LAKEPORT, Calif. – In honor of the upcoming centennial celebration for Upper Lake’s Harriet Lee Hammond Library, the Lake County Library has begun issuing commemorative library cards this month.

The new cards feature a painting of the Hammond Library by Upper Lake artist J. P. Sarlande.

The new cards will be available from all branches of the Lake County Library while supplies last.

To get a library card in Lake County bring your identification and proof of current mailing address to any branch. Children under 18 will need a parent’s identification.

September is Library Card Sign-up Month which coincides well with the October celebration for Upper Lake’s historic library.

The library centennial will take place on Oct. 16 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the library, located at 310 Second St.

The celebration will include entertainment, refreshments and a lot of fun and surprises.

The Upper Lake Women’s Protective Club started Upper Lake’s first library in borrowed space in J.N. League’s general store in 1914, but the club members always hoped for a permanent library building.

With a donation of land from Lottie Mendenhall and Amy Murdock and $6,000 from Harriet Lee Hammond, Upper Lake’s new library building took shape over the summer of 1916 and opened that October.

Although the building might appear to have started out as a house, it has always been a library. Its 100-year history as a library makes it one of Upper Lake’s oldest businesses.

For more information about the centennial contact the library at 707-275-2049 or the main library in Lakeport at 707-263-8817.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .

Jan Cook works for the Lake County Library.

Ever since the 1950s discovery of the solar wind – the constant flow of charged particles from the sun – there’s been a stark disconnect between this outpouring and the sun itself.

As it approaches Earth, the solar wind is gusty and turbulent. But near the sun where it originates, this wind is structured in distinct rays, much like a child’s simple drawing of the sun.

The details of the transition from defined rays in the corona, the sun’s upper atmosphere, to the solar wind have been, until now, a mystery.

Using NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, scientists have for the first time imaged the edge of the sun and described that transition, where the solar wind starts.

Defining the details of this boundary helps us learn more about our solar neighborhood, which is bathed throughout by solar material – a space environment that we must understand to safely explore beyond our planet.

A paper on the findings was published in The Astrophysical Journal on Sept. 1, 2016.

“Now we have a global picture of solar wind evolution,” said Nicholeen Viall, a co-author of the paper and a solar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This is really going to change our understanding of how the space environment develops.”

Both near Earth and far past Pluto, our space environment is dominated by activity on the sun. The sun and its atmosphere are made of plasma – a mix of positively and negatively charged particles which have separated at extremely high temperatures, that both carries and travels along magnetic field lines. Material from the corona streams out into space, filling the solar system with the solar wind.

But scientists found that as the plasma travels further away from the sun, things change: The sun begins to lose magnetic control, forming the boundary that defines the outer corona – the very edge of the sun.

“As you go farther from the sun, the magnetic field strength drops faster than the pressure of the material does,” said Craig DeForest, lead author of the paper and a solar physicist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Eventually, the material starts to act more like a gas, and less like a magnetically structured plasma.”

The breakup of the rays is similar to the way water shoots out from a squirt gun. First, the water is a smooth and unified stream, but it eventually breaks up into droplets, then smaller drops and eventually a fine, misty spray. The images in this study capture the plasma at the same stage where a stream of water gradually disintegrates into droplets.

Before this study, scientists hypothesized that magnetic forces were instrumental to shaping the edge of the corona. However, the effect has never previously been observed because the images are so challenging to process. Twenty million miles from the sun, the solar wind plasma is tenuous, and contains free-floating electrons which scatter sunlight. This means they can be seen, but they are very faint and require careful processing.

In order to resolve the transition zone, scientists had to separate the faint features of the solar wind from the background noise and light sources over 100 times brighter: the background stars, stray light from the sun itself and even dust in the inner solar system. In a way, these images were hiding in plain sight.

Images of the corona fading into the solar wind are crucial pieces of the puzzle to understanding the whole sun, from its core to the edge of the heliosphere, the region of the sun’s vast influence. With a global perspective, scientists can better understand the large-scale physics at this critical region, which affect not only our planet, but also the entire solar system.

Such observations from the STEREO mission – which launched in 2006 – also help inform the next generation of sun-watchers. In 2018, NASA is scheduled to launch the Solar Probe Plus mission, which will fly into the sun’s corona, collecting more valuable information on the origin and evolution of the solar wind.

STEREO is the third mission in NASA Heliophysics Division’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program, which is managed by Goddard for the Science Mission Directorate, in Washington, D.C.

Lina Tran works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Md.

The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act of 2016 by Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa) passed the state Legislature at the end of August with bipartisan support.

The act, also known as Assembly Bill 1890, would ensure companies that do business with the state of California have fair compensation policies and practices that do not unlawfully discriminate based on gender or race.

The announcement of the bill's passages came on Aug. 26, Women’s Equality Day, which commemorates the certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

“We continue the fight against wage inequities that still exist for women across California,” said Sue Miller, chair of the American Association of University Women of California Public Policy Committee. “The wage gap remains constant and women are still paid less in nearly every occupation. Women and their families suffer the consequences of a pay gap from their first paycheck to their last Social Security check. It is imperative that our legislature and our governor continue to support progressive reforms that move toward a more equitable future for all Californians. AAUW California asks the governor to sign AB 1890 as one more tool to help us in our fight.”

The gender pay gap has remained relatively unchanged in recent years, with full-time working women in the U.S. averaging just 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts over the last decade.

The disparity is even greater for women of color, and numerous studies have found a gap persists even when controlling for factors like education and career field.

In 2014, the pay gap between men and women averaged nearly $11,000 annually in lost income.

“The state of California spends billions of dollars annually on state contracts, and we need to ensure taxpayer money is going to companies that follow our existing gender pay equity laws,” said Dodd. “I’m hopeful Gov. Brown will seize this opportunity to have California once again set the example for the nation. We can’t idly sit by and leave a state where my granddaughters are valued less than my grandsons. We owe it to hard working women and future generations to close the pay gap.”

The act, will require companies that contract with the state to have policies in place to help ensure compliance with the equal pay laws.

Additionally, the bill would require contractors to provide the state with data on employee pay by gender and race.

Collecting this data will help the state in appropriately targeting its efforts to reduce and eliminate the wage gap in California. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is currently considering similar reporting requirements at the federal level.

“As a society we need to ensure people aren’t paid less for doing the same job simply because of their gender or the color of their skin. The advancement of gender pay equity has been overlooked for too long,” said gender pay equity advocate, K. Patrice Williams, of Vallejo. “This legislation marks another step towards closing the gender pay gap in California. I’d like to thank Assemblymember Dodd for his effort in promoting this positive change.”

Last year, Dodd co-authored the California Fair Pay Act of 2015, which was signed by Gov. Brown to create the strongest equal pay laws in the nation.

Hoping to build of last year’s success, Dodd’s legislation would advance gender pay equity by ensuring those standards are actually followed by state contractors.

The bill now heads to the governor’s desk where it awaits his signature to become law.

Dodd represents the Fourth Assembly District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo, Lake and Colusa counties. Visit his Web site at www.asm.ca.gov/dodd .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a small group of big dogs ready to go to new homes this week.

The available dogs include mixes of Doberman, husky and pit bull.

There also are several strays picked up from the Clayton fire area that are being held for 30 days in order to reunite them with their families.

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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

'Stella'

“Stella” is a female pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short tan coat, floppy ears and brown eyes.

Stella is in kennel No. 4, ID No. 5940.

Male husky mix

This tall, lanky male husky mix with a medium-length a tan and white coat, and brown eyes. He already has been neutered.

He's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 5923.

'Athena'

“Athena” is a female Doberman Pinscher with a short black and red coat.

She is in kennel No. 10, ID No. 5976.

'Rocky'

“Rocky” is a male pit bull terrier mix.

He has a short black and white coat, brown eyes and floppy ears.

He's in kennel No. 12, ID No. 5910.

'Roadie'

“Roadie” is a handsome male pit bull terrier with a short black and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 26, ID No. 5558.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – An unsolved missing person's case is getting new attention as police follow up on leads and use the latest technology to try to discover what happened to a young Lakeport man 20 years ago.

The case of Steven William Branston, who was 20 years old at the time he was last seen by family in the summer of 1996, recently has made its way back to the top of the Lakeport Police Department's caseload in the wake of two possible leads.

And while neither lead turned out to be a match, both the police and Branston's family are hoping that new media attention and the Internet – now a hugely effective way of sharing information about such cases worldwide – will help renew interest and lead to new information that will help finally solve the case.

Branston's disappearance is the only outstanding missing persons case in the city of Lakeport's jurisdiction, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen, who himself investigated the young man's disappearance while working as a detective.

He said his agency wants to do everything it can to find out what happened to Branston.

In addition to Branston, there are seven other open missing person's cases from Lake County listed by the California Department of Justice's missing persons database.

A family's loss

The last time Susan and Jim Branston of Lakeport saw their son was in the summer of 1996.

In July of that year, they took a trip to Wyoming, and their son stayed at their home to take care of it for them.

Over the previous several years, the couple had watched their son begin to struggle with mental health issues.

Susan Branston said her son had at one point been good in school. He was artistic, mellow and easygoing.

The family had taken a memorable trip to Hawaii when he was 13, she said. “He loved it over there. He liked the warm weather, the water, the beach life.”

As he moved into his teens, he began to be more difficult to handle, she said. He had a hard time in school, his grades dropped, and he began attending a continuation high school. He also began smoking cigarettes and using drugs, primarily marijuana.

When he was about 16, his grandmother gave him some money and he flew to Hawaii. Susan Branston said her son was under the impression that he could go to the tropical state and simply live off the land. But the reality was starkly different.

He returned to California. His mother said he at one point overdosed on LSD, which addiction experts say can lead to hallucinations, psychosis and depression.

Steven Branston subsequently was diagnosed with mental health issues, including schizophrenia, a condition which his family was concerned may have been brought on by his use of LSD.

His mother said he began taking medication and was overseen by a psychiatrist.

By the summer of 1996, he had once again started thinking of returning to Hawaii. He had stopped taking Risperdal, the medical prescribed for his schizophrenia, and didn't want his psychiatrist to know, as his parents later would find out.

Susan and Jim Branston said they last talked to him around Aug. 1, 1996, as they were heading home from their vacation in Wyoming. They believe he left for Hawaii four days later.

“He carefully planned his escape,” said Susan Branston.

Susan Branston said they had not wanted him to go, but if he did they wanted to try to get him into group housing or arrange other help. However, he had other ideas.

“I guess he decided to take things into his own hands,” Susan Branston said.

At first, since he was an adult, the family decided to take a wait and see approach. But by October, the Branstons decided to report his disappearance to police.

Rasmussen said Branston's parents contacted the Lakeport Police Department on Oct. 5, 1996, reporting that they hadn't spoken to him since August.

The Lakeport Police Department immediately began its investigation, with officers entering Branston into the California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Rasmussen said.

He said his agency also transmitted its investigation report to the Honolulu Police Department Criminal Investigations Division Missing Persons Detail, which began an investigation in their city and county. Lakeport Police would be in contact with then-Det. Phil Camaro, who worked with the Branstons in the effort to find their son.

Rasmussen said the initial police investigation confirmed that Steven Branston arrived in Honolulu after traveling there by himself on Aug. 5, 1996.

The last locations where authorities were able to confirm Branston had been were at the Honolulu Airport and at Honolulu's Hy-Pac Self Storage in August 1996, said Rasmussen.

On Aug. 12, 1996, Branston rented a locker at Hy-Pac Self Storage, where he left some personal property, and then opened a bank account on the same day, as he had transferred his Social Security payments to Hawaii, Rasmussen said.

The bank account records at the time of the report showed that two Social Security Income checks, for the months of August and September 1996, had been deposited into the account but no withdrawals had been made, according to Rasmussen.

Branston's parents monitored the bank account for at least a year and found that checks continued to be deposited but no money was ever withdrawn while the account was active, Rasmussen said. The family also monitored the storage locker, which Branston didn't make any more payments on after the initial rental.

A fruitless search

While the August 1996 sightings of Branston in Honolulu were the last of him to be confirmed, Rasmussen said there were several reported but unconfirmed sightings of him in Hawaii beginning that same month and lasting through the following June.

During that time, he was reportedly seen on the islands of Oahu, Molokai, Maui and Kauai, Rasmussen said.

Susan Branston and her family would travel to Hawaii in the coming years, attempting to find their son and follow up themselves on the reported sightings of him.

The summer after his disappearance, they spent about two months scouring the islands, visiting homeless shelters and adult service agencies, and passing around fliers, Susan Branston said.

She said they also were taken around and shown possible areas where he may have been seen by Det. Camaro, who had told them that, in 90 percent of the cases, missing persons are found.

Rasmussen agreed with Camaro's estimate, noting that missing persons usually are found, and found quickly.

But not in this case.

With the family exhausting its resources, Susan Branston said she had to return to Lake County to go back to work. “We were very upset and didn't know what to do,” she said.

She said her family had considered trying to hire a private investigator, but concluded that they simply couldn't afford it.

So they continued their own efforts. When friends would visit the islands, the family would send more fliers about his disappearance with them to post.

When his third grade teacher thought she saw him in Kauai on one trip, the Branstons returned to the islands, paying special attention to Kauai and again looking everywhere and following every lead.

They would get tips of possible sightings and chase them from one location to another, but never were able to confirm that their son had actually ever been in those spots.

“We don't know if anyone ever saw him,” Susan Branston said. “We don't have anything concrete.”

One of the last leads they received during their visit to Kauai was from a woman who believed she saw Steven Branston on Maui. Susan Branston said they didn't have enough time to get to Maui before they were scheduled to return home.

“We were getting people seeing him everywhere, so it was very confusing,” she said, adding they were never sure whether to believe the reports of the sightings or not.

Such sightings in a missing person's case are common, said Rasmussen, noting that police often will get numerous leads from people believing that they saw the person in question.

Rasmussen said the the county of Kauai Police Department also conducted an investigation regarding Steven Branston’s disappearance in the year 2000, but turned up no leads.

That same summer, when Rasmussen was a detective working the Branston case, he contacted Camaro at the Honolulu Police Department at about the time the local police were working to submit Branston's dental records to the California Department of Justice.

Susan Branston believes it's possible that her son could still be alive somewhere, but added, “We have no idea what happened to him.”

Her family would like to have him home, and have closure. That includes daughter, Tammy Varnum, five years younger than her brother and now married and living in Bishop. “She loved her brother very much,” Susan Branston said.

She said the despite his mental health issues, her son was “a nice kid,” who wasn't violent and wouldn't have harmed anyone.

But she is concerned someone may have harmed him.

New case leads

Rasmussen said the Lakeport Police Department's investigators over the years have continued to work the Branston case in an attempt to develop new leads.

Then, this past July and August, new cases were brought to the Lakeport Police Department's attention that had raised the possibility that Branston may have been found, Rasmussen said.

Det. Dale Stoebe, with the assistance of a California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System analyst, conducted followup investigation on two cases involving unidentified deceased persons who were possible matches to Branston's characteristics, Rasmussen said.

At that point, Stoebe also contacted Susan and Jim Branston to let them know of the possible developments, according to Rasmussen.

Rasmussen said the first case was from 2001 in Washington state, while the second was a 1998 case from Mississippi.

The Washington case involved an unidentified male who died at a motel in the Lake Quinault area of Grays Harbor County, according to that county's coroner's office.

The man in question appeared to be in his 20s, close in height and build to Branston, with similar coloring and other physical characteristics, based on the case description.

Rasmussen said a citizens group that investigates missing persons cases around the world sent details of that case to his department this summer, thinking it might be a match. However, Branston's fingerprints that were on file showed it wasn't the same man.

The second case involved a man in his 20s who was seriously injured by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run crash in Hattiesburg, Miss., while hitchhiking along Interstate 59 in December of 1998, according to Rasmussen.

A report on the case said the man had identified himself as Steve Hex or Hicks and had claimed to be a resident of West Virginia before he lost consciousness after the crash. He died the following May due to complications from his injuries.

Pictures of the man showed that he, too, bore a strong physical resemblance to Branston, but Rasmussen said a blood test showed that it was not, in fact, Branston.

As a result of those followup cases, Rasmussen said his department decided to do a DNA profile on Branston. “We determined that really needed to be done as soon as possible,” he said, with police obtaining samples from Branston's parents.

Rasmussen said Branston's information – including dental records, fingerprints and last known photographs – remain on file with the California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which is linked to the state of Hawaii's missing persons database.

California's and Hawaii's missing persons databases also are connected to the United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Missing and Unidentified Missing Persons System, Rasmussen said.

Branston's newly added DNA profile will be checked against existing cases, with the system also running a check for possible matches every time a new profile is added, Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said it's possible Steven Branston is still alive, possibly living under a different name and identity, and that someone may recognize him, which will help finally wrap up the case once and for all.

“There's always hope,” Rasmussen said.

Have you seen Steven? How you can help

The physical description of Branston from the time of his disappearance is for a white male adult, 6 feet tall, 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

At that time he had long curly hair which he wore in a ponytail and may have had a light brown curly beard.

He had a history of smoking cigarettes, and may have been wearing a scarf headband, a tie-dye shirt or black or white shirt, jeans or cutoffs and sandals.

Rasmussen said the Lakeport Police Department is working on getting an image developed that will show what Branston would look like today, at age 40.

The Lakeport Police Department plans to continue to work with authorities in Hawaii on the case, a full rundown of which Rasmussen said will be posted at the Lakeport Police Department Web site, http://www.lakeportpolice.org/ .

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Lakeport Police Det. Dale Stoebe or any other officer at 707-263-5491.

Private messages also can be sent on the department's Facebook page @LakeportPolice or by sending an anonymous message through Nixle on your cellular telephone by texting the words TIP LAKEPORT followed by your message to 888777.

Anyone with information in Hawaii can call the Honolulu Police Department at 808-529-3111.

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.

Expanding Head Start is good public policy and will pay for itself, according to new research by faculty in the University of California, Berkeley’s economics department and Goldman School of Public Policy.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average Head Start expenditure per child is about $8,000.

The UC Berkeley researchers found that every dollar invested generates $2 in future earnings for children enrolled in the program.

According to UC Berkeley economics professor Christopher Walters, “Many children who attend Head Start would otherwise attend other subsidized preschools. Moving kids from one form of preschool to another yields minimal benefits but also entails little cost to taxpayers. And since preschools tend to be oversubscribed, Head Start may add significantly to total preschool enrollment, which our estimates (along with a large existing literature) suggest pays for itself.”

Head Start, the federal preschool program for children from low-income families, has been studied widely since its inception in 1965, and experts have found the results to be a mixed bag.

Early research found large positive effects on children’s cognitive skills, while the Department of Health and Human Services’ large 2002 Head Start Impact Study seemed to show fewer benefits.

The latter study, which began following enrollees in 2002 and stayed with them through third grade, found that all the academic advances the children had made during their Head Start year faded quickly over time.

The policy brief, based on research by faculty affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, “Revisiting the impact of Head Start,” highlights new data showing that the earlier negative results from the Head Start Impact Study were misleading.

The brief finds errors in earlier studies, clarifies what was being measured and clearly shows that Head Start is of great benefit to the disadvantaged children it serves over the course of their lives, according to its author, Claire Montailoux.

“Researchers have often estimated the effects of attending Head Start compared to a mix of home care and other preschool programs. When Head Start is compared specifically to at-home care, we find that it has large positive impacts on test scores for low-income children.” said Walters.

Key findings include:

• Head Start raises children’s cognitive and social development. Earlier studies showing limited benefits to children in Head Start compared them to a control group made up of children in other preschool programs and children receiving care at home, diluting the positive impacts seen in the Head Start group.
• Head Start dramatically increases parents’ involvement with their children while in preschool and after. For example, participation in Head Start increases the time parents spend reading to children by 20 percent, and Head Start leads absent fathers to spend one additional day per month with their children.
• Taking into account the new estimates of the benefits of Head Start – including better health outcomes, lower criminality and higher future earnings – a cost-benefit analysis shows that the benefits of Head Start well exceed its costs.

The brief also drew largely from other analyses of Head Start by UC Berkeley researchers.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In the past two months, California has experienced a rash of large and damaging wildfires and in almost every single case, the fire was preventable.

Cal Fire said 95 percent of all wildfires are caused by the activity of people.

As a result, Cal Fire is asking, especially with the holiday weekend, that all Californians do their part now to help prevent the next devastating wildfire. The agency's motto is “One less spark means one less wildfire.”

“As we are in the middle of the fifth year of record drought, we need to make sure that everyone is vigilant in preventing wildfires,” said Lynne Tolmachoff, Cal Fire chief of public education. “It starts with our Ready, Set, Go! Program that helps prepare residents for a wildfire, and carries over to the One Less Spark, One Less Wildfire Program that stresses how to prevent wildfires through proper care and maintenance of campfires, vehicles, and outdoor equipment.”

Cal Fire offers the following guidelines.

Outdoor powered equipment

• Use powered equipment before 10 a.m. when it is cooler.
• Use the right equipment to cut dry grass. Lawn mowers are designed to mow lawn grass, not weeds.
• When using heavy equipment such as tractors, backhoes or harvesters, use caution around rocks, as metal implements striking rocks can create a spark and start a fire.
• Ensure chainsaws, weed eaters and other portable gasoline-powered equipment are in good working order, which includes having a spark arrestor.
• When welding, make sure there is at least ten feet of clearance and a fire extinguisher or charged water hose ready to use, just in case of a fire.
 
Campfires

• Campfire permits are required for all portable gas stoves and campfires; check to make sure there are no fire restrictions in the area first.
• Always have water or a shovel nearby.
• Never leave children unattended by a campfire.
• Completely extinguish campfires using the “drown, stir, and feel” method
• Drown the fire with water.
• Stir the area with a shovel to wet any remaining embers and ash and mix in more dirt.
• Lastly, feel the area with the back of your hand to make sure it’s cool.
• If it is still hot repeat the “drown and stir” method until it is cool.
 
Vehicles

• Never drive over dry grass.
• Vehicle maintenance is crucial in preventing wildfires.
• Securing trailer chain so they don’t drag on the ground.
• Ensure vehicle brakes and tire pressure are maintained to prevent sparking from metal to metal contact.
 
To learn more ways to prevent a wildfire visit www.ReadyForWildfire.org .