Lake Tahoe regulators have approved the logging of 270 acres north of Bliss State Park on the lake’s west shore to remove dead and dying trees and thin thick stands of fir.

It’s the first logging operation approved since last year, when 113 acres owned by the Tahoe City Public Utility District were logged.

TRPA fined Menasha Corp., the logging contractor on that job, $160,000 after agency officials said at least 49 old growth trees were felled in violation of regulations designed to protect trees greater than 30 inches in diameter.

Company officials maintain they did nothing wrong. The matter is being argued in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

In approving the latest project Wednesday, TRPA officials said they’ve taken steps to guard against similar problems, including the hiring of a full-time forester who will mark trees to be felled and monitor the over-the-snow logging operation this winter.

Jesse Jones, the forester, said he has already surveyed the property owned by Tamarack Mutual Water Co.

”There’s a lot of mortality out there and that’s a lot of wood that’s basically firewood,” Jones said. ”I see the project as moving the forest toward a more natural condition.”