NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Sen. Mike McGuire’s bill that will again require the state to make payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT, payments to counties has received unanimous bipartisan support in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

PILT payments were established in 1949 to offset adverse impacts to county property tax revenues that result when the state acquires private property within a county for wildlife management areas.

Currently, the State Department of Fish and Wildlife owes nearly $8 million in payments to California’s 36 rural counties and a change in 2015 to the Fish and Game Code makes it even easier for the state to continue to forgo making these payments.

“The state needs to step up and follow through on a promise and advance Fish and Wildlife PILT payments to rural counties,” McGuire said. “Since 2001, California has been depositing millions of PILT dollars that should have been going to rural counties into the State General Fund and it’s time to give counties their due.”

Holding back these payments to counties on the North Coast has had a detrimental impact on the counties and their bottom line.

For example, in PILT payments alone, Del Norte is owed more than $220,000, Humboldt County is owed more than $160,000, Lake County is owed $93,000, Sonoma County is owed $116,000 and Marin County is owed over $150,000.

“This was an agreement made decades ago and the state has reneged on these payments for far too long,” McGuire said. “Let’s continue to level the playing field for our rural counties.”

SB 1188 is a bipartisan effort to make PILT payments to counties a requirement. It passed unanimously, 15-0, in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. It will now head to Assembly Appropriations.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Scotts Valley Grange No. 725 has a potluck and meeting at 6 p.m. the first Thursday of each month.

The next meeting will be on July 7.

All are welcome.

The grange hall is located at 7003 Scotts Valley Road, Lakeport.

For further information call Lisa at 707-275-0847.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Anderson Marsh State Historic Park holds guided nature walks on the second Saturday of nearly every month. 

The next scheduled walk will be held on the morning of Saturday, July 9. 

Bring your binoculars and meet in front of the ranch house at 8:15 a.m. for time to experience the early morning wildlife to be found in the ranch house and barn complex yard. The walk begins at 8:30 a.m.

The walk should take between one and a half to two hours.

Led by park docents Gae Henry and Henry Bornstein, this walk will cover the Cache Creek Nature Trail. 

Along with a general history and description of the park, come and view the birds, dragonflies,
butterflies, and other wildlife and wildflowers that can be found in the park this time of year. 

There is no fee for those attending. There will be a guided tour of the Ranch House after the July walk.

Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is located on Highway 53, between Lower Lake and Clearlake. 

For more information about the walks, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 707-995-2658.

For more information about the park, you may also visit www.andersonmarsh.org and click on “Park Brochure” on the home page.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The University of California Master Gardener Program of Lake County is hosting a summer fruit tree pruning workshop in Clearlake on Tuesday, July 19, from 9 a.m. to noon.

There is a materials fee of $5.

For the location and to RSVP, call the Lake County Agricultural Center at 707-263-6838, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the office at 883 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport.

Visit the program online at http://celake.ucdavis.edu/Master_Gardener/ or
www.facebook.com/UCCELakeCountyMasterGardeners .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Joining a community event presented by New Hope Fellowship at Library Park on June 12, Worldwide Healing Hands (WHH) health care volunteers conducted free health screenings to individuals attending the event.
 
Offering consultations and health checks, 12 volunteers including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and translators conducted “a very successful medical screening” specifically targeting the Hispanic population, according to WHH medical director Dr. Paula Dhanda.

The event was one of many health screening opportunities planned by the organization to assist Lake County’s homeless and indigent this year.
 
Dr. Dhanda reported that the team screened 21 patients – 13 men and 8 women – over the course of the two-hour event, and the physicians identified three individuals needing surgery.

“Our volunteers will assist them in accessing the care they need,” she added.
 
WHH’s volunteers were thanked by New Hope Fellowship Pastor Moses Zapata for the team’s participation in the outreach event.

“Our hearts are absolutely filled with gratitude and thankfulness to you for your generosity, professionalism and selfless care,” he wrote in a letter to Dr. Dhanda. “We realize that it was strictly voluntary on your part which makes the work you did all the more an act of human kindness that cannot be repaid with words alone.”
 
Volunteers assisting with the screening included Dr. Paula Dhanda, Dr. Arthur Bikangaga, Family Nurse Practitioner Christine Dalva, Physician Assistant Mike Mietz, Jasmin Clarke, Lacey Deas, Sandy Mietz, Falisha Johns, LVN, Perla Lovejoy, RN, Michael DelValle, Dinora Garcia and Carol Stahr, LVN.

The team checked blood pressure and other vital signs and discussed health concerns with individuals. Food was provided by New Hope Fellowship.
 
“Worldwide Healing Hands thanks the health care workers and other volunteers who gave their time during the recent free screening event to care for members of our community,” said Dr. Dhanda. 
 
WHH plans to conduct similar screening clinics in the future. Volunteers will continue to inform individuals about health care availability at upcoming sessions.

For information about upcoming screenings, Worldwide Healing Hands missions and volunteer opportunities, visit the WHH Web site, www.worldwidehealinghands.org .

Johnna Schrader
1942-2016

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Johnna Schrader, 73, of Lakeport died, surrounded by her family, on Saturday, June 18, 2016, at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa.

She was born Sept. 24, 1942, in Wheatland, Wyo., to John and Dorothe Chiamulon.

She is survived by her children, Jacki Monpas and Jeri Pauli, both of Casper, Wyo., Wendy Porter of Columbia, South Carolina, and Bob Schrader (Pam) of Avondale, Ariz.; five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; two sisters, Cheryl Brown (Gary) of Cheyenne, Wyo., and Janis Chiamulon (Diane) of Kelseyville, Calif.

She was preceded in death by her son, Robert, and her parents.

A celebration of life will be held at the Lakeport Lagoon Clubhouse on Saturday, July 9, at 2 p.m.

Interment will take place in Hartville, Wyo.

A painting by Virginia artist Guy Crittenden has won the 2016 California Duck Stamp Art Contest.

It was the first time that Crittenden has won the California Duck Stamp Art Contest, although he has won numerous contests held by other states.

Following the contest last Tuesday in Davis, the judges praised Crittenden’s painting, citing its autumnal feel, quality of light and anatomical accuracy.

“In my experience it is important to focus on a composition that works, first and foremost, and then worry about matters such as accuracy, feathers and habitat,” said Crittenden, a landscape, wildlife and sporting artist. “My experience with landscape painting helps me create a background that is accurate, luminescent and pleasing to the eye, one that glows with warm light and sun coming through the clouds.”

Artists from around the country submitted entries for this year’s contest, sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

Timothy Schreiber of Duffield, Va., placed second, Mark Thone of Shakopee, Minn., placed third and Jeffrey Klinefelter of Etna Green, Ind., received honorable mention.

The top four paintings will be displayed at the Pacific Flyway Decoy Association’s 46th Annual Classic Wildlife Art Festival, which will be held at the Double Tree Hotel in Sacramento on July 9 and 10.

Since 1971, the California Duck Stamp Program’s annual contest has attracted top wildlife artists from around the country.

The contest is traditionally open to artists from all 50 states in order to ensure a wide pool of submissions. All proceeds generated from stamp sales go directly to waterfowl conservation projects throughout California.

In the past, hunters were required to purchase and affix the stamp to their hunting licenses. Today, hunters are no longer required to carry the stamps because California’s modern licensing system prints proof of additional fees paid directly onto the license. However, CDFW still produces the stamps, which can be requested on CDFW’s Web site at www.wildlife.ca.gov/licensing/collector-stamps .

The subject of the 2017 California Duck Stamp Art Contest will be the ruddy duck, with details on that contest to be released at a later date.

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Tulane University awarded degrees to nearly 3,000 graduates on May 14 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Priscilla Boyd of Lakeport, Calif., graduated from the Tulane Law School with a Juris Doctor degree. 

The ceremony's keynote speaker was Hoda Kotb, co-host of NBC’s “Today” show who also received a Tulane President’s Medal.

Honorary degrees were given to renowned artist Lynda Benglis and Christopher Paola, a world leader in the study of earth surface processes, particularly in river and delta regions.

Boyd and fellow class members were honored at the ceremony, which included all the pomp and circumstance of a traditional commencement but with a New Orleans twist, including herald trumpets, and a second-line jazz procession.

Music was provided by Dr. Michael White’s Original Liberty Jazz Band, jazz singer Topsy Chapman and Tulane a capella group Green Envy.

Tulane University is one of the nation’s leading educational and research institutions. Founded in 1834 in New Orleans, Tulane has 10 schools and colleges offering degrees in architecture, business, law, liberal arts, medicine, public health and tropical medicine, the sciences and engineering, and social work.