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The Latest Breaking News from Sierra Nevada

Explosive fire near Yosemite is California’s largest this year, forcing thousands to flee

LOS ANGELES —Firefighters were struggling to battle California’s largest fire of the season so far, a fast-moving inferno tearing through the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Yosemite that has burned at least 10 structures, forced several thousand people to flee their homes and is threatening multiple mountain communities.

Los Angeles Times

California forests are vanishing as wildfires burn larger and more intensely

GREENVILLE, Calif. — A burn scar in Northern California offers an unsettling glimpse into what forests across the Sierra Nevada could become. Bare tree carcasses are strewn across the dun-colored hills. Rock outcroppings jut out like bones.

Los Angeles Times

Commentary: We’re in a crowded universe, but Earth is still precious

On a recent camping trip to Kings Canyon National Park I had the opportunity to escape the light-polluted vistas of the city and look through a pair of binoculars at the stars under a dark Sierra Nevada sky.

Los Angeles Times

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Yosemite fire: Why giant sequoia trees are surviving now when others died in recent fires

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Last year and the year before, in an unprecedented environmental disaster, wildfires in California’s Sequoia National Park and nearby national forests roared through treasured sequoia groves in the Southern Sierra Nevada, generating flames hundreds of feet high and killing nearly 20% of all the ancient…

Tribune News Service

A California gold mine's toxic legacy: Inside the fight over reopening a treasure trove

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — Five years ago, Canadian mining executive Ben Mossman came to this little Gold Rush town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, planning to strike it rich.

Los Angeles Times

Improving weather aids fight against Sierra Nevada wildfire

Improving weather is aiding the battle against a Sierra Nevada wildfire that has forced evacuation of several hundred people from their homes and injured seven firefighters

The Independent UK

Sierra Nevada wildfire threatens small rural communities

California authorities say a Sierra Nevada wildfire has destroyed has four structures and is a threat to more than 500 homes and other buildings

The Independent UK

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The town at the center of California’s climate refugee crisis

When the Camp fire raged through the Sierra Nevada foothills, it turned an existing housing crisis into a growing emergency

The Guardian - US

No sea serpents, mobsters but Tahoe trash divers strike gold

Scuba divers at Lake Tahoe are sorting through their haul after an unprecedented, yearlong effort to remove litter from the alpine lake's entire 72 miles of shoreline atop the Sierra Nevada

The Independent UK

Owens Valley tribes honor a legacy of ‘beauty and suffering’ with historic site nomination

OLANCHA, Calif. — Spirits live here. That’s what Paiute and Shoshone tribal members say about the Owens Lake playa, an arid, eerily flat expanse along the eastern Sierra Nevada range that is prone to choking dust storms.

Los Angeles Times

With water running out, California sees no relief from drought thanks to La Niña

LOS ANGELES — Heat waves. Severe drought. Extreme wildfires.

Los Angeles Times

Late-Season Storm May Be Last Gasp For California’s Wet Season

2-4 feet of snow forecast for parts of the Sierra Nevada with rain expected across lower elevations.

Zenger

Ski resorts cheer as spring storm dumps snow in California

A spring storm brought several feet of snow to the Sierra Nevada and rain to parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, with more stormy weather expected this week

The Independent UK

As drought hammers Mono Lake, thirsty Los Angeles must look elsewhere for water

LOS ANGELES — With a third year of drought shrinking the creeks that cascade down the eastern Sierra Nevada, the level of Mono Lake has fallen so low it has triggered a 72% reduction in the amount of water Los Angeles can divert from area streams this year.

Los Angeles Times

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The Guardian - UK

Spring time: why an ancient water system is being brought back to life in Spain

A project to restore a 1,000-year-old network of water channels is helping farmers in the Sierra Nevada adapt to the effects of the climate crisis

Tribune News Service

California drought: Sierra snowpack falls to one of lowest levels in 70 years

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Stressed by high temperatures and a record run of dry weather over the last three months, the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of 30% of the state’s water supply, has hit one of its lowest levels for the end of winter in generations.

Los Angeles Times

California’s drought response isn’t working. It’s time to order cuts in water use

California is in year three of a worsening drought and the situation is growing dire. After a wet and snowy December, California experienced its driest January and February on record. More than 93% of the state is now suffering “severe” or “extreme” drought, compared with 66% last month, according to…

Los Angeles Times

With no respite from drought, officials call upon Californians to conserve water

LOS ANGELES — The start of this year has been the driest in California's history. With the severe drought now in a third year, the state faces depleted reservoirs, a meager snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and a worsening water shortage on the Colorado River.

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Los Angeles Times

FBI analysis details final hours of family who died on remote Northern California trail

It was high summer, and temperatures were climbing swiftly on a remote trail in the Sierra Nevada near the small community of Mariposa.

The Guardian - US

‘Loading the dice’: climate crisis could increase southern California wildfires

Global heating will cause ‘megafires resistant to fire suppression practices’ with 25% of land being burned by 2040

The Conversation

The fastest population growth in the West's wildland fringes is in ecosystems most vulnerable to wildfires

The view from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Southern California can be beautiful – pine forests and chaparral spill across an often rugged landscape. But as more people build homes in this area, where development gets into wild land, they’re facing some of the highest risks for wildfires…

Tribune News Service

California drought: Sierra Nevada snowpack falls below average after dry January

Like the 49ers fourth-quarter lead in Sunday’s NFC Championship game, California’s once-impressive Sierra Nevada snowpack is steadily shrinking.

The Guardian - UK

Drama and stark beauty at every turn: readers’ favourite winter cycles in the UK and Europe

From the snowy peaks of Spain’s Sierra Nevada to Northamptonshire’s winding country lanes, our tipsters share the bicycle routes that inspire them

The Conversation

New federal wildfire plan is ambitious – but the Forest Service needs more money and people to fight the growing risks

People living in the western U.S. have been concerned about wildfires for a long time, but the past two years have left many of them fearful and questioning whether any solutions to the fire crisis truly exist.

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