The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District’s Zephyr Fire Crew, under contract to the Conservancy, is wrapping up its forest health hand-thinning work at Van Sickle Bi-State Park. The Conservancy co-manages the busy park with Nevada State Parks.

The Conservancy designed this project to improve the park’s forest health and reduce wildfire threat. People cause 95 percent of wildfires in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Firefighters have responded to dozens of wildfire ignitions at the heavily used park in the past decade. In 2003, a dropped cigarette butt ignited the 600-acre Gondola Fire.

Like the park itself, this bi-state collaboration has benefits that cross the state line. The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District became interested in this work on California public land in part to protect Nevada neighborhoods upwind of the park. The Zephyr Fire Crew is hand-thinning 108 acres of the park’s forests. Later this year and next, the crew will burn the thinned wood in piles. Once complete, their work will result in forest conditions that make it easier to fight fires that originate in the park and to protect the park from fires that start in the surrounding forest.

Eagle Rock’s iconic views make it one of the Conservancy’s most-visited properties. It is also home to nesting peregrine falcons. The Conservancy has posted signs asking visitors to avoid rock climbing or recreational drone use in the area. Either activity could disturb the falcons. Our staff is monitoring the nests and will remove the signs when the nesting season has ended. Thanks for helping to protect these amazing birds.

Rachael Jaffe joined the Conservancy in June as a legal extern. She is working on internal Conservancy program guidelines and researching California Environmental Quality Act matters related to Conservancy properties. Rachael just completed her second year at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. Before attending law school, she worked as an ecologist, environmental educator, and adventure trip guide. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York and her master’s degree in ecology from Colorado State University.

Erica Uhor joined the Conservancy in June as an Environmental Planner with the Land Management program and will be primarily designing and implementing restoration projects on the Conservancy’s urban lots. Since 2014, she had worked as a firefighter with CAL FIRE’s Mendocino Unit and served a season with the USDA Forest Service in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit before that. Erica also has experience with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District’s forestry crew and restoration experience with that National Park Service and the Center for Environmental Management on Military Lands. She studied Physical Geography and Environmental Studies at California State University, Chico.

Jason Pollard joined the Conservancy in June as the agency’s Forest Management Planning Specialist. He manages Community Forestry projects under the Conservancy’s Good Neighbor Authority agreement with the USDA Forest Service and provides support to the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team. Prior to joining the Conservancy, Jason served as Timber Sale Administrator and acting Timber Management Officer for the LTBMU, where he managed contracts for thousands of acres of forest health and fuel reduction treatments, and was the Interdisciplinary Team lead for the 3,700-acre South Tahoe Fuels Treatment Project. He graduated from Humboldt State University.