The Brief

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. And this season, Tahoe is witnessing its own rebirth in the form of a species of bird that had been previously driven out of the region.

Sandhill cranes are making an unexpected return to the Lake Tahoe basin after a century long hiatus caused by overhunting. The birds stand at about 4 feet tall with a wingspan of 7 feet and boast a signature red patch on their head. The sandhill cranes are often compared to dinosaurs by those lucky enough to witness them due to their large size and loud croaks.

“They actually kind of paint their feathers, which is really rare in the bird world,” said Denys Hemen of the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles. “So they'll take the mud and the sand that they get and they'll actually, like, color their feathers with it.”

These majestic birds' newfound presence in Tahoe signifies the latest turn in the species conservation journey, and serves as a testament of its strength and durability.

Sandhill cranes in the Sierra Valley

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Courtesy of Will Richardson

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Tahoe Institute of Natural Sciences

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The effects of overhunting

Tahoe’s montane meadows and wetlands are ideal terrain for sandhill breeding nests, especially with California's record amount of rain over the last few winters potentially increasing the region’s wetlands. But, according to Will Richardson, executive director of the Tahoe Institute of Natural Sciences(TINS), a research, education, and outreach organization, the bird’s main reason for returning to Lake Tahoe is that they are no longer being hunted.

Sandhill cranes were a popular game in the early 1900s and almost completely hunted out of most of California by 1944, with only four to five nesting pairs recorded in the northernmost part of the state, Richardson said.

“There are no records of them breeding in Tahoe, historically, and I think that was probably because they just got hunted out before anybody showed up to take records,” he added.

Other western state populations suffered as well. Sandhill cranes were almost completely rooted out of Washington, and though numbers have been increasing, they remain an endangered species of the state. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife designated sandhill cranes a “species of greatest conservation need” with only about 40 breeding pairs recorded.

Sandhill cranes were still seen wintering in California, mainly in the Central and San Joaquin valleys, but they didn’t return to nesting and breeding in the Sierra Valley for the spring until the 1950s, Richardson said.

And over the last several years, sandhill cranes have been slowly moving more south. In 2015, a few nests were documented near the Truckee River, and in 2018, the first sandhill nest was recorded in Tahoe.

“Their population is rebounding and as a consequence, they're expanding to reclaim old range from centuries ago,” Richardson said. “They're no longer under severe hunting pressures.”

Sandhill cranes are making their return to Lake Tahoe.

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Amy Quinton/Capital Public Radio

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But that doesn’t mean they aren’t still at risk.

Persisting risks threaten recovering population

Sandhill cranes have a long and vulnerable breeding season, according to Richardson. Their eggs incubate for about 30 days, and young sandhills don't learn how to fly until several months after birth.

Although springtime in Tahoe is not peak tourism season, the amount of time sandhills spend in the area to nest and breed makes them more susceptible to interference from potential hikers and visitors.

“If you are canoeing or paddleboarding in a marsh or wetland, and all of a sudden you hear a crane or see a crane stand up, turn around. Back up,” Richardson said. “You don't want to get too close. You don't want to flush them off a nest.”

If spooked, Richardson said these big birds can accidentally roll their eggs or even their young into the surrounding water. Richardson said he believes this is what happened to a sandhill nest in the upper Truckee Marsh last summer that didn’t survive.

Sandhill cranes in a meadow in the Sierra Valley

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Courtesy of Will Richardson

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Tahoe Institute of Natural Sciences

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A story of survival and resilience

Outside of the Lake Tahoe basin, sandhill cranes face habitat loss as the marsh and wetlands they like to roost in have been cleared for farmland.

“Development in wetlands, water being taken from these shallow rivers. All of these things together can cause a great decline in these birds if we're not careful,” said Hemen from the Audubon Center at Debs Park.

Some farmers and ranchers have teamed up with Audubon California’s Working Lands Program and other land managers to reflood these farms during certain points in the year to recreate the marshy wetlands the cranes like to nest in.

“Historically, the main threats to habitat was conversion to farmland or pasture,” Richardson said. “Folks were really aggressive draining wetlands back in the day, and now land managers are very busily trying to right those wrongs and restore old stream flows and make functioning wetlands again.”

But in the Tahoe basin, Richardson said the damage has already been done.

Which is why the story of the sandhill crane coming back to Tahoe is so amazing. Because they have come back just by their own resilience.

For any tourists looking to witness these resilient birds for themselves, Richardson recommended skipping Tahoe and taking a drive a little further north to the Sierra Valley, where the population is more stable and less vulnerable to human disturbance.

“A good first step for us is to just try to let the public know that they can help by not harming,” he said. “If given enough space and left to their own devices, they should be all right.”

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.