Give Back Tahoe, the end-of-year giving campaign hosted by the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, kicks off on Giving Tuesday and lasts through through Dec. 13. When donating during this time, you can increase the chances of your favorite nonprofit winning a challenge grant from the $50,000 in awards raised by TTCF.

I feel fortunate that I’m able to make a living doing work that I love. The best part is that every so often, I get to do something that helps make a real change in the real world. Most journalists will tell you the same thing: we do the work in order to have an impact. When I spoke with Stacy Caldwell, CEO of the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, about helping them with a report to their members and donors, the first thing she talked about was impact. In her introductory letter in the TTCF Impact Quarterly report, she defines what the term means for her organization.

With the Mosquito Fire and Tamarack Fire burning close to Lake Tahoe, and the Caldor Fire entering the Tahoe Basin, the Tahoe Fund and Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation announced the deployment of Land Tender™. This is a powerful new software tool developed by Vibrant Planet, that will allow land managers to collaboratively address wildfire threats and plan forest health and restoration treatments. Land Tender will be used in the Tahoe Basin and surrounding critical watersheds covering 1.5 million acres, making this the largest deployment to date of this new system.

The Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation has appointed four new volunteers to its Board of Directors with legal, business, sales, operations and nonprofit experience. With the addition of Cheryl Schrady, Lynn Madonna, Mike Rayfield and Rob Darby, TTCF’s Board now consists of 15 multifaceted professionals and community advocates.

In partnership with local fire districts and organizations, the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation was awarded $1.9 million from the Cal Fire Wildfire Resilience Block Grant Program. With these committed funds, this pilot program assists private forested property owners with wildfire resilience efforts by providing technical and financial assistance for forest resilience projects. The program focuses on providing resources to private properties that are three acres or larger in size.

Lake Tahoe Community College’s new forestry program will launch this fall quarter with generous scholarships in place for participating students, thanks to a grant from the Tahoe Fund. The Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Academy at LTCC is also receiving grant funding from the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation for required gear and equipment purchases, allowing even more students to be able to participate in the program.

After several years of continued work by residents, local organizations, and local companies, including support from the Olympic Valley Firewise Community members, Friends of Squaw Valley, Palisades Tahoe, and the Resort at Squaw Creek, funding has been awarded for fire fuel reduction in Olympic Valley. In 2020 OVPSD wrote, “a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) identifies and prioritizes areas for hazardous fuel reduction treatments and recommends the types and methods of treatment that will mitigate the risk of wildfire. A CWPP will address issues such as wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness, and/or structure protection.”

As California faces an ongoing threat of wildfires, the California Forest Foundation, the California Forestry Association and the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation have joined forces to promote forest and fire-related careers to ensure the availability of workers throughout the state, and advance the pace and scale of forest management and fire mitigation.

No different from our local workforce, those who fight hard to prevent and contain wildfires in our region face serious struggles with finding affordable housing. Acting Supervisor for the Tahoe National Forest, Matt Jedra says the cost of living near the lake is impacting recruiting of temporary and seasonal staff. “The past couple of years have been pretty tough for use,” he said. “Rents we see around the Truckee community, Forest Hill, upwards of two thousand dollars for rent and with entry-level firefighters come in, it’s really tough, they can’t afford that.”

PGA TOUR players Joshua Creel and Jonas Blixt got a birds eye view of the region’s environmental challenges. After watching a CalFire fire chief narrate a flyover of the Angor and Caldor fire burns, the golfers hiked the Sawtooth/06 trail to look at evacuation routes, the wildland urban interface (WUI) and current efforts by the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) and its Forest Futures campaign to help communities at risk.

Richard and Theresa Crocker, the donor advisors of the Crocker Philanthropic fund, have donated $1 million to the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF), which serves the region by identifying and strategically addressing complex, inter-related issues that affect the community. Thanks to its impact investment agenda, trust-based philanthropy, and nimble capital, TTCF swiftly deployed the gift to fund critical initiatives where it was most needed, including forest health, workforce development, housing, scholarships, families and community programing.

Driving around my hometown of Truckee, California, I reflect on my time at the Aspen Ideas Festival this past week and how I can share the experience with this rural mountain region. My community isn’t much different than Aspen, with breathtaking landscape, a passionate community of outdoor enthusiasts, and unique challenges that threaten our rural towns across the country.

The Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation recently approved grants totaling $855,000 for phase two of its three-year, $30 million Forest Futures Campaign, bringing the total grants deployed this year to about $2 million. Forest Futures is a comprehensive playbook that can be replicated by other communities to align local organizations around minimizing the risk of extreme wildfires through better preparation, investment in forest health and infrastructure, and diversifying local economies.

The forest floor is considered one of the most distinct features of the forest ecosystem. It contains various stages of vegetation from new to decomposition all above the soil’s surface. On one piece of land in the Glenshire area, it’s easy to identify. But just across the street the forest floor is overgrown. If a fire were to roar through here, there’s no question where it would take a hold.

In Northern California’s East Bay, the Moraga-Orinda Fire District sometimes goes nine months without rain. The area has lots of open space and high concentrations of brush along with decaying eucalyptus and Monterey pine trees. Add in high winds in the fall, and “the potential is there for a tremendously damaging fire,” says David Winnacker, chief of the fire district.

The housing crisis in North Lake Tahoe has hit new levels, with multiple organizations coming together to battle the increasing need to support homeless neighbors. “Speaking from a community point of view, and also from a spiritual point of view, your neighbor may not be the person who is residing on your street,” said Rev. Clare Novak with United in Action, a North Tahoe/Truckee coalition of faith-based organizations. “Your neighbor is a person in your community that you’re connected to, and these lines of community connection are so important.”

Following the worst fire season on record, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is taking aim at high insurance costs for residents in areas threatened by wildfires. “With more Californians rolling up their sleeves and reaching into their own pockets to protect their homes and businesses, insurance pricing must reflect their efforts,” said Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara in a news release. “Holding insurance companies accountable for accurately rating wildfire risk in the premiums they charge Californians will help save lives and reduce losses. My new regulations will help encourage a competitive insurance market for all by putting safety first and driving down costs for consumers.” At a meeting during last week’s Forest Futures Salon, the change in regulations, which is planned to go into effect this summer, was addressed by fire officials from around the region, along with officials from the California Department of Insurance.

After a few years of short-term renting her mom’s place in another part of town, Judy Zachariasen decided she was done. It was a hassle and she didn’t have time for the logistics anymore after getting a new job that required her to commute to Sacramento. Plus, the COVID-19 pandemic had hit. People were flocking to Truckee, a mountain town of roughly 16,000 people a few miles north of Lake Tahoe. The housing situation was deteriorating and Zachariasen knew she had a way to help out, however small.