Congressman Mike Thompson presents a Congressional Resolution honoring the Lake County Land Trust's 30th anniversary to President Val Nixon during the group’s 30th anniversary celebration on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Kelseyville, California. Courtesy photo. KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — A crowd of more than 160 supporters and friends gathered at Boatique Winery on Saturday, Oct. 28, to mark an important milestone for the Lake County Land Trust, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary throughout 2023 and 2024.
The Lake County Land Trust was incorporated in late 1993 and received tax exemption status in 1994.
The Land Trust was founded to protect land in Lake County that is important for wildlife habitat, including wetlands, streams, forests and properties with other unique values.
At its annual dinners the Lake County Land Trust honors "Supporters of the Year." This year, during its 30th anniversary celebration the Land Trust honored the late Bob Schoenherr and Lakeport resident Susan Morton, pictured from left with LCLT president Val Nixon and board member Roberta Lyons. Courtesy photo. The Land Trust, or LCLT, owns two wetland preserves in the Big Valley area, totaling over 230 acres, owns and co-manages the Rodman Preserve of 232 acres near Upper Lake, owns the nine-acre Rabbit Hill Preserve in Middletown, a 40-acre chaparral preserve on the slopes of Mt. Konocti, and Monitor Island.
The trust is working with local tribes to develop management plans for properties in the Big Valley area and also stewards the Boggs Lake Preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy.
The dinner was a great success with catering provided by Rosey Cooks Gourmet Catering.
Mike Thompson greets "Lady of the Lake," Angela De Palma-Dow, at the Lake County Land Trust’s 30th anniversary celebration on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Kelseyville, California. Courtesy photo. The Boatique Winery venue is always a favorite and event manager Francesca Zito helped all evening. Cobb resident Scott Serena provided music.
Guest speaker Angela De Palma-Dow, Water Resources Invasive Species Program coordinator, also known as “The Lady of the Lake,” talked about “Why I Love Clear Lake,” describing the amazing fact that the lake is a minimum of 500,000 years old.
The Land Trust’s president, Val Nixon, outlined the founding of the organization and thanked everyone who has been involved over the years, including donors, volunteers, former LCLT board members and employees.
A good crowd attended the 30th Anniversary Lake County Land Trust dinner on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Kelseyville, California. Courtesy photo. Honored as Supporters of the Year were the late Bob Schoenherr and Lakeport resident Susan Morton.
Congressman Mike Thompson and his wife Jan attended and participated in the evening’s activities, including the silent auction.
Thompson presented a beautiful framed resolution honoring the LCLT for its 30 years of work
“It was a wonderful evening of fellowship and inspiration,” noted Nixon. “We thank all of our sponsors and supporters who attended; know that the Land Trust is here to stay because of you.”
The silent auction brought enthusiastic bidders at the Lake County Land Trust’s 30th anniversary celebration on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Kelseyville, California. Courtesy photo.
Val Nixon and Angela De Palma-Dow, guest speaker at the Lake County Land Trust’s 30th anniversary celebration on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Kelseyville, California. Courtesy photo.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Each year, millions of Americans come together to remember the fallen, honor those who serve and their families, and teach others about the true value of freedom as part of National Wreaths Across America Day.
This gathering of volunteers and patriots takes place in local, state, and national cemeteries in all 50 states — including Hartley Cemetery, Kelseyville Cemetery, Upper Lake Cemetery, Lower Lake Cemetery, Middletown and St. Mary’s Lakeport cemeteries.
Each year, a new theme is chosen to help volunteers and supporters focus their messaging and outreach in their own communities.
The theme for this year is “Serve and Succeed.”
The organization will continue its commitment to supporting and bringing attention to the needs of our veteran community while also showcasing the continued contributions of those who serve.
This year, National Wreaths Across America Day is Saturday, Dec. 16.
The event is free and open to the public. The observance will begin at 9 a.m. at all the cemeteries noted above in Lake County.
In 2022, approximately 2.7 million veterans’ wreaths were placed by volunteers on headstones at 3,702 participating locations around the country in honor of the service and sacrifices made for our freedoms”, each name said out loud.
“Wreaths Across America volunteers work year-round to ensure military laid to rest are remembered, their families and living veterans are honored, and the next generation is taught about the value of freedom,” said Toni Funderburg, site coordinator for Hartley Cemetery.
Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992.
The organization’s mission — “Remember, Honor, Teach” — is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.
Delta Iota Tau, Girl Scouts in Kelseyville, Lake County 4-H Group in Lower Lake and FFA in Upper Lake and Middletown will be accepting donations for wreaths until Nov. 27.
It is the goal of each sponsoring group to place a remembrance wreath on each veteran gravesite at the cemeteries listed.
To do this they need your help. An Individual sponsorship cost $17 for one wreath and the family option costs $68 for four wreaths. Small businesses can fund 10 wreaths for $170 or any amount can be sponsored for $17 per wreath.
People can register to volunteer or sponsor a wreath at Hartley Cemetery by visiting https://wreathsacrossamerica.org/CA0751P or choose another Cemetery or Sponsor Group in Lake County by copying and pasting this URL in your search bar and in the middle of the page you can click Cemetery and Sponsoring Group.
There is no better time to express appreciation for our veterans than during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Everyone knows or has known a veteran.
Sponsors are on a mission to remember, honor and teach. Join them by sponsoring wreaths to be placed in honor of a veteran this December. They will ensure that their sacrifice is remembered yet again and passed on to a new generation of Americans.
Mining an asteroid probably won’t look exactly like mining does on Earth, but some principles will stay the same. posteriori/iStock via Getty Images
The cars, cellphones, computers and televisions that people in the U.S. use every day require metals like copper, cobalt and platinum to build. Demand from the electronics industry for these metals is only rising, and companies are constantly searching for new places on Earth to mine them.
Scientists estimate that lots of these metals exist thousands of miles beneath Earth’s surface, in its molten core, but that’s far too deep and hot to mine. Instead, some companies hope to one day search for deposits that are literally out of this world — on asteroids.
The commercialization of asteroid mining is still a ways off, but in October 2023, NASA launched a scientific mission to explore the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The main goal of the mission is studying the composition and structure of this asteroid, which could tell scientists more about Earth’s core since the two objects might have a similar makeup.
Both likely contain platinum, nickel, iron and possibly even gold – materials of commercial interest.
Experts need to know what’s out there on asteroids before considering whether they’re worth mining. NASA’s Psyche mission could answer some of these questions.
I am a planetary geologist whose work explores other planets and astronomical objects like Mars, Venus and the Moon. I will be following the Psyche mission closely, as this is the first time that scientists will be able to learn about the composition and structure of a possible piece of a planetary core similar to the Earth’s, without indirect seismic or magnetic measurements, or replicating the pressure and temperature conditions of the Earth’s core in our labs.
With the spacecraft estimated to arrive at the asteroid’s orbit in 2029, the findings from the Psyche mission will provide unique insights into the type of metals present on the asteroid’s surface, as well as their amount, and the minerals containing these metals. This data is essential both for scientists like me exploring the formation and evolution planetary bodies, as well as for companies investigating the possibility of asteroid mining.
Asteroid formation
Asteroids come in a variety of sizes. Some are the size of a town, while others are the size of a state. Most asteroids are made of rocks and represent the leftovers from the early formation of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago.
Not every asteroid is the same – some, like Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, are rich in carbon. These are very old, and they will teach scientists more about how planets formed and how life may have begun on Earth.
Others, like Psyche, are made of metals and potentially result from one or more collisions between astronomical objects when the solar system was forming. These collisions left debris flying through space — including potential pieces of a planet’s metal-rich core. A NASA spacecraft will orbit and analyze the surface of Psyche.
Mining in space
Not every mineral deposit on Earth is mineable. Companies first look for deposits with a high level of metal purity. They also investigate how affordable and feasible extracting the metal would be before choosing where to mine.
Similarly, before mining an asteroid, companies will have to think about all those factors, and they’ll have to come up with the infrastructure needed to mine at a distance and transport the metals they mine hundreds of millions of miles back to Earth. The technology to do that is still years away, and transporting metals would require major funding.
A few companies around the world have already started to think about what the best and lowest cost approach would be, drawing from processes similar to those used on Earth.
The first step would be finding a mineable metal deposit. Next, they’d drill and extract the metals on the asteroid. One of the most important differences with Earth mines is that each step would be undertaken remotely with spacecrafts orbiting around the asteroid and robots landing on its surface. Then, a spacecraft would send the resulting materials back to Earth.
Asteroid mining plans are still at their earliest stages. A few companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, with goals to extract metals from space, were acquired by other companies.
Experts can’t quite tell yet how acquiring valuable metals from asteroids would affect the global economy, but these metals could potentially flood the market and lower their values.
The Psyche mission is a huge step in figuring out what sort of metals are out there, and it may also answer questions about the composition and properties of Earth’s core.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs available for adoption this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian shepherd, border collie, boxer, Chihuahua, German shepherd, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, pit bull, shepherd and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
Those dogs and the others shown on this page at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
In 1841, for the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau published information about veterans in a special bound volume on the men who served in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and other American conflicts.
Although it had been nearly 60 years since the American Revolution had ended, the compendium (now available online) listed the surviving pensioners, including widows, of that war.
In the 18 decades that followed, the data that the Census Bureau collected about veterans continually shifted and expanded, providing a historical record of just how much the definition of military service has been redefined over centuries.
Who was counted as a veteran depended on when and where a man served in the U.S. armed forces. And, yes, for most of the nation’s history, only men were considered veterans.
It wasn’t until 50 years later, in 1890, that another census collected data on veteran status. That census identified only veterans of the Civil War and the widows of Union and Confederate ex-service members.
At that time, the main reason for classifying veterans in the United States was for determining pension eligibility. As veterans benefits expanded in the early 1900s, the importance of including veterans data in the decennial census also increased, particularly to track whether veterans were engaged in military operations or were killed in action and left surviving widows and children.
For decades, the decennial census only classified as veterans the men who served during wartime or went abroad as part of a military operation. By 1930, the definition of a veteran expanded to include men who served on military expeditions, which included the Spanish-American War (1898), Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902), Boxer Rebellion (1900–1901), and Mexican Expedition (1916–1917).
Men who served in peacetime, or who did not experience combat or service overseas, were not counted as veterans.
Major turning points in how we classified veterans
Starting in 1930, veteran questions appeared on every decennial census to varying degrees until the 2000 Census.
With the end of World War II in 1945, the nation faced a burgeoning veteran population as most of the 16.1 million men who served during the war returned to civilian life.
The influx of veterans further fueled the need for data on military service and experiences.
1940
The 1940 Census marked a significant turning point in how the Census Bureau defined and collected data on veterans.
For the first time, the census included peacetime service, specified whether a veteran had served on active duty, and in which branch, for any length of time regardless of duty location (United States or abroad).
This was the broadest definition of a veteran and military service to date. Since military pensions were still a focus, the 1940 Census included dependents of ex-service members in the count of veterans and determined the mortality status of veteran husbands and fathers.
History of veterans data on the U.S. Census
Before 1940, the decennial census had been primarily concerned with identifying how and where veterans served, and consequently counted men as veterans only if they met certain conditions (i.e., service in a specific war, branch, or military expedition).
The 1940 Census shifted the focus to who served and when they did so, including both wartime and peacetime service.
1980
The “who” of military service changed again in 1980, when the census counted women as veterans for the first time. Women had long been connected to the U.S. military, even before they could formally serve or were recognized as veterans for their service.
A report on the history of women veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) writes that although not recognized as veterans until 1980, women served on the battlefield alongside men during the American Revolution — some even masquerading as men.
Some women served as spies during the Civil War but their main contributions were in the field of medicine.
“The nurses who served during the Spanish-American War paved the way for the creation of a permanent corps of nurses in the Army and Navy. In 1901, the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) was established,” according to the VA.
Counting women as veterans marked a major shift in the way the Census Bureau measured the veteran population. Until that point, only men were considered to be veterans regardless of the military service or experiences of women.
Today’s veterans
With the implementation of the American Community Survey (ACS) in 2005, the 2000 Census was the last decennial census to collect data on veteran status for the United States (the Census Bureau continues to collect it for the Island Areas Censuses).
The ACS further expanded the “what” and “when” of veteran status by including questions on all possible periods of service, specifying each wartime period and delineating peacetime periods. The 2022 ACS shows there are 14.5 million men and 1.7 million women veterans.
In 1950, the White population made up about 93% of veterans. Today that figure is around 74%, which reflects in part the changing racial composition of the broader U.S. population.
The ACS also collected information on:
• Length of active-duty service. • Time of most recent service in the U.S. armed forces. • Current active-duty service (rather than just service in the past). • Service-connected disability status and rating of veterans who sustained an injury or became disabled because of their service.
This content, although it has changed in wording and scope, has remained the focus of veterans data at the Census Bureau since the ACS began.
In addition to the ACS, other Census Bureau surveys have expanded data collected on veterans.
The Survey of Income and Program Participation, or SIPP, is the only Census Bureau source of data on participation in VA programs and benefits.
The types of veterans data collected in SIPP include:
• Use of the GI Bill. • Home loans secured through the VA. • Military retirement. • VA pension. • Disability compensation, which are widely available to former service members, their dependents, and surviving family members of deceased veterans.
Just as earlier censuses reflect the changing definition of a veteran, today’s data on disability, pensions and other VA benefits reflect the need to better understand not just who veterans are, but their health and well-being.
As military service, roles and experiences continue to evolve, the Census Bureau will continue to adapt its data collection to better understand the changing needs of the men and women who serve in America’s armed forces.
Jonathan Vespa is a demographer in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.
From left, 2023 Lake County Teacher of the Year Anna Sabalone, Congressman Mike Thompson and Upper Lake Unified Superintendent Dr. Giovanni Annous, recent recipient of the Small School Districts Association as 2023 California Superintendent of the Year. Photo courtesy of Congressman Mike Thompson’s office. UPPER LAKE, Calif. — Two outstanding Lake County educators recently received a visit from Congressman Mike Thompson, who honored them for achievements in their field.
On Monday, Oct. 30, Congressman Mike Thompson presided over a ceremony honoring Upper Lake Unified School District’s Superintendent Dr. Giovanni Annous and Dean of Students Anna Sabalone for their extraordinary achievements in service to the district and the Northshore Community.
Both received a “Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition” presented by Thompson.
Dr. Annous was recently recognized by the Small School Districts Association as 2023 California Superintendent of the Year, and Sabalone was recognized as 2023 Lake County Teacher of the Year.
During the event, Congressman Thompson praised the efforts of Dr. Annous for implementing positive change while solidifying a strong sense of community and belonging at the district.
He noted that Dr. Annous’ dedication to excellence in educational leadership and for his going above and beyond for students every day.
Congressman Thompson also hailed his support of empowering the next generation of adults.
In addition to the accolades directed to Dr. Annous, Sabalone also was congratulated on her various achievements as a teacher in the district, having taught and shepherded students of the Northshore for nearly 20 years.
Sabalone, a very creative artist at heart, would lead her students from the linear to the abstract as applied to both thinking and artistic talent.
Well respected by her peers and the Northshore Community, Sabalone embodies education excellence.
After the presentation of the Congressional Recognition certificate, Dr. Annous thanked the Congressman for his support in the arena of education and his dedication to those in his district.
Annous continued and thanked Lake County Supervisor Eddie (EJ) Crandell for his support over the years, working on behalf of students to increase services and provide access for all students.
Dr. Annous also thanked the Habematolel-Pomo of Upper Lake and Robinson Rancheria for their partnership over the years, whether it had been in the area of facility and program improvements, as well as student engagement.
In attendance were Upper Lake Unified School District Board President Diane Plante and Vice President Joanne Breton, and Lake County Office of Education Superintendent Brock Falkenberg, who received recognition from Dr. Annous for their support and continued service to the public of Lake County.
Sabalone expressed her gratitude for her fellow staff members and the school district’s administration for supporting her over the years she had been teaching, and commented further about how she had benefited from the core friendships she had established during her tenure.
Annous thanked the school district staff and community noting that none of the achievements would have been possible without their support. Although a laborious journey, he said it was one of camaraderie with a focus on community and collective growth.
The ceremony concluded with a quick word by Plante and Breton who said that they weren’t completely surprised at the recognition as it was simply an acknowledgment of what the school board had known for years.
They closed by expressing their gratitude for the servant leadership they provide, not only to the school community, but also to the greater community of Lake County.
Autumn is the season to gaze at gorgeous leaves of gold, yellow and orange as they flutter from the trees and fall on our yards – but then, of course, comes the tedious task of raking them up and trying to decide what to do with them. SciLine interviewed Susan Barton, a professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware, who says taking a lazy approach is actually a win for your garden and the critters that live there.
Dr. Susan Barton discusses fall lawn care.
Below are some highlights from the interview. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Can leaves on a landscaped property ever be left as they are, or should they always be mulched?
Susan Barton: A layer of leaves on the lawn will exclude light, which would be detrimental to the lawn. So when the leaves fall, either rake them up or chop them up with a lawn mower so they are finer and can sift down in through the grass blades. But if they fall in a landscape bed, or under trees, shrubs and larger plants, it’s fine to just leave the leaves without mulching them.
What are the benefits of mulching leaves rather than removing them?
Susan Barton: The leaves contain nutrients, and they also are a source of organic matter. So if you allow the leaves to go back into the landscape, you are providing nutrients for the plants to take up, and you are providing organic matter that will improve the soil structure.
If you think about forest, where leaves just naturally return to the soil and decompose every year, it’s some of the richest soil we have. By allowing that to happen in your landscape beds, you’re getting the same benefits.
What can keep leaves from blowing from one property to another?
Susan Barton: Chopping them up will dramatically reduce the blowing of the leaves. Make them smaller by either mowing over the leaves where they fall in the lawn, or raking them into piles and then mowing them.
There are also leaf vacuums that vacuum, chop up and put the leaves in a bag. Then you spread the leaves on your landscape beds.
What are the environmental benefits of not removing the leaves?
Susan Barton: If you rake up your leaves, put them in a black plastic bag and have them taken off to a landfill, then they never get to decompose and return those nutrients and organic matter back to the soil. Instead, you’re taking what could be a resource and making it a problem.
Also, many insects spend the winter in leaf litter. And a lot of people might not want insects in their landscape, but only about 2% of all the insects in the world are considered pests. Most of them are either beneficial or of no consequence to humans, and they are very important food sources for birds and other animals. Birds feed the insects, especially caterpillars, to their hatchlings.
So by allowing the insects to overwinter in the leaf litter, you’re supporting bird populations and, of course, pollinators, which help plants produce seeds that can develop into new plants.
When should people fertilize lawns?
Susan Barton: In the fall, because that is when turf grass is primarily growing roots and you’re promoting the kind of grass growth that makes a healthy, dense lawn. When you fertilize in the spring, your grass is growing leaves at that point, so you’re really just causing the grass to grow more and grow faster, and you will need to mow more often. So it really doesn’t make sense to fertilize in the spring.
Also, when you chop up the leaves in the fall, you are actually also fertilizing in the fall because you’re putting those chopped up leaves back into the soil. But it’s a good idea to add some additional fertilizer besides just the leaf litter.
How can people get the most out of their lawns and make their landscaping more environmentally friendly?
Susan Barton: The suburban norm is to have a lawn with some decorative plants around the house, or at the end of the driveway. But I think it’s a good idea to sort of flip that paradigm and design areas of the lawn that provide for play and gathering spaces, and then figure out what everything else can be.
It’s just a different way of thinking about the landscape, and much more environmentally sensitive. It will provide all kinds of ecosystem services, whether it’s better water infiltration or better air quality. If we think about pulling carbon dioxide out of the air, we’re doing it a lot more if we’ve got a ground cover, a shrub layer, a small tree layer and a large tree layer than we are if we have just a lawn.
SciLine is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.
California State Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division and partners are proud to announce the upcoming fall OHV Safety Week, taking place from Nov. 11 to 19.
This semiannual event promotes safe and responsible off-highway vehicle, or OHV, recreation across California's dedicated OHV public lands.
This year’s theme is “Be the Off-Road Hero,” and OHV enthusiasts can be heroes by following safety protocols and protecting the state’s natural resources.
“Being a hero usually exemplifies the best qualities in all of us,” said Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division, or OHMVR, Division Chief Callan McLaughlin. “To ‘Be the Off-Road Hero’ really means to be the example and set the standard for others to follow while recreating safely and responsibly in our beautiful off-highway vehicle areas.”
The fall OHV Safety Week provides an excellent opportunity for all riders, both experienced and newcomers, to enhance their knowledge, skills, and awareness of safe OHV practices by taking safety courses and following simple rules. Training to be an Off-Road Hero starts with:
• Be visible: Use a whip and flag, wear high-visibility clothing, and practice trail etiquette. • Suit up: Wear a properly fitted helmet, chest protector, knee guards, and all recommended safety equipment. • Train now for a better tomorrow: Take a free safety class, which can help you become a more experienced rider.
During this year’s OHV Safety Week, several state vehicular recreation areas, or SVRAs, will host free safety training classes for OHV riders.
Clay Pit, Carnegie, Heber Dunes, Ocotillo Wells, and Prairie City SVRAs will host several all-terrain vehicle, or ATV, classes.
Additionally, recreational OHV courses will also be available at Prairie City and Hungry Valley SVRAs. Dirt bike school classes will be available at Carnegie, Hollister Hills, Hungry Valley and Prairie City SVRAs.
For those interested in participating in these free classes, schedules and sign-up information is available on the California Outdoor Recreation Foundation website. Check with the SVRAs for updated course schedules.
The Bureau of Land Management will host several OHV safety and information booths at the:
• Indian Valley Management Area at the staging area on Saturday, Nov. 11. • Knoxville Management Area from Nov. 16 to 17 at 2 p.m., join BLM staff to ride the trails and hear feedback on vital route assessment at the Hunting Creek Campground.
Working together with the Tread Lightly! Initiative, California Highway Patrol, California Outdoor Recreation Foundation, Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, ATV Safety Institute (ASI), Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association (ROHVA), Motorcycle Industry Council, Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) and BLM, the OHMVR Division has been providing a mix of safety messages and activities during the OHV safety awareness weeks, using park interpretive programs, in-person events, and safety messaging via various social media platforms. Additionally, ASI, ROHVA, and MSF have teamed up with the division to provide free dirt bike, ATV, and recreational OHV training.
In October 2020, the California OHMVR Commission passed a resolution dedicating two weeks of the year to promote and focus on safe and responsible OHV practices.
California’s OHMVR Program was created in 1971 out of the critical need to better manage the growing demands for OHV recreation, while fostering respect for private property rights and protecting the state’s natural and cultural resources.
Today, there are nine SVRAs across California: Carnegie, Clay Pit, Eastern Kern County Onyx Ranch, Heber Dunes, Hollister Hills, Hungry Valley, Oceano Dunes, Ocotillo Wells, and Prairie City.
These public lands provide recreational opportunities on approximately 145,000 acres of lands with more than 600 miles of designated OHV trails and terrain.
Some SVRAs also feature camping, swimming, and other recreational opportunities. A variety of wildlife, sensitive habitats, plants, and animal species call them home.
The OHMVR program also supports safe and responsible OHV recreation beyond the State Park System. Since 1971, more than $803 million in grants, managed by the OHMVR Division, have been awarded to federal and local partners, funding acquisition and development, resource protection, safety and education, and law enforcement for OHV recreation.
For more information about the OHMVR Division, including grant opportunities, please visit https://ohv.parks.ca.gov/.
“Jupiter.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has new dogs ready for new homes this week.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 48 adoptable dogs.
This week’s dogs include “Jupiter,” a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
“Truffles.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. Another adoptable dog is “Truffles,” a German shepherd mix with a brown brindle coat.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Under what conditions many chemical elements are created in the universe has long been shrouded in mystery. This includes elements that are highly valuable, or even vital to life as we know it. Astronomers are now one step closer to an answer thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope and a high-energy event: the second-brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected, most likely caused by the merging of two neutron stars — which resulted in an explosion known as a kilonova. Using Webb’s spectacular sensitivity, scientists captured the first mid-infrared spectrum from space of a kilonova, which marked Webb’s first direct look at an individual heavy element from such an event. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Levan (IMAPP, Warw), A. Pagan (STScI) A team of scientists has used multiple space- and ground-based telescopes, including the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, to observe an exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst, GRB 230307A, and identify the neutron star merger that generated the explosion that created the burst. Webb also helped scientists detect the chemical element tellurium in the aftermath of the explosion.
Other elements near tellurium on the periodic table — like iodine, which is needed for much of life on Earth — are also likely to be present among the kilonova’s ejected material. A kilonova is an explosion produced by a neutron star merging with either a black hole or with another neutron star.
“Just over 150 years since Dmitri Mendeleev wrote down the periodic table of elements, we are now finally in a position to start filling in those last blanks of understanding where everything was made, thanks to Webb,” said Andrew Levan of Radboud University in the Netherlands and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, lead author of the study.
While neutron star mergers have long been theorized as being the ideal “pressure cookers” to create some of the rarer elements substantially heavier than iron, astronomers have previously encountered a few obstacles to obtaining solid evidence.
Kilonovas are extremely rare, making it difficult to observe these events. Short gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, traditionally thought to be those that last less than two seconds, can be byproducts of these infrequent merger episodes. In contrast, long gamma-ray bursts may last several minutes and are usually associated with the explosive death of a massive star.
The case of GRB 230307A is particularly remarkable. First detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in March, it is the second brightest GRB observed in over 50 years of observations, about 1000 times brighter than a typical gamma-ray burst that Fermi observes. It also lasted for 200 seconds, placing it firmly in the category of long-duration gamma-ray bursts, despite its different origin.
“This burst is way into the long category. It’s not near the border. But it seems to be coming from a merging neutron star,” added Eric Burns, a co-author of the paper and member of the Fermi team at Louisiana State University.
The collaboration of many telescopes on the ground and in space allowed scientists to piece together a wealth of information about this event as soon as the burst was detected. It is an example of how satellites and telescopes work together to witness changes in the Universe as they unfold.
After the initial detection, an intensive series of observations from the ground and from space, swung into action to pinpoint the source on the sky and track how its brightness changed. These observations in the gamma-ray, X-ray, optical, infrared, and radio showed that the optical/infrared counterpart was faint, evolved quickly, and became very red – the hallmarks of a kilonova.
“This type of explosion is very rapid, with the material in the explosion also expanding swiftly,” said Om Sharan Salafia, a co-author of the study at the INAF — Brera Astronomical Observatory in Italy. “As the whole cloud expands, the material cools off quickly and the peak of its light becomes visible in the infrared, and becomes redder on time scales of days to weeks.”
At later times it would have been impossible to study this kilonova from the ground, but these were the perfect conditions for Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instruments to observe this tumultuous environment. The spectrum has broad lines that show the material is ejected at high speeds, but one feature is clear: light emitted by tellurium, an element rarer than platinum on Earth.
The highly sensitive infrared capabilities of Webb helped scientists identify the home address of the two neutron stars that created the kilonova: a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light-years away from the site of the merger.
Prior to their venture, they were once two normal massive stars that formed a binary system in their home spiral galaxy. Since the duo was gravitationally bound, both stars were launched together on two separate occasions: when one among the pair exploded as a supernova and became a neutron star, and when the other star followed suit.
In this case, the neutron stars remained as a binary system despite two explosive jolts and were kicked out of their home galaxy. The pair traveled approximately the equivalent of the Milky Way galaxy’s diameter before merging several hundred million years later.
Scientists expect to find even more kilonovas in the future thanks to the increasing number of opportunities to have space and ground-based telescopes working in complementary ways to study changes in the Universe.
“Webb provides a phenomenal boost and may find even heavier elements,” said Ben Gompertz, a co-author of the study at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. “As we get more frequent observations, the models will improve and the spectrum may evolve more in time. Webb has certainly opened the door to do a lot more, and its abilities will be completely transformative for our understanding of the Universe.”
These findings have been published in the journal Nature.
Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. Under an international collaboration agreement, ESA provided the telescope’s launch service, using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. ESA also provided the workhorse spectrograph NIRSpec and 50% of the mid-infrared instrument MIRI, which was designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.
Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency.
On Friday, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Mandy Cohen announced a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, to further their joint work to protect communities from the impacts of wildfire smoke, while promoting land management practices that reduce the risk of large, severe fires.
The four agencies — the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — also released a joint plan outlining wildland fire-related priorities the agencies will focus on over the next two years.
"This year has shown the entire country and the world that wildfires don’t stop at a state or country line – they impact all of us and require a coordinated and collaborative approach,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “The Biden-Harris administration is committed to using every tool available to protect communities from the hazards of wildfire smoke, while also ensuring we have the tools we need to reduce the future risk of large, high severity wildfire events.”
“From coast to coast, the nation is facing a growing threat of wildfire induced by climate change, including from the smoke that can harm people hundreds of miles away,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “We can have a bigger impact on protecting people by partnering across the Biden-Harris Administration. “With today’s interagency agreement we commit to urgent action to reduce the risk of severe wildfires and dangerous smoke.”
“Since fires and smoke don’t recognize borders or jurisdictions, neither should we, and this agreement will help agencies under the Biden-Harris Administration better protect the people and communities we serve,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“The increasing frequency and magnitude of wildfires pose an ever-growing threat to the health of the American public,” said Mandy Cohen, M.D., M.P.H, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This MOU demonstrates the U.S. government’s commitment to mitigating the negative health consequences from wildfire smoke and is a pledge to protect health by reducing the risk of future, large-scale wildfires.”
The MOU outlines how the agencies are working together to advance public health preparedness, minimize smoke impacts to the public and ensure regulatory pathways under the Clean Air Act accommodate greater use of prescribed fire.
Under the MOU, the four agencies commit to coordinating the implementation of policies, communications, and programs that relate to the use of prescribed fire to benefit restoration of forests and other wildlands, and protect communities. T
he agencies will work together to reduce the negative health impacts of smoke on human health and community well-being.
The joint workplan outlines areas of focus for the agencies’ partnership for fiscal years 2024 and 2025:
• community preparedness; • ensuring that land management and public health goals are addressed together; • data collection and sharing; and • interagency communication and messaging.
The MOU and workplan follow the recent Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission Report to Congress, which urged an “all of the above” approach — at all levels of society — to address the impacts of wildfires on communities across the country. While many of the Commission’s recommendations focus on actions Congress must take, this MOU represents a major step forward to the report’s vision of greater coordination and collaboration among agencies working on wildfire.
This work complements the historic investments from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to increase the resilience of lands facing the threat of wildland fires and to better support federal wildland firefighters.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $1.5 billion for the Department of the Interior and $3 billion for the USDA to invest in preparedness, fuels management, post-fire restoration, and fire science – all of which will help strengthen long-term fire preparedness, reduce fire risk across states, and invest in our wildland firefighter workforce.
To read the MOU and the joint workplan, visit USDA’s website.
To read the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission report, visit USDA’s website.
Speed and aggressive driving continues to be a major concern on California roadways.
Federal funding awarded to the California Highway Patrol will help implement safety measures to reduce dangerous driving behaviors statewide.
The $2.5 million Speed Prevention, Education and Enforcement Deterrence, or SPEED II, grant aims to reduce the number of fatal and injury crashes related to speed and the number of victims killed and injured in these crashes.
To achieve this, the CHP will deploy enhanced enforcement and public awareness campaigns statewide.
Speeding and aggressive driving behaviors are a significant danger to the motoring public, pedestrians, and individuals using alternate forms of transportation.
In federal fiscal year 2021-2022, speed was a factor in nearly 40% of all fatal and injury crashes in California.
During this period, there were in excess of 28,000 speed-related crashes, resulting in over 400 deaths and more than 42,000 injuries.
“The receipt of this grant will enable the CHP to reinforce our commitment to road safety,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “Through a combination of proactive enforcement and community education, we aim to eliminate the threat of speed and aggressive driving, while making our roads safer for everyone.”
During April 2021 to July 2023, the CHP used federal funding to employ educational and enforcement efforts to combat dangerous driving behaviors.
The federal funding allowed the CHP to conduct enhanced speed enforcement operations on state routes with increasingly speed related incidents.
During this period, the CHP issued over 48,000 citations to motorists exceeding 100 miles per hour; collaborated with allied law enforcement agencies and posted anti-speeding and aggressive driving behavior ads on social media.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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