Nature's Corner

As wildfires have exploded in size in recent years, far surpassing historical definitions, are Tahoe’s flora and fauna able not only to survive, but also to thrive?

The mink, the river otter, and the beaver are all to be found in the lakes and rivers of the Sierra Nevada. Eve Quesnel tells how to recognize which is which in this month’s Nature’s Corner.

Eve Quesnel shares insight into the life of our nation’s symbol, the bald eagle.

They live quietly among us, but how much do we really know about California’s black bears? In her latest column, Nature’s Corner writer Eve Quesnel chats with the “Bear Whisperer.”

Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care in South Lake Tahoe is neither a zoo nor a sanctuary, but a rehabilitation site that takes in abandoned and injured animals and birds. After medical attention and care, LTWC releases wildlife back into the wild.

There is something about the coyote’s call, something that calms my fear of having too much civilization and not enough wild.

Why do we often think of Alvin and the Chipmunks when we think of chipmunks? Movie stars trump nature? As much as celebrities take over the limelight, there’s much to learn about the real striped speedy mammal.

Every spring for the past two decades, citizen scientists Ann McBride and Patty Evans have monitored egg counts in 50 bluebird boxes they had placed in Martis Valley and the Kyburz Meadow area. “You never know what you’ll find in the boxes — it’s like Christmas,” says McBride. While this labor of love requires tenacity and hard work, Evans wouldn’t have it any other way. She adds, “It’s magical every year.”

“With high metabolic rates and thick fur, pikas are well-adapted to the cold temperatures at high elevations, but these same adaptations make them vulnerable to global warming” (Joseph Stewart, 2017 study on pikas in the Tahoe region).

Does extreme cone caching indicate a big winter? Probably not. Overzealous caching more likely reveals a squirrel’s resourcefulness in capitalizing on a big cone crop year.