The typical lament is "Arrrgh! Do something! DO SOMETHING!”

Most people are not happy with my response, which in a sentence is, “We are doing all we can.” Not that there isn't more to do, there is.

I do, however, have plenty more to say about this lake which many do not want to hear.

Clear Lake is alive It is communicating with us, and it is “doing what it does.”

The lake is alive. Clear lake is the oldest lake in the northern hemisphere, between one and two million years old. It is amazing and diverse and is a living being. In fact, it may be one of the most biologically diverse lakes in the world ... with a diversity studied by biologists around the globe. It was written about by Rachel Carson in the pivotal book “Silent Spring” where she spoke of the real and potential effects of human activity on wildlife. In essence, Clear Lake is 68 square miles of nature behaving and communicating.

Clear Lake is communicating with us. What is the lake saying? First and foremost, the lake is telling us that our actions, over time, have consequences. Long-term loss of habitat plus people (and their actions) resulted in excess nutrients flowing into the water. To quote Dr. Harry Lyons, biologist and Clear Lake expert, the lake is saying “I am too fat! I have too many nutrients.”

This condition of “extra” nutrients did not happen overnight.

Clear Lake is “doing what it does.” And what is that? It is turning nutrients into life. Clear Lake's excess nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, etc) would be better and more enjoyable to us in the form of wildlife: fish, grebes, otter, etc than algae. These nutrients would be more useful and healthy on the land and in gardens rather than in the water. Instead the nutrients are going into the water and creating extraordinary growth of algae and weeds. This is the lake “doing what it does” only this year, it is particularly difficult.

The lake is alive, it is communicating and it is doing what it does. We impact the lake. We humans create or affect many of the nutrients that flow into it and we, especially over time, have taken actions which affect the form the nutrients take.

To encourage the nutrients to turn into wildlife (instead of weeds and algae) requires that we foster favorable habitat ... namely tules. More than 70 percent of the natural tules around Clear Lake have been removed. If they were here providing aeration, habitat and nutrient removal, the lake would look very different today. Instead, we have lawns and bare soil leaching even more nutrients into the water and the result is lake weeds and algae. So tules are important. See this video: http://www.youtube.com/v/j9rDEyzvMFU?fs=1&hl=en_US.

What we do to the land affects the lake, especially the flow of nutrients into it. Grading land, tule wetland removal, illegal marijuana grows in the wildlands, or even legal fertilized gardens and resulting runoff, septic leach fields, and illegal dumping all impact the nutrients that affect the watershed.

Many projects are under way that are intended to address the flow of excess nutrients – though they are mostly long-term efforts. These projects include preventing sediment runoff from grading and stormwater runoff, agriculture runoff regulation, expansion of the sewer system, getting septics onto sewer systems, cleanup of illegal dump sites and a large project, the Middle Creek wetland restoration.

Over time these actions decrease sediments and other nutrients in the water and at this point they also increase the clarity of the water early in the season, which has the unfortunate side effect of encouraging early season weed growth. The next step is to recreate habitat around the lake so when the lake “does what it does” it will turn into hummingbirds, grebes, otter, fish and even more tules instead of weeds and algae.

If the lake is communicating that our long term actions have consequences, the lake is also telling us that it will respond to our efforts as well. I, for one, would rather see the nutrients in the form of otter and osprey and chi than algae. This is why I put my energies into the projects that I believe will help make this happen. I know that there is not a short-term fix but take comfort in the fact that even one persons efforts can make a difference. Imagine what would happen if we all worked on these projects.

If you want to help the lake, help preserve and restore its natural habitat. At minimum, do not remove tules. They aerate the water, remove nutrients and create beneficial habitat.

What else can individuals to help? Actions include:

• Participate in (or form!) a watershed group;

• Dispose of debris properly;

• Preserve and restore tules;

• Remove (or do not add) extra nutrients;

• Remove and avoid propagating invasive plants and animals;

• Help build awareness about our relationship to the health of our lake.

Working together, we can make a difference.

Denise Rushing represents District 3 on the Lake County Board of Supervisors. She lives in Upper Lake, Calif.

This letter is not about the military, but I noticed you were with the 173rd Airborne in Vietnam. I was with the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan from 2005-2006 and in Iraq in 2007. It would be cool to talk soldier with you sometime, but my current battle is over the legalization of cannabis.

Many of my friends returning from war have medicinally benefited from cannabis to combat post traumatic stress disorder. Cannabis calms them down while alcohol has been known to intensify the problem, often leading to violence. Fortunately, Veterans Administration clinics will now allow the use of medical marijuana for veterans. You may have even seen some of your comrades return from Vietnam and end up as homeless alcoholics. As a wine vineyard owner, you should at least be concerned.

We need to tax, regulate and control cannabis. At the state level, there is a strong possibility that Proposition 19 (Tax Cannabis Act) will pass this November. Proposition 19 will give local city and county governments the authority to control commercial regulations of cannabis production and sale. Three Democrats (Miller, Lee, and Stark) representing Bay Area districts in Congress have already endorsed Proposition 19. I am aware that as of July 2010, you are still undecided on Proposition 19. You probably do not want to be known as the “weed congressman,” but in fact, that is what you are. You represent the nation’s largest cannabis producing region, but have yet to support a Proposition (19) that will benefit your district. Is it a coincidence that you are from Napa and have deep roots in the wine industry?

More tax money being spent to eradicate a plant that should be legal

The federal government’s uncompromising policy on cannabis is having an extremely destructive effect on our First Congressional District and Lake County in particular. In a November 2008 Drug Enforcement Administration news release, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) announced record-breaking seizures of marijuana from California public and private lands during CAMP season and Operation Green Acres 2, resulting in a record breaking combined total of 5,249,881 plants.

Lake County led with 499,508 marijuana plants eradicated, over 100,000 more plants than any other county in California. Mendocino and Humboldt are also counties in our First District, and also listed in the top five in plant seizures by county.

I’m not sure if you remember the 1960s sitcom “Green Acres,” but don’t you think it is distasteful to name a large-scale eradication operation after a satirical show poking fun at rural livelihood? One eradication operation can take a poor family’s entire annual income.

The issue of cannabis cultivation is dividing the local population of Lake County. An unnecessary drug war is being fought between aggressive police and cannabis cultivators. For example, on June 22 CAMP conducted an eradication operation just eight miles southeast of my father’s house in Lower Lake. A helicopter inserted the heavily armed eradication team into a cannabis cultivation site when they spotted a man armed with a rifle. The eradication team confronted the man at gunpoint and arrested him after a brief struggle. The eradication team recovered a semi-automatic rifle with a loaded magazine and additional ammunition. The man was booked on felony charges of cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and committing a felony while armed.

A week later, on June 29, Mendocino County deputy’s truck window was shot out following marijuana raid. Less than 24 hours after the truck window shooting, a man in a cannabis garden was shot and killed by a multiagency drug task force just north of Lake Berryessa. Paradoxically, the police and the cultivators are not to blame – failed policy is the problem.

Cannabis cultivation should be approached like any other agricultural product. Instead of carrying weapons in remote marijuana cultivation sites, cultivators could be employed by a company working a 9 to 5 job, following labor laws and being taxed like every other hard working citizen. This would significantly help Lake County’s high unemployment rate.

Lake County is cutting jobs at schools and hospitals, but in June our Board of Supervisors hastily approved a $550,000 grant for marijuana eradication when the grows are already months into season.

We should at least figure out a way to sell the eradicated plants to the local dispensaries. Revenue would come into the county and strengthen local small businesses and at the same time weaken the illegal grows that are trespassing on public and private property.

We need a system that is designed to reward those who are complying with laws. This system – capitalism – will solve our problems through a market economy. Cannabis will bring revenue into Lake County and other North Coast counties through a regulated legal marketplace. The market will effectively thwart criminal enterprises because they will no longer profit. These “criminals” will soon be sending applications to local businesses for employment; they won't have to bring guns to work.

Investing in local business will show people who are cultivating illegally that they are not making enough money camping out in the forest, eating canned beans and sleeping with their rifles. We need to turn cannabis cultivation into an efficient process.

On July 20 the Oakland City Council voted 5-2 in favor of a plan to license four production plants where cannabis would be grown, packaged and processed. What if Lake County exported cannabis to these production plants? Lake County already has a strong agricultural foundation with pears, walnuts and winegrapes. Cannabis is the largest cash crop in the state of California, it is an extremely lucrative product with high profit yields and it needs to be taxed.

Lake County also is an ideal location for the production of hemp, which is used for many industrial purposes such as nutritional food products, fiber, building materials, paper, fabric, cordage, animal bedding, anti-inflammatory medicine, water, and soil purification and fuel. Because of an irrational federal prohibition, the United States is foolishly the world’s largest importer of hemp.

Irrational policy is impeding the employment potential of Lake County. A huge percentage of people in Lake County already know how to grow cannabis, so let's have them do it legally and efficiently. Producing a quality cannabis product can foster a sense of pride in Lake County, or any other North Coast County.

Not everyone follows medical marijuana laws, or international border laws

A major problem with the medical marijuana laws is that those who abide by them are not as economically efficient as those who ignore them. The larger grows in the North Coast, often reaching tens of thousands of plants, are more profitable because of their ability to produce in mass quantity. The larger grows completely disregard medical marijuana laws and are often run by cartels based out of Mexico, but seasonally located in places like Lake County’s Mendocino National Forest.

However, simple economics tells us that these cartels would be unable to compete with the free market and local labor. Not only is Lake County being environmentally devastated with toxic chemicals, water diversion and other human produced waste from these grows, but our land also profits foreign criminal organizations.

The black market revenue from these grows is not being taxed, and it will not make it back into the local economy. Legalization and the market economy will force the Mexican cartels out of business. Lake County’s local government would then be able to regulate the environmental harm by setting up a system to monitor the large legal grows and make sure they meet environmental standards.

If you are interested in the social consequences of the legalization of cannabis, you may want to read this. It’s simple.

By legal definition, recreational cannabis users in the U.S. are criminals, and this ostracizes a significant percentage of the population. Being stationed in Europe for two years and having visited places where cannabis is decriminalized and regulated, I am convinced that the Dutch model is the most successful. The Dutch have approached the social consequences of cannabis from a health perspective, not a criminal one.

Despite the United States having some of the strictest cannabis laws in the world, we have the largest number of cannabis consumers. The percentage of our citizens who consume cannabis is double that of the percentage of people who consume cannabis in the Netherlands, a country where the selling and adult possession of cannabis is allowed.

Cannabis does not induce violent reactions. Alcohol is proven to induce violent reactions in some users. Cannabis is not as addictive as tobacco, alcohol, many prescription drugs, meth, cocaine, heroin, etc. According to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), cannabis can be used for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, anorexia, AIDS, arthritis, cachexia, cancer, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, migraine, multiple sclerosis, nausea, pain, spasticity, wasting syndrome. Many doctors believe that cannabis has many more medicinal benefits like treatment for insomnia, opioid dependence, and alcoholism.

Why is Napa County more prosperous than Lake County?

Why is it that vineyard owners are seen as sophisticated businessmen that bring revenue into the region, but at the same time the cannabis cultivators are portrayed as criminals that need to be eradicated?

In June the California Employment Development Department reported that Lake County’s unemployment rate was 17.1 percent. Lake County is down from 18.6 percent in April, but nowhere close to Napa’s comfortable 9.0 percent.

I wonder what Napa County would look like if the federal government had continued its 20th century alcohol prohibition? Let’s examine the alcohol prohibition, while not forgetting about the current cannabis prohibition.

The end of prohibition was the end of the criminal enterprises led by gangsters like Al Capone. The criminal enterprises were no longer profiting when they had to compete with the free market. Now, only legitimate corporations are profiting from alcohol and the illegal distilleries no longer exist. Now, only legitimate corporations are profiting from alcohol and the illegal distilleries no longer exist.

Cartels are not making wine in the Mendocino National Forest. Major support for repeal of the alcohol prohibition came from upstanding citizens that were not fond of the sale and consumption of alcohol. These sober citizens came to realize that the unintended consequences of prohibition were much worse than the social problems caused by alcohol.

Do you know which county made great gains after the alcohol prohibition? Napa County began to produce grapes for wine, and how much money was subsequently invested into their local economy?

Lake County is beautiful, has the cleanest air in the state and the people are very friendly. If you want, we could start a wine and weed tasting tour around Clear Lake. It would bring in tourism revenue. Even our largest tourist attraction, Konocti Harbor Resort, closed down last year. This is the first summer in my life it hasn’t been open. My father worked at the resort for over 25 years and I began working there at the age of 13 (below the legal employment age minimum) and continued to work there until the week before I shipped off to Army basic training.

I hate to bring politics into it

According to your Web site, “The heart and sole of the California wine industry lies within the boundaries of the First Congressional District. As a life-long resident of the Napa Valley, a former winery employee and a current winegrape grower, Congressman Thompson is acutely aware of the impact that the wine industry has on the First District and the state of California as well as the rest of the nation.”

Essentially, you are representing the alcohol industry in Congress. I have also heard your son is a deputy sheriff. I drink wine and like cops. I always select wine from Napa or Sonoma County, and Kendall Jackson is both my mom and my favorite wine. I am proud of our region’s spectacular wines.

But why can’t we have weed and wine? Maybe someone on the Congressional Wine Caucus could answer my question? You are a co-founder and co-chair, so maybe at the next event you could just clink your wine glass, call for a toast and explain to everyone why we need to legalize cannabis. Drunk politicians are very gullible. Or, maybe you could get the large pharmaceutical companies interested in this medicine called cannabis. The pharmaceutical industry would easily out-finance the alcohol and tobacco industry’s longstanding anti-marijuana campaign.

You are supporting medical marijuana at the federal level, and have already succeeded in 14 states. Let’s take it to the next level and support legalization. Now is the ideal time to stand strong on this issue. As Proposition 19 approaches, the federal government will be forced to take cannabis seriously.

Robert Schaerges is a student at UC Davis Law School and was born and raised in Lake County.

The original Declaration of Independence is now exhibited in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, DC. It has faded badly, largely because of poor preservation techniques during the 19th century. The document measures 29 and 3/4 inches by 24 and 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the Independence Hall Association.

This year marks the 234^th anniversary of the adoption of Declaration of Independence. Pause to take a look at this remarkable document and what it means to the history of the United States.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

August is upon us and we are about to begin another school year. Throughout the summer, many Konocti Unified School District employees have been working hard to prepare for the return of students and staff.

Soon after school ended, the principals began looking to fill any open positions. KUSD takes great pride in its intelligent, talented, hard-working staff and we were unwilling to accept anything but excellence in our new hires.

Fortunately, the pool of applicants was very large and we were able to find just what we were looking for – the best.

Our maintenance crews have been doing major repairs and upgrading the facilities while our custodians have been deep cleaning.

The groundskeepers have been working diligently to keep our fields green and healthy, giving our schools a park-like atmosphere.

The technology staff has been installing new interactive white boards and computers.

A group of our dedicated, highly-skilled bus drivers met to develop new routes and work on our staggered bell schedules – which will save the district tens of thousands of dollars.

Our curriculum coaches worked all of last week to improve our standards-based report cards.

The secretaries put one school year to bed and are preparing for the year ahead.

This summer, we provided enrichment programs for our students that kept staff employed and supported our local community.

We held an algebra academy for our incoming eighth graders that gave them with a vital head start on their algebra skills.

The highly successful science and algebra academies for our ninth graders were offered again this summer and the Lower Lake High School solar car team repeated as county champs.

Migrant Education held a summer school that culminated with wonderful cultural activities.

In cooperation with the Lake County Community Action Agency, we even had a summer camp for the

Highlands Academy students. Highlands students worked on their academic skills, rode horses, learned to swim and engaged in other exciting activities.

Maybe the most heartfelt activity that took place over the summer was the federal food distribution

program.

We served more than 1,000 meals a day to our students. Our cooks prepared breakfasts and lunches and distributed them at the schools and other locations, using vans. These vans went to the youth center and trailer parks where we had a high concentration of hungry students.

Our love and care for students was evident throughout the summer. This program helped raise our total free and reduced meal percentages for the year and thus allowed us to net over $100,000. This money will allow us to purchase high quality food for next year from our local farmers and through our countywide food purchasing consortium.

We have a very exciting year ahead. The general feeling around our district and the county is that Konocti is on the verge of making some huge strides forward.

The primary focus for this year must be to improve student academic performance as measured

through the STAR tests. We have enlisted the help of Dennis Parker to make this happen. Parker's strategic schooling model begins with the development of relationships and ends with strategic test preparation.

We have excellent personnel, facilities and technology in place. We are implementing instructional strategies that have consistently proven to raise test scores and we have eager students in need of academic and physical nurturing.

Our community is counting on us to keep the kids moving forward through these difficult times. We are primed for success and looking forward to seeing students on Monday, Aug. 30.

Dr. William R. MacDougall is superintendent for Konocti Unified School District, based in Lower Lake, Calif.

The AGO process began with a nationwide series of “listening sessions” to allow top level administration officials to hear the voices of the public up close and in-person as we share our own priorities about how to build a 21st century conservation and recreation agenda.

At the behest of Congressman Mike Thompson, one of these forums was held on the UC Davis campus on July 7; besides Representative Thompson, the panel included White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Will Shafroth, and representatives of the federal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency.

Despite unusually short notice for an event of this sort, the Mondavi Center was fully occupied by a diverse and enthusiastic crowd. After a series of brief presentations about several ongoing conservation projects in California, the microphones were opened to the public.

Subjects of conversation included the

• importance of conservation easements in protecting private lands and working landscapes;

• need to ensure full and dedicated funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and to strengthen the National Landscape Conservation System;

• multiple ecological and economic hazards posed by invasive species, with particular emphasis on the threats to California waterways posed by Eurasian quagga and zebra mussels.

Many speakers expressed support for the proposed Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area, a 100-mile swath of public land stretching from Lake Berryessa to Snow Mountain, which has the potential to provide a powerful model for ways to better manage our public lands in an era of climate change.

Another subject of great importance to Lake County – the ecological havoc caused by illegal marijuana cultivation on both public and private lands – didn't come up in the brief open session, but was discussed in detail at a preliminary breakfast meeting with Secretary Shafroth – who took notes.

“America’s Great Outdoors” is about better connecting people both to nature and to each other, acknowledging that the best conservation outcomes occur when people work in parrtnership to protect and restore private lands, working lands and public lands.

The Davis session was brief, but the conversation is ongoing, and we are all invited to participate. To learn more about the AGO initiative, and to submit your own ideas for consideration, visit www.doi.gov/americasgreatoutdoors/.

Victoria Brandon lives in Lower Lake.

“Solving the Problem of Obesity Within a Generation” is a comprehensive document released by the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity that addresses where we as a nation stand on the obesity subject, along with solutions.

The goal of the White House Task Force is to reduce childhood obesity rates to the levels they were 30 years ago. It’s hard to comprehend that in less than three decades we have gone from a country where over half the states had an obesity rate less than 10 percent to a country with an obesity rate that now averages 25 to 29 percent.

Bringing this a bit closer to home, in Lake County, obesity samples of our children show that:

• 28 percent of 4- to 5-year-olds are overweight or at-risk (well-child visits);

• 29 percent of seventh graders are at an unhealthy weight (2008 Food Policy Advocates);

• 80 percent of overweight adolescents become overweight adults.

Our communities are paying for this epidemic in medical costs as well as poor health.

Our health: Recent studies indicate that body mass index (ratio of height and weight) is the most significant factor in cancer prevention. A 2003 study by the American Cancer Society of more than 900,000 men and women showed that the heaviest men had death rates from all cancers combined that were 52 percent higher than the rates among normal-weight men and that women had cancer death rates 62 percent higher than normal-weight women.

Obesity is also linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart disease and other chronic health conditions.

Our economy: Economic costs for obesity, overweight and physical inactivity in Lake County totals $78 million annually for health care and lost productivity, according to a study conducted by Chenoweth & Associates based on a similar study by CA Dept of Health Services.

The good news is that we are doing something about this in our community.

For instance, have you noticed that there is a strong movement to eat more locally grown produce? Our local restaurants, schools, senior centers, and other institutions are purchasing more locally grown products. This helps our health and our economy.

Fresh vegetables and fruit provide numerous nutritional benefits and help to maintain a healthy weight. Fiber intake has been shown to be the single greatest dietary factor in maintaining a healthy weight over time. Dried beans are particularly high in fiber, but all plant based foods from whole grains to vegetables, fruit and nuts provide good fiber.

Be sure to visit your local farmer’s market for fresh, farm-direct produce during the months ahead. Conveniently located Farmer’s Markets are popping up all over Lake County:

• Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., Steele Winery, Kelseyville;

• Wednesdays, 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Library Park, Lakeport;

• Thursdays, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Coyote Valley Plaza, Hidden Valley Lake;

• Fridays, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Redbud Library, Clearlake.

Naturally, our local grocery markets also supply a bounty of produce.

School food service directors are playing a leadership role in preparing healthy meals for students while having to operate on a shoe-string budget. They are creating innovative programs and developing relationships with local farmers, thereby steadily increasing their purchase of fresh produce.

In the Kelseyville school district, the food service director has tripled her purchase of locally-grown produce over the past school year. This is a great way for all children to have access to nutritious food. Other school districts also are increasing purchase of local produce.

To continue supporting wellness polices in our schools and to augment these important farm-school efforts in our school cafeterias, elementary schools in nearly every school district are now using the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) curriculum.

Sutter Lakeside Hospital was awarded a grant on behalf of the Health Leadership Network in 2008 that has funded teacher, food service, and administrator training on the CATCH program. CATCH is a grab-and-go, evidence based program with proven results. It integrates nutrition lessons, physical activity, food service and parent participation. The program was launched in 2008 and approximately 25 elementary school classrooms have hosted CATCH demonstrations. Teachers appreciate the unique “grab-and-go” style curriculum, and additional educator trainings are in the works.

Community collaborations are an important component in helping fight this obesity epidemic in our communities. Along with the CATCH curriculum, several Lake County school districts are working with other organizations, such as the Hunger Task Force and AmeriCorps to help educate children, teachers and parents.

One example of these successful collaborations are the school garden projects that are spreading across the county, as they are a proven way to get kids excited about eating fresh vegetables.

A very exciting garden project is under way in Upper Lake, utilizing a 2.5-acre parcel of land adjacent to the high school.

According to Tammy Alaksay, of AmeriCorps, this project has the potential to incorporate literally the entire community from the Head Start preschool, to the elementary school, high school, agricultural department, and Upper Lake community members.

“This group has great vision, and it is so exciting to see these kinds of dynamic ideas taking root here in Lake County,” she said.

Alaksay is optimistic that they will be able to get “something in the ground this year, which will just be a first step toward our ultimate goal, and something really special.”

The Hunger Task Force wants to be a support to any school interested in starting their own garden. “Help in the form of garden starts or even labor may be available through the Hunger Task Force, with support of partners like AmeriCorps,” said Alaksay.

The Lake County Hunger Task Force is also supporting local community gardens throughout Lake County. Last year alone they harvested 6,201 pounds of fresh produce, which was distributed to food banks and schools, as well as others in need. Their primary goal is for all Lake County residents to go to bed each day having had enough good, nourishing meals available.

County Health Services also was awarded a grant from California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) to increase consumption and production of fresh produce (vegetables, fruit, and tree nuts). They are partnering with local community agencies and members of the Health Leadership Network to implement the project. One exciting element in the works is the development of an online ordering system through which institutions and the public will be able to purchase these products directly via an online system.

Obesity and poor nutrition are real challenges throughout the nation, and Lake County is no exception. These innovative and exciting programs are effective ways we can fight back.

Alaksay explained, “One of the very serious issues with our bad economy is that people don’t have enough food to eat. We want to encourage people that you can put a few seeds in the ground and eat for the summer.”

In the days when obesity was not increasing at such an alarming rate, folks often had their own gardens and ate more locally grown produce. These are good ways to support population health and a vibrant community in any era.

It is going to take everyone working together to prevent obesity and its related health conditions. We are fortunate that our community is already taking many action steps toward improved health and well-being.

Stay tuned for more developments that promote “Eat Fresh ~ Buy Lake County Grown.”

Susan Jen is director of the Lake County Health Leadership Network.