Kudos to the Northern Sierra Partnership, an effort to buy undeveloped land in the Sierra Nevada in order to preserve them for future generations before any large scale building starts to occur.
Via Mercury News:

Jim and Becky Morgan of Los Altos Hills — he, the retired CEO of Applied Materials and she, a former Santa Clara [...]

I packed the gear the night before, Dara checked the weather, and I was even somewhat awake at 6 am.  It seemed like sneaking out on a Wednesday morning to drive to Lake Tahoe was shaping up to be an excellent idea. I had taken the day off from work to bring Dara (my climbing [...]

Ty Dayberry, a South Lake Tahoe local and member of Heavenly Ski Resort’s “High Roller Team,” is featured in the new extreme telemark skiing film, The Freeheel Life.
The film documents the travels and descents of some of the world’s best freeheel skiers.
Way to go California athletes! The Sierra Nevada serves as a world class training [...]

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to keep California State Parks open, he didn’t stress how drastic some changes would be to deal with the 14.2 million dollar reduction in the Park budget.
A summary of the service reductions in store for most of California’s 278 state parks was created by the park superintendants to highlight the major [...]

After months of waiting, two popular bouldering areas located in the hills above Santa Barbara have reopened to public use.  The Brickyard, a remarkable sandstone boulderfield that holds such classics as Yeti (V4) and Grotesque Old Woman (V7), and The Playground, a bouldering destination that also has 20+ sport routes, have been closed since the Gap [...]

From the realm of the superhuman:
Between Oct. 16-21 Doug Engelkirk managed to send Leaning Tower’s Westie Face (V 5.13a /b AO , 9 pitches, 700 feet)  and Washington Column’s Quantum Mechanic (V 5.13a , 15 pitches, 1000 feet) in Yosemite National Park. Any route designated grade V is generally accepted to take at least two days [...]

The Mammoth and Mono Lake Ranger districts together with the BLM office in Bishop, CA have scheduled several fire projects during the upcoming fall and winter months to reduce hazardous fuel buildup and to improve the condition of wild habitats.
According to the press release from the U.S. Forest Service, the prescribed burns will be scattered throughout Mono County [...]

Homewood is doing some simple, but powerful, things to keep Tahoe blue.
They’ve begun an effort to keep sediment from running right down the hill and into the lake.  If you haven’t been to Homewood, it sits right across the street from Lake Tahoe, so any intense rain washes sediment from the hill down into the [...]

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comment on the actions proposed to deal with invasive plant species on National Forest lands in the Lake Tahoe Area.
According to the public letter issued by the Forest Service, chemical treatment is proposed for approximately 100 acres of infested area, and alternative treatments (manual, [...]

Get outside. It makes You happy! This L.A. Times piece highlights an interesting study carried out by psychologists from the University of Rochester.
Subjects were shown sets of images and were then immediately asked a set of questions.  Those that had seen images of natural environments held community and family values higher than those that had [...]