LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association will hold its annual “Steel Challenge” shooting competition on Saturday, May 20.

The contest will take place at the Highland Springs shooting range in Lakeport.

The registration fee is $35 per person, and includes one t-shirt, one raffle ticket, one lunch ticket and entry into either the steel shoot or three gun shoot. Entry into the second shoot will be additional $10.

Check-in will take place between 7 and 8:30 a.m., with a safety briefing at 8:30 a.m. and shooting to begin at 9 a.m.

Competition divisions are junior’s (12-17 years), women’s pistol, men’s pistol, men/women’s/senior revolver, law enforcement, senior pistol (65 years and up) and single action revolver.

Juniors will need to have a parent/guardian sign a waiver on the day of the event.

There will be medals for the top shooter in each division. The winner of each division will compete for the “top gun” award. There will be medals for the top three gun competitor and bragging rights.

The barbecue tri-tip and chicken lunch will include sides, chips and a drink, for $10 per plate. Participants receive one lunch ticket with every entry.

Questions can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Entry forms can be downloaded at www.lakecountyDSA.com and completed by competitors prior to May 20. All fees will be collected during registration.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Luncheon Club will host a talk by Tom Nixon, a retired State Park ranger, on Lake County’s outdoor recreational opportunities when it meets on Wednesday, May 17.

Lunch will be served by the senior center at noon at the Middletown Senior Center, 21256 Washington St. The program will end promptly at 1 p.m.

For only $5 per person, enjoy a meal of cabbage rolls accompanied by a whole wheat roll and watermelon.

It's a great time to get outdoors in Lake County. Nixon, an advocate for “all things nature,” will share the opportunities that exist for us to explore our beautiful county via foot, hoof, water or pedal power.

Nixon was most recently a ranger at Anderson Marsh and he currently volunteers to develop and promote the Konocti Regional Trails program for the Lake County Department of Public Services.

Reservations are required. Please call the senior center directly at 707-987-3113 to reserve your spot.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – With the release of this article there will be three weeks or so remaining of school.

The Student of the week was Marco Anguiano. Teacher Alan Siegel who nominated Marco said, ”Marco comes ready everyday, focused, and founded the new music creating movement at our school”.

Congratulations Marco and have fun with your music.

Dan Maes has been teaching at Carlé for 10 years and has decided this will be his final year before retirement.

Maes started teaching in August of 1996 at Oak Hill Middle School for seventh and eighth grade language arts and history. He had been compelled to teach since he was a young man.

I then asked him what exactly it was that compelled him to want to become a teacher. Maes said, “I may have been driven to become a teacher because my aunt and uncle were teachers, but even while in law school I had been contemplating becoming a teacher.”

I asked what he loved so much about teaching. Maes responded, “I love teaching because it’s a challenge, but most of all I enjoy learning something new from the students everyday.”

Maes added, “I also love teaching at Carlé because of the diverse range of student that a continuation school provides.”

Why is he retiring? “I love teaching, especially at Carlé, but I have been teaching for long enough, 21 years is quite a long time,” he said.

Finally, I asked him what he would be doing during his retirement. “I’ll be traveling to all different places, to Italy, New Zealand, and also playing my guitar which I’ve grown a little rusty with, so I suppose I’ll de-rust my guitar skills,” Maes said.

Students Teagon Tompioneer and Nick Kieffer hand designed a huge plaque of sorts in which Maes name is on it painted in an artistic way as well as as numerous students signatures and sentiments.

This was given as a thank you present to Mr. Maes for all he’s done for Carlé in the hope he he will never forget us.

I asked some students for their opinion on Mr. Maes and his retirement. “Maes is a very inspiring teacher and human, he always has a way of connecting with his students,” said David Jones.

“I like how Maes doesn’t have an issue speaking his mind, if he sees you acting inappropriately he will tell you regardless of how it sounds,” said Renae Riley.

“I love you ol’ man, I'm going to miss you mucho, much love,” said Shaina Yaquinto.

“Oh my God, you’re really leaving … no we will love and miss you, you were my favorite,” said Destiny Blevins.

I personally will miss Mr. Maes very much so, Maes is an overflowing pool in which the water is knowledge. He always gave me the best advice and reinforced me when even I didn’t believe in myself, Maes truly was one of the most influential figures in my life.

With that we all at Carlé would like to thank you for the constant support of all the students and staff at Carle and hope you have a wonderful retirement, you will be missed.

Mr. Maes will present awards along with the rest of the Carlé staff at graduation on May 31.

Nicholas Phipps is a student at Carlé Continuation High School.

UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Board of Trustees approved the naming of “Pomo Plaza” at their monthly meeting held May 10.

Mendocino College established a monument to recognize the Pomo communities and help create a more culturally respectful and inclusive campus climate as part of their continued equity work.

This initiative aligns with the Board of Trustees’ goal of strengthening the college’s inclusive, equitable and ethnically diverse culture to be more welcoming to all students and increase access and support for underrepresented groups including American Indian students. 

Pomo Plaza will be located on the Mendocino College, Ukiah Campus in the area between the Library Learning Center and the Lowery Student Center.

The location will be prominently marked with a stone monument that acknowledges and highlights the experiences and numerable positive contributions of American Indian people as well as the importance of the Pomo cultures in our communities.

Mendocino College plans to hold an unveiling and naming ceremony upon completion of the project.

Jessica Silva is director of community relations and communication at Mendocino College.

In 2015, I attended a ceremony at the White House celebrating the Obama Administration’s designation of Berryessa Snow Mountain Conservation Area as a national monument.

Over the previous several years, Congressman Mike Thompson and I, together with my fellow members of Congress, worked to shepherd this along.

But this designation was the culmination of many years of effort by local officials, as well as conservationists and recreation enthusiasts – all of whom pulled together to make it happen.

We thought we had permanently set aside this federal land for recreation, tourism, hunting and fishing, and had preserved its unique habitats, rare plants, diverse wildlife and expansive trails for future generations.

Unfortunately, under an executive order signed by President Trump, all the progress we made protecting Berryessa Snow Mountain might be lost.

The administration plans to reconsider the national monument designation for a number of national monuments, including Berryessa Snow Mountain.

That would be a terrible mistake. Our national monuments preserve natural, cultural and historic public spaces throughout the United States and provide valuable recreational opportunities for all Americans to enjoy.

Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, presidents have the ability to protect federal lands with historic, environmental, or cultural significance from new development like mining, logging and oil extraction.

Berryessa Snow Mountain has unique biodiversity and a rich Native American cultural heritage, making it an ideal national monument. It’s home to a number of hard-to-find species, including an icon familiar to every American: the bald eagle.

To ensure the broadest local support, we struck a careful balance in our planning of the national monument.

We made sure that all existing private property rights were respected, and that no private lands were included in the designation. Pre-existing firefighting protections were left unchanged, as were the grazing rights of nearby ranchers.

Motorized recreation remains at Lake Berryessa (the lake itself is not included in the national monument), and no new regulations impacting hunting, fishing, or firearm use were imposed.

Existing water rights were protected, and the national monument protects water quality in vital watersheds, including drinking water sources.

Far from impeding on development and business growth, we’ve found that the national monument designation has enhanced the local economy. Many local businesses in the Berryessa area depend heavily on tourism.

While the land is unchanged and remains as beautiful as ever, the official national monument designation adds prestige, familiarity and reputation – increasing the number of visitors who can sustain the local tourism business.

Indeed, a study by the Winters Chamber of Commerce found that protected public lands are major contributors to our country’s $646 billion outdoor recreation economy.

In California alone, more than half of all residents participate in outdoor recreation each year, supporting more than 700,000 jobs and generating more than $6 billion for our state’s economy.

The study also found that local economies surrounding national monuments expand following the creation of a new national monument. Employment, personal income, and per capita income either continued or improved in each of the regions surrounding the national monuments studied.

Under President Trump’s executive order, all of this potential for our region could be abruptly reversed. Berryessa Snow Mountain could fall victim to rapacious and destructive resource exploitation, and no tourism economy flourishes on that.

Over the years, we’ve lost a lot of pristine and unblemished lands to short-sighted development. With its national monument designation, we thought Berryessa Snow Mountain had avoided that fate.

If the Trump Administration tries to strip Berryessa Snow Mountain of its protections, they can expect a fight.

Congressman John Garamendi (D-Davis, Fairfield, Yuba City) represents California’s Third Congressional District, which includes Lake County.

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – The Mendocino National Forest has released its draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, on the Pine Mountain Late-Successional Reserve Habitat Protection and Enhancement project.

The DEIS is posted online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=13615 .

The proposed action involves fuels reduction and habitat enhancement treatments on approximately 8,000 acres southwest of Lake Pillsbury in the Pine Mountain vicinity.

The project area was chosen for treatment based on past fire history and the need to improve forest health and resilience to fire, insects and disease.

Comments on the proposed action and preliminary alternatives will be accepted for 45 calendar days following publication in the Federal Register on May 5, 2017.

This period is intended to provide an opportunity to comment on the project prior to the development of the final EIS.

For information contact: Frank Aebly, Covelo and Upper Lake district ranger, at the Upper Lake office, 10025 Elk Mountain Road, Upper Lake, CA 95458, by phone 707-275-1401 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (Rated PG-13) 

Still weeks away from Memorial Day weekend, which could be considered the unofficial start of summer fun, Hollywood gets a jump on that marker by releasing a film fitting for a seasonal highlight.

More impressive is that the early launch of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is not only a worthy sequel, but it may prove to be arguably one of the most entertaining and fun films in a superhero orbit that has too often become increasingly repetitive and predictable.

“Guardians Vol. 2” is more than just another exciting production from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It stood out three years ago, and remains that way today with the second installment, because its irreverence and sense of humor remain defining features suitable for a wider audience.

Aside from “Deadpool,” which was fueled by a fast-talking mercenary with a morbid, profane sense of humor and thus rated R for good reason, the universe of Marvel Comics brought to film would not be so cheeky but for the emerging “Guardians” franchise.

To the delight of anyone surprised by the original film, “Guardians Vol. 2” returns the lovable key characters that became the ragtag group of misfits traveling through the cosmos to the tunes of the “Awesome Mixtapes” courtesy of the Earth-born Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), aka Star-Lord.

The second installment offers more than a glimpse into the past of Quill, a distinctly humanoid creature who appears to be this generation’s Han Solo, but whose Chewbacca is an ill-tempered raccoon who can do more than grunt while acting as co-pilot.

Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), trash-talking more than a WWE wrestler on fight night, makes for an amusing presence in his banter with the often reckless adventurer Quill as they cruise through the galaxy from one trouble spot to another.

Joining Rocket and Quill on the latest space adventure are original members, the tart-tongued, green-skinned Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the towering presence of muscleman Drax (WWE wrestler Dave Bautista), and lovable Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), the miniature dancing tree stump.

An early scene of rural Missouri circa 1980 introduces a young Kurt Russell cruising to a remote forest spot with the future Mrs. Quill, the mother of our daring space adventurer who thrives on listening to cassette tapes of Seventies rock music.

It turns out that Russell in the present day has his own planet where his humility as a celestial being allows him to go by the name of Ego the Living Planet, or Ego to his friends, and he reveals himself to be the father of Peter Quill.

But before time is spent on Ego’s magical planet, where one would not be surprised to see rainbows and unicorns, Quill and his crew are tasked with an assignment by Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), the high priestess of the gold-skinned Sovereigns, to protect valuable batteries.

In exchange for Gamora’s evil sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) being held prisoner by the Sovereigns, Quill’s band of warriors has to slay a gigantic beast who wants to steal these batteries.

The mission succeeds, but Rocket decides, seemingly out of disdain for the snooty attitude of Ayesha, to sneak a few batteries into his backpack on the way out to their spaceship, and the angered Sovereigns give chase with remote-controlled fighter pods.

The adventures continue when the Guardians crash land on a remote planet, where Ego arrives in his own spacecraft accompanied by his sidekick Mantis (Pom Klementieff), an empathetic creature with forehead antennae that allow her to understand the emotions of others.

Meanwhile, Ayesha hires the blue-skinned Yondu (Michael Rooker) and the mercenary Ravagers to go after the Guardians. Having acted as foster father to a young Quill, Yondu is best-equipped to chase down the intergalactic swashbuckler and his merry band.

Interestingly, the dynamics within the volatile Ravagers are fluid as Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) banishes Yondu into exile, while Taserface (Chris Sullivan) stages a mutiny and takes it upon himself to track down Quill.

Volatility also seems to be the watchword for the family relationships that are either dysfunctional or fraught with peril. Though Quill is thrilled to meet his biological father, there is a lingering uncertainty for Star-Lord to break away from the Guardians, his improvised family unit.

Sibling rivalry takes an ugly turn when Nebula would jump at the chance to destroy Gamora for reasons that seem based solely on misconceptions. Meanwhile, Quill would like his relationship with the aloof Gamora to blossom into romance.

If the summer movie season is set to kick off this early, there’s hardly more fun to be had than with the antics of the endless bickering and bantering delivered with cleverness and sheer delight in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2.”

To be sure, as with any sequel, there are some pitfalls to this second chapter, but overall the fun quotient is off the charts and the fan base for this emerging franchise should be thoroughly satisfied.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) has announced the start of the Summer Reading Challenge.

Open to students from pre-K through the eighth grade, the challenge encourages kids in our district to read as many – or all – of the books on the Library of Congress and American Library Association’s Summer Reading List.

The list is divided into four age groups, with 25 books in each category. Students who participate in the challenge are eligible for special recognition from Thompson’s office.

“A good book opens countless doorways – both to new worlds within its pages and bright futures right here,” said Thompson. “The Summer Reading Challenges encourages our kids to keep reading, experience new perspectives, and enjoy wonderful stories.”

Students interested in participating can sign up with Thompson’s office at https://go.usa.gov/x5MVg .

A flier with more information can be found at https://mikethompson.house.gov/sites/mikethompson.house.gov/files/2017_summer_reading_challenge.pdf .

Rainbow trout/steelhead vs coastal cutthroat trout, eating fresh-caught fish at sea,

Question: I have a question regarding regulations on non-adipose fin-clipped (“wild”) rainbow trout/steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout in tributaries on the North Coast (e.g. the lagoons in northern Humboldt County).

Anglers are not permitted to keep wild rainbow trout/steelhead but are permitted to keep wild coastal cutthroat trout. However, these two species are well known to hybridize and hybrid offspring are reproductively viable.

Hybrids also exhibit a continuous spectrum of phenotypic expression that runs from the rainbow phenotype (few spots below the lateral line, small head, maxillary terminating before the rear of the eye and no throat slashes) to the cutthroat phenotype (heavily spotted including below the lateral line, large head, maxillary extending past the rear of the eye and throat slashes present).

These phenotypes are what the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) website recommends for identification of the two species, but there is no reference to the basibranchial teeth that are specific to cutthroat.

Therefore, if an angler catches a non-adipose fin-clipped trout that has no throat slashes, no spots below the lateral line, a small head and a maxillary that does not extend beyond the rear of the eye, but has basibranchial teeth, is the angler allowed to keep the trout? The fish described is likely a hybrid “cuttbow.”

Alternatively, if an angler catches a trout that outwardly looks like a coastal cutthroat but does not have basibranchial teeth, is the angler allowed to keep the trout?

Again, this fish is likely a cuttbow. (Brian P., Sacramento)

Answer: According to CDFW Environmental Program Manager Roger Bloom, it is true that rainbow trout/coastal cutthroat hybrids exist at some low level in sympatric populations.

However, based on a recent scientific study, the practice of using phenotypic traits to distinguish hybrids is not very effective.

Although the presence of basibranchial teeth are a strong indication of a cutthroat trout lineage, it should not be used exclusively as a definitive sign to retain/harvest a fish.

From a regulatory/enforcement perspective, field identification of coastal cutthroats should be based on commonly agreed upon morphology of red/orange slashes found under the jaw.

If there is a question about a fish being a hybrid coastal cutthroat crossed with a rainbow trout, anglers should err on the side of caution. It must have observable red/orange slashes if the trout is to be considered a coastal cutthroat for harvest.

Interestingly, some Central Valley hatchery steelhead may exhibit orange/yellow slashes which could stem from genetic influences via ancestral redband trout.

Hence, if an angler encounters an adipose-clipped fish that looks like a rainbow trout but has these characteristics, it can be retained/harvested as there are currently no hatchery coastal cutthroats with clipped adipose fins.

Eating fresh-caught fish while at sea?

Question: Is it legal to eat just-caught fish while still at sea? For example, if I catch a tuna, fillet it into six pieces and later that day have one piece for dinner, would that be a criminal offense under the new fillet rules? (Jim K.)

Answer: No, you are welcome to cook sport-caught fish on a vessel as long as the fish is counted toward the angler’s individual bag limit and the vessel’s boat limit.

The fish must also meet the fillet length requirements and any skin patches must be left on until the fish is prepared for immediate consumption (Fish and Game Code, sections 5508 and 5509). This applies regardless of which species is taken, and includes the new tuna fillet rules.

Remember, you cannot catch another fish to replace the one that has been eaten once the bag/boat limit has been filled for that type of fish for that day.

Ranching wild pigs on private property?

Question: Are there circumstances under which a California rancher or even a private resident can keep live wild pigs on their property? I haven’t found any regulations that specifically address this. (Mike A.)

Answer: No, it is not lawful for any California resident to possess wild pigs (Sus scrofa) (California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 671(c)(2)(Q)). However, there is an exception for Sus scrofa domestica, also known as the domesticated pig one commonly sees on a farm (CCR Title 14, section 671(c)(2)(Q)(1)).

Crab hawk

Question: Is it legal to use the device called the “Crabhawk” to fish for Dungeness crabs? (Forrest L., Watsonville)

Answer: This device, which attaches to the end of a fishing line, is not legal in California.

For descriptions of legal devices that may be used to take crabs, please check CCR Title 14, section 29.80. The Crabhawk does not meet the regulatory criteria.

An alternative trap that may be attached to the end of a line is the crab loop trap. These have been legal to use in California for many years.

Carrie Wilson is a marine environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While she cannot personally answer everyone’s questions, she will select a few to answer each week in this column. Please contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .