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C ali forn ia’s Olde st Ne w spaper
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Friday, October 20, 202
mtdemocrat.com
Volume 172 • Issue 120 | $1.00
Pony Express Trail safety upgrades slated for spring Eric Jaramishian Staff writer A pedestrian and bicycle safety improvement project is on the horizon for Pony Express Trail in Pollock Pines, expected to commence in spring 2024. The improvement work includes construction of a multiuse bike and pedestrian path along the stretch n See upgrades, page A7
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Mountain Democrat photo by Eric Jaramishian
The crosswalk in front of 50 Grand Restaurant on Pony Express Trail in Pollock Pines can be seen with two traffic cones and no signage indicating its presence. That is expected to change when the El Dorado County Department of Transportation commences its pedestrian and bicycle improvement project for Pony Express Trail next spring.
Talk of recall follows Robbins’ SF Gate op-ed n Councilman proposes $23
minimum wage, cap on vacation homes for tourism-challenged SLT Miranda Jacobson Tahoe Daily Tribune
Mountain Democrat photos by Odin Rasco
Wading upstream, students measure the depth of a waterway in the Crystal Basin Recreation Area of the Eldorado National Forest. As part of the Watershed Education Summit, students are given hands-on experience with watershed management work, measuring a wide range of variables that contribute to the health of a stream.
Students gather data pool at Watershed Education Summit
Odin Rasco Staff writer
Students confer with Golden Sierra teacher Brad Mason about some of the data they collected as part of the three-day Watershed Education Summit.
After multiple years on hiatus following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Watershed Education Summit once again brought together local high school students,
PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
n See watershed, page A6
South Lake Tahoe City Council member Scott Robbins is facing some heat following his op-ed article published in SF Gate that detailed different ways Lake Tahoe communities are struggling, and possible solutions that not all agree with. The op-ed addressed ways Robbins and his constituents feel South Lake locals are being priced out, claiming “Tahoe’s relationship with tourism is abusive and it must be meaningfully reformed in ways that support, rather than exploit, the local environment and workforce.” The piece also speaks on environmental impacts that come with tourism, ranging from trash-covered beaches, especially during summer holidays, to lack of adequate public transportation leading to more vehicle miles traveled. He raised issues with the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan, described as a “greenwashing effort” designed to not impact the tourism industry. “It does not have to be this way,” Robbins states in the op-ed.
Scott Robbins “The following needed reforms may be perceived as radical, but so is the scale of the problem.” The op-ed proposes solutions such as increasing the minimum wage to $23 per hour, raising the Tourist Occupancy Tax to 18% (consistent with Hawaii), implementing vacancy taxes on empty second homes, capping the number of allowed second homes at 25% of all housing units and defunding the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority to redirect its $3 million per year in collected taxes to fund litter removal and microtransit services. Robbins explained these claims and issues he raised in the op-ed are nothing new, and something he ran n See robbins, page A3
Prescribed burns heating up on forest lands Mountain Democrat staff Eldorado National Forest personnel burned about 250 acres of understory fire fuels in the Peavine Ridge Road area Oct. 17-19 and they next plan to burn roughly 120 acres off the 5000 block of Sly Park Road the week of Oct. 23, according to information from the U.S. Forest Service. The prescribed burning project in the Peavine Ridge
area was in the vicinity of Jaybird Canyon Road northeast of Pollock Pines. Next week’s burn is in Pollock Pines south of Jenkinson Lake, bordering private lands in the communities of Sierra Springs and Sly Park Estates, El Dorado Irrigation District lands and the Sly Park Conservation and Environmental Education Center. Depending on wind n See Prescribed burns, page A5
Flames burn through understory vegetation in the Peavine Ridge Road area as part of an effort to reduce fire fuels on the Eldorado National Forest. U.S. Forest Service photo by Stephanie Calloway
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