Today’s Fun Fact: The current lake level for Tahoe is 6,226.39 feet, this marks the lowest that the lake has been since 2017. The lake is down nearly two feet from it’s maximum earlier this year of 6,228 feet. Built between 1909 and 1913, the Tahoe Dam helps regulate the outflow of water from Lake Tahoe.

The Sugar Pine produces the longest pine cones in the world, reaching up to two feet long and weighing up to a whopping 2 pounds. Since the 1800’s, logging and fire suppression dramatically decreased the sugar pines in the Tahoe Basin. Thanks to your support, the Sugar Pine Foundation and UC – Davis, reforestation of the sugar pines is underway. Watch where you park, pine cones like to fall in the Autumn.

Meat bees can be pesky, especially when trying to enjoy a picnic with lake views. Did you know that meat bees are not bees at all, but yellow jackets? These wasps don’t eat our food, but take the meat back to the hive to feed the larvae. Here’s a quick tip: Irish Spring soap is known to repel the yellow jackets.

AlertTahoe is a network of 13 cameras set up around the Tahoe Basin to detect and track wildfires. The cameras feature a state-of-the-art pan-tilt-zoom technology that tracks wildfires as they grow and move, allowing for better preparation and monitoring. You can view all cameras on the AlertWildfire website. The project was funded through the Nevada Seismological Laboratory (NSL) at UNR, the Tahoe Prosperity Center, the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation, the Eldorado National Forest, and the USFS Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. 

As the fastest animal on the planet, the Peregrine falcon can reach top speeds of 200 mph! You can find it flying around the Tahoe Basin if you look quickly. Today’s fun fact is a repeat from a few years ago in honor of a recent successful collaborative effort to protect fledgling peregrine falcons in the Tahoe Basin.

Photo: Martin Meyers