Last night I ate an avocado. In Northern California. In midwinter.

Because it came from Chile, that avocado might be enough to get me kicked out of the Locavore movement of people who pledge to eat only what originates within 100 miles, but it was worth it, because it was the last straw in a growing pile of evidence that the United States is not at war, no matter what the government says.

Here's war:

• You save your food cans and flatten them to contribute to the war effort.

• You drain bacon grease into a container and contribute that to the war effort. (That is, if you have any ration stamps for bacon, and if your neighborhood grocery store has any bacon.)

• Your backyard is a garden, a Victory Garden, where you grow food all summer and spend the harvest season preserving it for winter eating.

• All the adults in your family who are not in military service pool their ration stamps for food and gas, and are very frugal about trips. Mostly they take the city bus.

• As a child of the greatest generation, you send off for a Captain Midnight plane spotter chart so you can watch the skies after school. And you feel pleased that your presence in the family provides extra milk rations for the grown-ups' tea.
  

Some other evidence:

• Gas may cost more than three dollars a gallon, but we can buy as much as we want or can afford. Our military airplanes must use some other kind of fuel these days, and I suppose whatever vehicle transported that avocado to my supermarket has found the same mystery fuel.

• Nobody has suggested that I put blackout curtains on my windows, or asked me to walk around the neighborhood in the evening to make sure other people have their windows darkened against air raids.

• I can stay out as late as I want without carrying identification papers or documents to prove I have a good reason to be out.

• Last month, I flew to Miami for a pleasure trip. I didn't need any government permission to travel, and the plane was not full of military folks.

• If I want to, I can take a cruise to just about anywhere in the world. In fact, that would be downright patriotic, because my government keeps telling me that if I stop shopping and traveling the terrorists will win.
  

Getting old doesn't have a great deal to recommend it, but getting old with a good memory raises some fascinating questions. How can we be at war without needing civilian support? Why isn't this war pumping money into our economy? Where are the factory jobs? Where is Rosie the Riveter? Who's building all the military stuff, and where are they building it?

And I keep coming back to the same answer: This Iraq adventure is not a war. Heaven only knows what it is.

Now that you mention it, I am entertaining some doubts about the 1969 moon landing. Thanks for asking.

Sophie Annan Jensen lives in Lucerne.

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The park closures are part of his proposal for a 10-percent, across-the-board cut to all state departments.

While this may sound good as a sound bite, a 10-percent cut can decimate a department that has been fiscally responsible – state parks, to be specific – while some bloated, wasteful departments and programs may actually feel less of a pinch. This is no way to lead the state and no way prioritize California’s needs.

Let’s take a closer look at the parks department’s budget to prove my point.

Over the past three decades, the department has streamlined significantly and reduced its costs. To save money, department officials began deferring maintenance operations back in 1980s. This is a fancy way of saying that they stopped fixing or repairing roofs, restrooms, parking lots, etc.

It wouldn’t have taken Nostradamus to predict that the state would begin to rack up a huge backlog of maintenance projects, the cost of which now stands at about $1.2 billion.

Next, during the budget crisis of the early 1990s, the state completely restructured the parks department, a move which resulted in the elimination of 572 staff positions and 30 percent of the supervisory and management positions.

At the beginning of the current decade, the parks department received 55 percent of its budget from the state’s general fund. That amount has now been reduced by 35 percent. Furthermore, in 2003 an additional 90 positions were cut from the department’s budget.

Californians love their parks, and because of this fees have been able to compensate for much of the cuts that the department has been subjected to over the last decade. While fees are one way to help offset general fund costs, there is a limit – at some point costs become too high for Californians, as well as tourists from other states and countries, to continue visiting the parks.

When fees become high enough, they limit park access to a dwindling number of people able to afford them, thus denying access to many working families or people on limited incomes.

The numbers make it clear that the parks department has been running on a shoestring budget for over a decade now. It is because of the creative state employees who staff these facilities and the dedicated volunteers who love these parks that the state has been able to maintain them as well as they have. The governor’s proposal to close 48 state parks – including Clear Lake State Park and Anderson Marsh State Historic Park locally – is a slap to the face of these exemplary Californians.

So will closing 48 state parks have a significant impact on the state’s budget deficit? Let’s see: The deficit is projected to be around $14 billion for the next year and a half – closing the parks, we’re told, will lead to “savings” of about $13 million. In addition, closing the 48 parks means that the state will lose almost $4 million in revenues for these sites – reducing the supposed net cost benefit by quite a bit.

It’s the governor’s responsibility to lead, and leadership includes prioritizing the state’s needs. A 10-percent, across-the-board cut is no way to do this.

Nor should the deficit burden be shouldered by the parks department, which has continually streamlined and reduced costs over the years. As we strive to reach agreement on a state budget, it is my hope that the governor will reconsider this strategy.

Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) represents California’s large 2nd Senate District, which encompasses parts or all of six counties: Lake, Humboldt, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma. Visit her Web site at http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/.

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With the go ahead and generosity of Lake County News I plan on doing a question and answer column on automotive, truck, motorcycle, and small engine and equipment service and repair, and the

vehicle service and repair business industry.

I will be able answer questions and assist you with those minor repairs to those major concerns right here on your very own Lake County News.

I will be starting out with a 10-part series on how to choose the best shop for your particular vehicle needs and repairs. While I will go through this 10-en part series one at time, please feel free to comment not only on its content but on any questions you may have and I will answer as quickly and accurately as possible.

I look forward in your questions and getting to know all of you better.

I am a master mechanic with many years of experience and multiple certifications in the various fields of vehicle service and repair. I know industry standards and practices and business protocol and procedure. I can assist you on making the right repairs for your vehicle the first time around or just give you those hard to find specs.

I can provide any individual that believes they have been scammed and/or cheated by any service and repair facility with a free consultation, expert advice and legal testimony if needed on your behalf with your current complaint. I will review your documents and work orders for evaluation and advise you on a step by step procedure that may aid you to a successful resolution and restitution. I am the consumer’s advocate for fair and legal treatment in the automotive, truck, motorcycle, small engine and equipment service and repair industry.

Every service and repair facility out there cheating, scamming and doing incompetent work gives every honest shop a black eye and stigmatizes the whole industry. With your help we will join forces to stop illegal and unethical business practices in this field and pressure them to conform to all current laws and regulations. Our goals must always be to strive for the highest standards and principles in the mechanical service and repair industry. Contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please feel free to email me with any questions and I will answer them on the Web site. I will not use information that is incorrect or that can not be substantiated through public and reputable sources.

Forrest Garrett is owner/operator of Ironhorse Creations & Lakeport Garage, family-owned and operated since 1968.

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But in focusing our attention on Clear Lake and its immediate surrounding we may disregard the equally remarkable area to the east of the Clear Lake Basin, which for lack of a more official designation has come to be called the Blue Ridge Berryessa region even though Lake Berryessa and the Blue Ridge crest represent only a small part of it.

Taken as a whole, this bioregion at the wild heart of the Coast Range extends from the Vaca Mountains in Solano County to Snow Mountain – over 800,000 acres containing three Federal Wildernesses and a State Wild and Scenic River as well as two large and many small lakes and several designated wildlife areas.

This land provides habitat and critical long-term movement corridors for many animal species, and has such an extraordinarily high level of botanic biodiversity that it registers as a “hot spot” of planetary significance. This vast expanse, which includes much of eastern Lake County, is a mosaic of public and private lands, encompassing undeveloped watersheds as well as working ranches and farms.

Putah Creek and Cache Creek flow through a diverse landscape of oak woodlands, chaparral, grasslands, riparian habitat, and the rare and endemic plants found on serpentine soils, combining to sustain healthy populations of tule elk, black bear, mountain lion, bald and golden eagles, ospreys, bobcats, foxes, river otters and many more species, including rare and endangered plants and animals. The ecological interactions among vegetation, wildlife and water support a fertile working landscape, while also providing water for nearby urban populations and agricultural operations.

Farmlands and ranches benefit from the regional landscape and also play a critical role in sustaining it. These rural land uses form a bulwark against residential and commercial development by providing economic benefit from private land in a manner that replenishes rather than destroys its environmental resources.

Encroaching development threatens the Blue Ridge Berryessa region from several directions, and as millions of new residents pour into the Sacramento and San Francisco metropolitan areas during the next 10 years, the development engine can be expected to accelerate, leading to the construction of both residential subdivisions at a suburban level of density and estate homes on acreage that is now agriculturally productive. Both will require new roads and lead to demands for public services better suited to urban areas; both will destroy important wildlife habitat and imperil biodiversity, as well as chipping away at prime farmland – land that now provides both food and jobs.

This region, which now feeds nearby urban populations, quenches their thirst, and provides vital natural recreational opportunities, risks becoming an urban area itself, a consumer rather than a producer of food and clean water.

For more than a decade, public agencies, conservation and recreation interests, and private landowners have been working together for the better management of the public lands and the prosperity of the private lands in the Blue Ridge Berryessa region, in an informal partnership that has served the natural and working landscape well. But as outside pressures mount, the area needs a more structured level of protection, as well as formal national recognition of its value.

The Solution: A National Conservation Area

Designating the Blue Ridge Berryessa region a National Conservation Area will acknowledge its importance as a natural area and working landscape. At the same time, it will establish a framework for coordinated management of public lands, facilitate collaboration between private agriculturalists and public agencies, assist the solicitation of conservation grants, and prioritize efforts to obtain public funds.

Without either formal recognition or management framework, the Blue Ridge Berryessa region has been at a competitive disadvantage with areas like the Santa Monica Mountains or Lake Tahoe in the allocation of state and federal resources. This region received no earmarked funds for conservation or recreational facilities in the recent $5.4 billion park bond, and it gets hardly any federal funding for preservation of open space, private land stewardship, and agricultural protection. A special designation will make it much easier to obtain the funding needed for stewardship projects and for ecological and agricultural protection.

With a National Conservation Area designation:

• This specific geographic area will have a formal name.

• Congress will acknowledge the local and national importance of this region.

• A Public Advisory Committee will be formed to provide official citizen input.

• A coordinated multi-agency management plan for the public lands within the region will be developed, allowing for protection of ecological resources on a landscape level.

• It will become much easier to obtain state and federal funds for conservation stewardship and enhancement projects and to develop a recreation program for the entire region that provides access while ensuring protection of environmental resources.

Although National Conservation Area designation will open a number of options for private landowners, including increased opportunities to participate in the management of neighboring public lands, it imposes no obligations on them at all: participation is entirely voluntary. Local government will also retain full decision-making authority.

Although the Blue Ridge Berryessa National Conservation Area is not yet a reality, a growing number of organizations and individuals are trying to make it happen – and we need your help. Please share this proposal with your friends, organizations and businesses, and join with us to become part of the community working to protect this splendid place.

To promote local awareness of this initiative, the Sierra Club Lake Group is hosting a Town Hall Forum at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19, in the Brick Hall on Main Street in Lower Lake. UC Davis botanist Dr. Susan Harrison will provide the keynote presentation: “Why is our region a hotspot of botanical diversity...and what can we do to conserve it?” followed by a discussion of the National Conservation Area proposal itself led by Tuleyome president Bob Schneider, with lots of maps, photos, and opportunities for questions and comments – please join us at this free event.

For more information, visit the Lake Group Web site, redwood.sierraclub.org/lake.

Victoria Brandon is chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group. She lives in Lower Lake.

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I have reviewed your address to Californians and your proposals to balance the budget. It seems strange that when there is legislation already in place that the representative members in Sacramento cannot work within those laws, but leave it to you to propose drastic budget cuts.

My concern is whether or not you understand the consequences of your actions in proposing the closing of California State Parks.

Parks belong to the people. Parks are very much a part of our educational system. Parks are a resource for senior citizens. Parks are for family recreation. Parks are where people across the nation and those from foreign countries learn about our cultural history and our national resources. Parks impact health by giving people a safe place for exercise and spiritual rejuvenation. Parks have a crucial economic impact on the areas where they are located.

Through American Disabilities Act, California parks were required to add new trails, boardwalks and restroom facilities for people with disabilities and now you propose closing these very areas to them. This is absurd and hypocritical.

For example, consider the two state parks, Anderson Marsh Historic State Park (AMHSP) and Clear Lake State Park (CLSP), in the County of Lake where I live.

An abbreviated history of these two parks adds to the appreciation of them. In 1885, AMHSP was part of a large cattle ranch with some cultivate acreage. From that date, it passed through the Anderson family until 1964, when the surviving members of the Anderson family formed a Family Trust and sold the ranch to Ray Lyon. Mora Anderson, last surviving member of the original family, continued living in the ranch house per a life estate agreement until her death in 1966. In 1982, Lyon sold the ranch to the State of California. In 1985, the ranch lands were classified as Anderson Marsh State Historic Park. The ranch house is well maintained and is open for tours and special events. It exemplifies the remarkable early history of the area.

The recent history of Clear Lake State Park begins in 1944 with the desire of Fred and Nellie Dorn that the public should have a park on the shore of Clear Lake. That resulted in their gift of land to Lake County. Through several processes, the State of California accepted approximately 300 acres from the county and began development of CLSP in 1948. Today there are numerous trails, 147 campsites, a boat launch and a visitor center with a natural history museum, gift shop, auditorium and the administrative office for both parks. Many park users have been coming to CLSP, with their families, for over 30 years.

Both of these parks are used extensively by the Lake County school systems for environmental education for their students. Junior Ranger programs serve the summer visitors to the park as well as resident children. These are opportunities for learning that do not exist within the doors of the schools. Campfire programs by the Park Rangers educate and entertain all ages.

Both of these parks have non-profit Interpretive Associations whose members staff the ranch house and the natural history museum and gift shop, lead walks, and present specialized programs for children and adults. Without compensation, the associations and docents assist with student education and present nature related programs to civic groups throughout the year. These volunteers are not unique, as they join with 26,000 park volunteers within California.

Two major events take place each year. The Anderson Marsh Historic State Park Bluegrass Festival takes place in the fall. The Heron Festival - Wildflower Brunch takes place in April in Clear Lake State Park. It is co-sponsored by local Redbud Audubon Chapter and the Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association (CLSPIA). Many other events are hosted throughout the year.

CLSPIA is currently raising funds to build an Education Pavilion in the Clear Lake State Park.

The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association is drawing plans for a discovery facility at that location. These associations also fund the gift shops and additions to the visitor center museum.

You are probably already well aware that understaffed and underpaid Park Rangers are also law enforcement officers and faithfully provide safety for all who enter the parks?

Governor, I believe it would be very short sighted for California to close any of its state parks. You say we have 37 million people now in the state and estimate that in twenty years there will be 50 million. Please weigh carefully the educational, health and recreational value of our state parks. Rather than closing parks, parks should be given more funds so that they can meet the ever-growing population and needs of Californians. The cost of closure, repair and reopening would be enormous.

If California would stop rewarding illegals with housing, medical care, education and food, I truly believe that the State of California would find enough money to balance the budget. Please explain why taxes from legal hard-working citizens should go for services for illegals while such things as education and parks suffer severe budget cuts and closures.

From Federation for American Immigration Reform: Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that California’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden from those three areas of state expenditures amounts to about $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident. A huge amount of money earned by illegal immigrants is being sent directly to their relatives in Mexico every month.

I respectfully request that you withdraw your proposal to close California State Parks.

Leona Butts is a member of the Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association Board of Directors. She lives in Clearlake Oaks.

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Passing through there, I paid little or no attention to the small patch of undeveloped land that lay alongside me. A thin stretch of a few acres, it runs from Dam Road proper down to the parking lot at the Grange Hall and was covered with thick brush and some large native oaks.

So far as I know, the land had survived in its natural state since the beginning of time. Chances are, native peoples set up a fishing camp there on that plateau overlooking the lake before the first pioneers began moving in.

The blue oaks there appeared to have sprouted sometime in the very early 1900s. What is now Old Highway 53 was probably a dirt trail back then and the newer version of the highway would not come to exist for many years.

Even as Wal-Mart and other corporate merchants sprung up on all sides, and the lower corner of that wooded hill became the city’s busiest intersection, the tiny island of untouched land remained a refuge of habitat for quail, vultures, rabbits and the occasional deer or coyote that lost its way.

Bald eagles and red-tailed hawks could still perch atop the huge old oaks and scope out the hunting possibilities down in Anderson Marsh. For humans, it was a buffer between the highway and the less-traveled roads above.

So it was sad for me to see the bulldozers and chainsaws converge on that place and destroy every living thing growing there.

The manzanita and toyon brush went first, pushed into a lifeless and tangled pile and hauled off. Next came the huge oak trees, cut into chunks and unceremoniously removed. Finally the dozers made a final pass and scraped the land down to bare and barren red earth. When it was all done, a sign went up promising more fast food and opportunities for additional strip mall enterprise.

It is to be expected as our town grows that we will see patches of nature paved over. But there is a way to develop land without sterilizing it and starting from scratch.

A conscious developer could have left some native plants and ancient trees and planned a tasteful commercial plaza around them. A city government can place some common sense restrictions on the destruction of trees that are older and larger than any other living thing in this city.

It will be up to those of us who live and work and do business in this town to speak up about the kind of city we envision. The formation of the City of Clearlake Vision Task Force was a bold and positive step in this direction. But the task force is just a small group of dedicated citizens who can’t slow the onslaught of the Provensalias, super Wal-Marts, and Starbucks on their own.

The rest of us will have to pay close attention and make our feelings known as project after project gets proposed. Otherwise we will see Clearlake become just one more stretch of generic corporate strip malls instead of the unique and beautiful lakeside village we love.

Herb Gura works in Clearlake and lives in Clearlake Oaks. He also is a member of the Konocti Unified School District Board of Trustees.

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