Sierra Nevada

High-altitude dust blown thousands of miles across the Pacific from Asian and African deserts can make it rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada, according to new research that suggests tiny particles from afar play a role in California's water supply. The study, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, grew out of researchers' questions about two similar Sierra storms in winter 2009. Even though the storm systems carried the same amount of water vapor, one produced 40% more precipitation than the other.

Firefighters on Tuesday had nearly contained an 8,000-acre brush fire in the central Sierra Nevada that had forced evacuation of mountain settlements but burned no homes. Around the West, 26 major wildfires that scorched 230,000 acres were still burning. All 300 residents evacuated from Moccasin, Big Oak Flat and Ferndale over the weekend because of the Sierra fire were allowed to return home.

The winter of 1994-95 was like a house guest who would not leave--snowstorms in May, hail in June, skiing on the Fourth of July. Someone must have said something as he finally walked out the door because Old Man Winter hasn't come back. Here at Sierra Summit ski resort 65 miles northeast of Fresno, they spent nearly $2 million gearing up for this winter, adding a chair lift and 10 ski runs.

To veteran backpackers Ken Hively and Jeff Winter, wilderness trekking means shedding the clutter of urban living--deadlines, traffic and noise--in favor of granite peaks, sparkling glaciers and silence. So if you ask the lifelong friends what bare essentials are necessary for their biannual Sierra Nevada trips, they don't mince words: fishing rod, camera, cigars.

Early in the morning one day last week, a few sleepy campers poked their heads out of their tents in the Big Pine Creek campground and got the Sierra Nevada's equivalent of a pie in the face. Snow. Although the sun was shining and the temperature was a pleasant 35 degrees, flakes were coming down hard. A mile farther up Big Pine Creek Canyon, the jagged peaks of the Sierra were completely shrouded in clouds. The storm packed more of a punch than forecasters anticipated.

The latest storm front to thunder through Southern California dumped more than an inch of rain on parts of Orange County on Monday, but failed to end the drought locally, officials said. However, rainfall totals led one official Monday to declare an end to the drought in Ventura and southern Santa Barbara counties, spreading hopes along the drenched California coast that restrictions on water use may soon ease elsewhere.

Bob and Sharon Miller watched their only son, Kenny, nearly die of meningitis a decade ago. The high fever and brain swelling left him mentally disabled, forever 4 years old. It wasn't easy raising him. He had a hard time sitting still. He would see a butterfly and off he'd go. The choice was either to manacle his life or open up the world to him. The Millers, both popular high school teachers here, chose the latter course for their 12-year-old son, friends say.

The genetic signature of canine slobber on a bait bag of chicken scraps and a fuzzy photograph from a motion-sensitive camera north of Yosemite National Park have confirmed the existence of a red fox, thought to have been all but wiped out, the U.S. Forest Service announced last week. "The last known sighting of a Sierra Nevada red fox in the Sonora Pass area was some time in the 1920s," said Mike Crawley, Bridgeport District ranger. "Needless to say, we are quite surprised and excited by this find.

California's top federal forester is being transferred to a new job, dismaying conservation groups who fear the move portends the dismantling of a plan to protect old-growth forests and fragile wildlife in the Sierra Nevada.

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, who until recently represented one of the most vehement opponents of a blueprint for conserving 11.5 million acres of national forest land in the Sierra Nevada, has recused herself from all decisions on the issue, her spokesman said. As a private attorney, Veneman represented the Sierra Nevada Access, Multiple Use and Stewardship Coalition, an umbrella of 80 groups that use the forests for snowmobiling, hunting, logging and other purposes.