The Tahoe Tish stories (four in all) take place during a black bear cub’s first year living and learning in the Lake Tahoe forest. From emerging from the den with her Mama in the spring, through returning to the den in winter for hibernation, Tish learns how to find food and survive the human-caused perils brought by the visitors to Lake Tahoe.

As a Reno, Nevada resident, I have learned to share the Lake Tahoe environment with the bears who are indigenous to our region. The purpose of writing these books is to introduce young readers to what it’s like to be black bear growing up in a wild area visited by thousands of people.

Some of the actions the bears undertake in the four stories are exaggerated and do not happen in the wild (like using an aspen tree limb to pull Kokanee salmon out of a shallow stream in Tahoe Tish Learns to Fish n this story or carrying a pot of water to douse smoking coals in a forgotten camp fire in Tahoe Tish and the Forest Fire. ) But who knows? Perhaps these behaviors have just not yet been documented!.