A Review Of 2022鈥檚 Top News Stories In The Mother Lode

The major events, and myMotherLode.com鈥檚 most clicked on stories of the year, include fires, health stories about Monkey Pox and Covid, wild animal visits, business news, elections, gardening and more.

While the year-to-date acres burned in the state of California is down 85 percent from last year, according to CAL fire the number of fires they responded to was up by 490 to 7,592. In the Mother Lode there were several worrying fires, the Electra Fire in Amador/Calaveras started on July 4th and burned 4,478 acres. The 19,244 acre聽Oak Fire聽in Mariposa at the end of July, and the Woods Fire in Sonora which led to聽evacuations on September 1聽but was held to 21 acres. The聽Slate Fire聽in the Jamestown area burned 63 acres, later in September the聽Shell Fire聽burned 15 acres, and the聽Michel Fire聽in Mountain Ranch burned 32 acres. The聽Washburn fire聽in Yosemite that threatened the Mariposa Grove of Sequoia Trees and burned a total of 4,886 acres. While it was determined the Washburn fire was聽human caused, there were many lightening caused fires this year that were聽managed successfully. There was plenty of interest locally about the聽Mosquito Fire,聽burning through El Dorado and Placer counties at the beginning of September. The Mosquito Fire grew to 76,788 acres and plenty of drift smoke impacted the Mother Lode region. The best fire season news story was possibly that the Dodge Fire near Pinecrest that started on August 25th did not grow overnight and聽burned only 1.8 acres.

The Yosemite National Park news story that reservations will be needed to enter the park the last three weekends of February in 2023, when the sun lights up the聽Horsetail Falls聽got a lot whole lot of attention. Also topping the list of popular news about Yosemite this year, the nearly 400-year-old enormous聽sugar pine tree that fell聽near the Sugar Pine Bridge in Yosemite Valley in October.

Our local garden experts, the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Tuolumne County continue to share their thoughts each Sunday. Their articles that held their own with our other popular news articles include聽The Magic is Gone, Why Seeds Don鈥檛 Sprout,聽Reasons Not To Plant A Veggie Garden聽and聽DIY Color Bowls. Review all their articles and look up local home prices in our Real Estate聽section here.

Encounters with wild animals are pretty common in the Mother Lode, a few of the top news stories of the year include聽Mountain Lion Captured on Video in Downtown Sonora,聽Endangered Species Evidence Found in Yosemite聽which was the pawprints in the snow of the elusive fisher, and the uncommon event of two adult mountain lions together in the news story聽Mountain Lions Captured on Video in Sonora.

In the most popular business news the聽Sonora Lumber And Calaveras Lumber Sold To New Owner聽was popular as were the stories about the now open Jamestown Taco Bell when it announced it would聽open here,聽and the聽Twain Harte Taco Bell here, and that the聽Save Mart Sold To Southern California Firm.

We are your source for election night numbers as they are counted with our results news stories for the June and聽November elections聽in the top news stories of the year.

Lastly another shoutout to our local Olympian, Keely Cashman on her聽Winter Olympics performance!

For a look back, the聽Year Review for 2021 is here.