canyon and Page Meadows offer excellent opportunities to wander through aspen groves and catch the seasonal transition. On the North Shore, head to Spooner Lake, North Canyon, or Marlette Lake, where some of our largest aspen stands provide a spectacular contrast against the surrounding evergreens and mountain landscape. North of Truckee, most of the Little Truckee watershed has stringers of aspen lining the watercourses, although most of the trees aren’t very large. South of the Basin, Hope Valley, Monitor Pass, and the Eastern Sierra extending further south offer countless additional opportunities to see aspen turning shades of yellow, gold, and orange. Wherever you go, fall is a wonderful time to slow down, explore a familiar trail from a new perspective, and enjoy one of the Tahoe region’s most beautiful seasonal changes.
~ A naturalist and adventure seeker, Sarah Hockensmith finds inspiration in wild places. Whether hiking a rugged trail or wandering through a meadow, she slows down to observe the flora and fauna around her. She enjoys researching and sharing the stories of nature’s often overlooked treasures.
The election of 1912 has always fascinated me. It was when Teddy Roosevelt broke from the Republican megalith to form a new political party.
Roosevelt didn’t like the direction that his successor, William Howard Taft, was taking the GOP. Teddy felt that his legacy of progressive economic and social policies was being undone by a party increasingly entrenched with big industry and business.
When it became clear that the Republican Party did not want the reform-minded Roosevelt to return, ol’ TR donned his bifocals, twisted his walrus mustache, and created his own path.
He called it the Progressive Party, but history remembers it by another name. “I’m as fit as a bull moose,” he bellowed when a reporter inquired about his health, and the name stuck.
The Bull Moose Party platform called for business regulations and tariff reductions, increased workers’ rights, conservation efforts, aid to the poor, and women’s suffrage. Roosevelt’s Square Deal policies aimed to “give a fair shot to everyone.”
A war hero and carrier of a big stick, Roosevelt could also walk softly. He was self-effacing, could admit when he was wrong, could learn from a mistake, and showed the capacity to unite across party lines.
Roosevelt gave speech after speech. Americans saw that the Bull Moose offered them another option. The movement gained steam. Election day arrived. And for the only time in American history, an independent party received more votes than a major party.
Alas, though, the third-party curse of split votes reared its head and hamstrung the moose. While Taft’s 21% of the popular vote only garnered him eight electoral votes compared to Teddy’s 88, it was more than enough to allow Democrat Woodrow Wilson a landslide electoral college victory.
That’s just how it is, right? Ever since the squabbles between Federalists and Anti-Federalists in the earliest days of our American Experiment, we’ve been a two-party land, any independent momentum fleeting and bound for relegation.
Perhaps not forever.
A Gallup Poll released earlier this year shows that a record 45% of Americans now identify as independents. And with GenZ and Millennial voters polling at roughly 55% independent, the trend away from Republican and Democrat alignment may only grow.
The nation, it seems, is seeking a different direction, something more than the rock-and-a-hard-place option so often doled out by the two major parties.
Which brings us to the upcoming election.
The 2026 midterms will see sharp increases in independent candidates nationwide, with 129 of the 435 House district races and 24 of the 35 Senate races featuring a candidate other than a Democrat or Republican. A strong signal of the times and trends, no doubt.But without major party backing, the path to independent candidates actually winning races remains an uphill battle.
Currently, there are only two Independents in the Senate, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and both caucus with the Democrats. In the house, the lone independent is Kevin Kiley, who represented California’s 3rd district since 2022 as a Republican before becoming an Independent last March.
To retain his seat as chairman of the House Education & Workforce Subcommittee, however, Kiley was forced to continue to caucus with Republicans, a practice, he has said, that adds to the “polarization and dysfunction that prevails in this building.”
Kiley is on the ballot as an Independent for California’s newly redistricted District 6. If elected, he has stated that he will not continue to caucus with Republicans, sticking to his independent bent even if it means exclusion from committees.
Kiley gave further teeth to his stance, when, on Sept. 15, he broke with his old party’s talking points regarding the Supreme Court’s decision against presidential attempts to block mail-in ballots.
“I support the right of Californians to vote by mail and am grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision,” Kiley stated in a release. “Election policy should result from a thoughtful and deliberative legislative process, not from executive orders issued on the eve of voting.”
Whether Kiley’s shift to independent status proves as mere politicking or an actual change that reflects America’s mode, we shall see. Whether America’s growing desire to move beyond the dysfunction of party-line politics will, or even can, be met, we shall see.
It was Roosevelt leading his Rough Riders charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba that catapulted him to the forefront of the American political sphere. In doing so, he was one of the last great leaders to truly lead from the front. Perhaps this election season we’ll see someone else, with independence, who can too.
What does the midterm election look like through the eyes of young voters in the Tahoe region? We asked five Gen Zers, ages 19 to 23, about whether they plan to vote, the issues that matter most to them, how well political parties represent them, and how they feel about voting in California and Nevada. Their answers reflect a generation that is engaged but not necessarily aligned, with concerns ranging from the cost of living and housing to international conflict, data centers, healthcare, and the economy. Respondents are listed alphabetically, with the order rotated throughout the Q&A.
Ella Brandt, 23
From Tahoe City
Ethnicity: White
Gender identity: Female
Registered as: Democrat
Ella Brandt is a Cal Poly alumnus currently working at a marina on Lake Tahoe.
1. Will you vote in the midterms? Why or why not?
Yes, I will be voting. I think it’s a pivotal and impactful time to be able to utilize and exercise my right to vote and take part in our democracy, especially given where I stand on who controls the House and Senate.
2. What do you think is the most important issue in the midterm election and why?
Cost of living and health care are two of the biggest issues in this midterm. The propositions on our ballot could bring real relief on housing, health care, and taxes. This is largely important to help the well-being of families and workers across California.
3. How well does your political party currently represent you and why?
I think the Democratic Party ultimately represents me better than any alternative. When I weigh my options, the party aligns more closely with my values, particularly environmental sustainability, access to health care, and Congress holding the President accountable.
4. In a national (political) context, how do you feel about being Nevadan or Californian?
It’s hard to sum up all Californians in one way, and voting is how every part of the state gets heard. I like being Californian overall, but living in Tahoe, I think I may have a different perspective than most Californians. For instance, we deal with seasonal crowds and a housing market that’s hard for locals to afford.
5. Will you be voting by mail or in person? If by mail, do you have any reservations about using this method?
I will likely vote in person.
6. On the ballot is a billionaires tax, a one-time tax of 5% on the wealth of individuals worth over $1 billion. The tax is meant to subsidize healthcare, education and food assistance for Californians. Are you in support of this and why or why not?
(Editor’s Note: This question was asked only of Californians.)
I am in full support of this. Individuals with that much wealth and accessibility to money should contribute to the communities around them. It would bring a meaningful influx of money to those who need it.
7. What local election are you following, if any?
I am not currently following any specific local race.
Brenna Ritchie, 21
From Incline Village
Ethnicity: White
Gender identity: Female
Registered as: Democrat
Brenna Ritchie is a Rangeland Ecology and Natural Resources Management student at Montana State University.
1. Will you vote in the midterms? Why or why not?
Yes, of course, they are still important votes because it changes options for the primary elections: if you have an opinion in the primaries, then you should have a vested interest in the midterms.
2. What do you think is the most important issue in the midterm election and why?
Economics and cost of living and also data centers! Data center policy is something that every American citizen can rally behind, regardless of party, because they affect so much of our future and use of resources. Specifically, our future water use and land use are drastically impacted by data centers, and these are the two most important things for American agriculture — which is ultimately what keeps us all alive.
3. How well does your political party currently represent you and why?
Not super well — both are quite polarized on issues. Neither party tries to see the perspective of the other- and both are losing followers because they are so far leaning. I think there is a huge hole in American politics for someone who is middle ground on issues to collect voters from both parties due to their evenness and views for both sides.
4. In a national (political) context, how do you feel about being Nevadan or Californian?
I love being a Nevadan — I love being part of a swing state where your voice actually matters — especially in a contentious time right now with data center controversy.
5. Will you be voting by mail or in person? If by mail, do you have any reservations about using this method?
I will be voting by mail, and no I don’t have any reservations about using it — I trust the mail service to send packages, cards, and more, and I see sending a ballot as the same thing. I have faith in our hardworking citizens to deliver it, and for people counting them to act as upstanding Americans and do the right thing- as long as it gets counted, I don’t care through which avenue I vote.
6. What local election are you following, if any?
I am not following many local elections because I am not currently living there, but I do hear and keep tabs on the IVGID elections from my dad.
Hazin Burtt, 19
From Truckee
Ethnicity: Mixed
Gender Identity: Male
Registered as: Independent
Hazin is a professional rock climber.
1. Will you vote in the midterms? Why or why not?
I will be voting in the midterms because I believe that one vote can make a difference.
2. What do you think is the most important issue in the midterm election and why?
I believe the most important issue is our president and getting him impeached. If we cannot loosen the control of the Republicans in Congress, then we will have to suffer the consequences of his actions.
3. How well does your political party currently represent you and why?
They represent me well, but they don’t cover all my opinions on things. But that is to be expected. They represent me more than the Democrats and much more than the Republicans.
4. In a national (political) context, how do you feel about being Nevadan or Californian?
I don’t feel terrible about it because while Gavin Newsom makes some terrible decisions, he does some good for the environment.
5. Will you be voting by mail or in person? If by mail, do you have any reservations about using this method?
I will be voting in person, I like the sticker and the small trip out to vote at a poll.
6. On the ballot is a billionaires tax, a one-time tax of 5% on the wealth of individuals worth over $1 billion. The tax is meant to subsidize healthcare, education and food assistance for Californians. Are you in support of this and why or why not?
(Editor’s Note: This question was asked only of Californians.)
I am in support of this but I do wish the percentage was higher. It would allow so many people to live their lives with what should be the basics, but who currently cannot.
7. What local election are you following, if any?
I am not following any local races currently.
Emmett Roberts, 22
From Olympic Valley
Ethnicity: White
Gender identity: Male
Registered as: Independent
Emmett is a Tufts University Alumnus currently working as an electrical engineer.
1. Will you vote in the midterms? Why or why not?
I will vote in the midterms. I mostly want my vote to reflect how I feel the president is handling his term by voting on congress members. So while I will be voting for state government and propositions, my main motivation is to vote for congress members.
2. What do you think is the most important issue in the midterm election and why?
The biggest issue for me is the international conflict and the US’s involvement. I am very against the conflicts, and our government is not only funding Israel with weapons and money, but also making little diplomatic progress towards a ceasefire with Iran.
3. How well does your political party currently represent you and why?
I am nonpartisan so I feel it represents me pretty well. I have ideals that align with multiple different parties, and even if most of them are more aligned with the Democratic Party, I don’t think its current image is one I fully support or agree with.
4. In a national (political) context, how do you feel about being Nevadan or Californian?
I feel good about being Californian, the people in California share mostly the same important social and political viewpoints as me.
5. Will you be voting by mail or in person? If by mail, do you have any reservations about using this method?
I will be voting in person.
6. On the ballot is a billionaires tax, a one-time tax of 5% on the wealth of individuals worth over $1 billion. The tax is meant to subsidize healthcare, education and food assistance for Californians. Are you in support of this and why or why not?
(Editor’s Note: This question was asked only of Californians.)
I think it is a good idea if implemented correctly. I will be voting for it, but I don’t want the money used improperly and I don’t want to drive billionaires out of the state, which could severely decrease state tax revenue and have other economic consequences.
7. What local election are you following, if any?
None.
Luke Bracco, 23
From Truckee
Ethnicity: White
Gender identity: Male
Registered as: Independent
Luke Bracco is a mountain guide and from Alamo, California. He has lived in Tahoe on and off for his entire life.
1. Will you vote in the midterms? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. Midterms decide who’s in Congress and who sets policy at the state and local level, and those decisions affect day-to-day life more than people realize. Skipping them means letting other people choose for me.
2. What do you think is the most important issue in the midterm election and why?
The economy and unemployment are issues that have my attention. Housing and healthcare are equally important, but hinge on the stability of a consistent paycheck. Holding work is critical to being able to build a life, and for people my age, that’s a huge source of uncertainty.
3. How well does your political party currently represent you and why?
I lean Democrat and it’s the closest fit, but not a perfect one. I agree with the party on a lot of social and policy priorities, but I don’t always feel it puts enough focus on jobs and affordability, which are important issues to me.
4. In a national (political) context, how do you feel about being Nevadan or Californian?
I have mixed feelings living here. California is a leader in innovation, climate policy, and culture, but it also falls victim to political issues seen at a national level. It’s frustrating that critical issues like cost of living and housing fall behind more divisive social issues. We spend too much time fighting over ideas that affect a relatively small portion of the population and ignore ones that truly affect the lives of everyone.
5. Will you be voting by mail or in person? If by mail, do you have any reservations about using this method?
I will vote by mail. It’s convenient and I have no reservations about it.
6. On the ballot is a billionaires tax, a one-time tax of 5% on the wealth of individuals worth over $1 billion. The tax is meant to subsidize healthcare, education and food assistance for Californians. Are you in support of this and why or why not?
(Editor’s Note: This question was asked only of Californians.)
I’m torn on the billionaire tax. I like the goal of funding healthcare, education, and food assistance, and I think the ultra-wealthy can contribute more, but I worry about the application. Whether it’s a true one-time tax, how wealth gets valued, and if the money actually reaches those programs are some questions I’ve raised. It also strikes me as a headline political move, another easy to support or protest idea that keeps us from talking about long term, harder to address issues.
7. What local election are you following, if any?
I’m not following a specific local race. Honestly, I haven’t seen much coverage of local issues, and I think that’s a gap in how elections get covered.
