At the peak of the summer-vacation camping season, restrictions on campfires go into effect Monday across Tahoe National Forest and much of California’s 20 million acres of national forests. Campfires will be restricted to existing campfire rings at approved campgrounds, with a campfire permit from a U.S. Forest Service district office also needed.

The new era of camping stoves takes much of the bite out of the issue for campers, as campfires are being used more for their ambience and to roast marshmallows or heat up s’mores than for cooking meals.

This year’s wildfires in California have been mostly in Southern California.

In central and northern California, the Trailhead Fire in Eldorado National Forest burned 5,646 acres near Volcanoville, which shut down a rafting put-in for the week at the Middle Fork of the American River. Firefighters held the fire to a staked-out perimeter, and as of Sunday, had it 90 percent contained.

The cause of that fire is under investigation.

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More than 2,100 firefighters remain on the Trailhead Fire Tuesday morning. The blaze burning in Placer and El Dorado counties is at 50 percent containment.

About 2600 structures are still threatened, but mandatory evacuation orders have been replaced with voluntary ones.

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Rescue crews have recovered the body of a teenage boy who went underwater in the American River around Auburn.

The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/1VdPJPb) that the body was recovered shortly after 10:15 a.m. Sunday. Supervising Ranger Scott Liske says the boy was found about 100 yards downstream from where he went in on Saturday.

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A body floating in the water was discovered at Sutter’s Landing park in Sacramento Wednesday morning.

The body appears to be male and the Drowning Accident Rescue Team (DART) were called to the river to recover it.

A Placer County man was released from prison Thursday afternoon after a federal judge overturned his conviction on eco-terrorism charges following the discovery of new evidence.

Eric McDavid, of Foresthill, walked out of the federal courthouse in Sacramento and into the arms of friends, family members and attorneys.

“It was wonderful,” said his mother, Eileen McDavid.

When asked if she felt her son had been vindicated, Eileen McDavid said, “I don’t want to talk about that. I just know that he’s home.”

Eric McDavid, 37, was arrested in 2006 and convicted the following year.

Prosecutors said he planned to blow up various government targets, including the U.S. Forest Service’s genetics laboratory in Placerville and the Nimbus Dam on the American River.

“It came out in the last couple of months that they didn’t give us some very important documents for discovery, for evidence during the trial phase of the case,” said Jenny Esquivel, McDavid’s girlfriend.

Those documents, including several emails, back up the defense’s argument at trial that McDavid was entrapped by an FBI informant, known as Anna, with whom he fell in love.

“He was entrapped by love,” attorney Ben Rosenfeld said. “And he was entrapped by the persistent and unrelenting efforts of the FBI.”

McDavid’s trial attorney, Mark Reichel, said he had asked for those documents and been told by prosecutors that they did not exist.

The documents only surfaced after McDavid’s family members obtained his FBI case file through a government-records request.

“He went to federal prison for nine years,” Reichel said. “And somebody in the federal law enforcement system knew that he was innocent but didn’t care.”

U.S. District Judge Morrison England did not completely exonerate McDavid, but rather allowed him to plead guilty to another charge for which he received a sentence of time served.

As part of a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, McDavid agreed not to file a lawsuit against the federal government.

McDavid declined to comment as he left the courthouse.

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A man has been arrested for pushing a rider off her bicycle Sunday morning on the American River bike trail and threatening her with rocks.

Sacramento police booked James Edward Dexter, 18, into jail on warrants out of Reno and on suspicion of attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer and vandalism in connection with the Sunday attack.

Police said they were called to the bike trail between Highway 160 and the Capital City Freeway near Lathrop Way about 7:30 a.m. Sunday on a report of a woman being pushed off her bicycle.

After knocking the woman off her bike and physically assaulting her, Dexter is alleged to have picked up rocks and threatened the bicyclist. Luckily, the assault was interrupted by passing citizens, according to police.

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Firefighters were able to contain a grass fire along the American River Parkway — the third large grass fire since July 4 — to 36 acres.

The body of a teenager has been pulled from the American River northeast of Auburn.

The 15-year-old disappeared while swimming in the Middle Fork of the American River in the Sliger Mine Road area.

El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputies, along with officers from Cal Fire and CHP searched the river for the teen Friday afternoon.

The teen, identified as Ronald Stewart from Garden Valley, was pulled from the water in the same area he was last seen.

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