The Nevada Fire Safe Council has stipends of up to $500 available for chapters who wish to do education or demonstration events during Wildland Fire Awareness Week 2008. The form and details is available by clicking here:

PDF format:  Wildland fire awareness week stipend.pdf  

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Deadline near for panel’s Tahoe fire report
Jeff DeLong (JDELONG@RGJ.COM)
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
March 2, 2008

Eight months after flames roared through a Lake Tahoe community, destroying 254 homes, a special panel established to avoid future disasters is nearing its deadline. By March 21, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons expect a report on how to avoid a repeat of last June’s Angora Fire. This week, the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission is scheduled to sort through some 120 different recommendations crafted to achieve that goal.

Some participants in the effort say it represents a long-needed shift in direction to protect life and property at the famous alpine lake. Conservationists worry a sensitive environment could be put at risk in a rush to respond to issues associated with last summer’s blaze.

Some changes have already occurred. At the urging of Tahoe’s fire districts, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency last November altered regulations to increase the size of trees that can be cut without a permit to reduce fire danger on private property from 6 inches to 14 inches in diameter. TRPA, which after the fire faced a barrage of criticism from those who said its policies contributed to Lake Tahoe’s most destructive wildfire, is proposing other changes as well. Continue Reading »

Prison biomass plant choked by supply costs
Dave Frank
Appeal Staff Writer
March 2, 2008

An $8.3 million plant expected to provide power for two Carson City prisons has run only sporadically because it has not received all the wood it needs to fuel the system. Officials from the Nevada Department of Corrections had predicted that the plant would replace energy from electricity and natural gas at Northern Nevada Correctional Center and the neighboring Stewart Conservation Camp. The plant, however, has not run more than three days straight since it opened six months ago.

“Wood continues to be an issue for us,” said Lori Bagwell, department director of support services. “We do not have an adequate and appropriate supply.” Continue Reading »