LUCERNE, Calif. – A caregiver support group for families dealing with memory loss or other cognitive impairments will meet on Thursday, Dec. 5.

The group meets at the First Lutheran Church, 3863 Country Club Drive across from the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Social worker Jenny Johnson is the facilitator.

The group is sponsored by Redwood Caregiver Resource Center (1-800-834-1636) and the Social Day Programs in Lake County.

For more information call Jenny Johnson at 707-350-3030 or Caroline Denny at 707-263-9481.

Respite is provided by the centers at no charge.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild had a spectacular November guest.

Thom Atkins is a quilter and beader.

Some of his projects were quite large, all were beautiful and gave the guild members a new insight to bring their quilts to life.

Atkins used seed beads, oblong beads, glittering beads and just about any kind you can imagine.

His mermaid was something to see; the beads were uniform in both color and style.

The guild enjoyed and appreciated the artistry Atkins exhibits.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Community Radio, KPFZ, 88.1 FM, is hosting its annual Friends and Members Holiday Open House on Saturday, Dec. 14.

The event will take place from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 149 N. Main St. in Lakeport.

Please drop by to meet the radio programmers and volunteers, tour the facilities, enjoy a beverage and a bite to eat, and catch up on the latest at the radio station.

This is a no charge event and everyone is welcome.

For more information, call 707-263-3640.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County and the Kelseyville United Methodist Church are hosting a Christmas carol sing-a-long after the parade at Kelseyville’s Christmas in the Country event on Friday, Dec. 6.

The two congregations share the church facility which is located at 3810 Main St.

The church will be decorated for the holiday, with plenty of special cookies, treats, hot chocolate and coffee available for visitors. Musicians will lead visitors in singing Christmas Carols. Song sheets will be provided.

There is no charge for the refreshments. However, donations of food or money for the Kelseyville Food Pantry will be gratefully accepted during the evening.

Food for the Kelseyville Food Pantry is stored at the church. Every second and fourth Tuesday of the month, Kelseyville residents who need food are invited to visit the church to receive a bag of food for their families.

The Food Pantry relies entirely on donations of food and money which is used to purchase items that are needed.

It has been two years since the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County joined with the Kelseyville United Methodist Church to share space in the historic Methodist Church building.

Since that time, the two congregations have worked together on projects and activities for the benefit of Kelseyville and Lake County.

For more information, please call 707-279-4387.

A first-of-its-kind independent advisory committee presented its recommendations for the implementation of the U.S. Forest Service’s 2012 Planning Rule to U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary Robert Bonnie and Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, recommending strengthened collaboration, improved planning efficiencies and more effective and informed decision making.

The Planning Rule Federal Advisory Committee ( FACA) also made recommendations that strengthen ecological, social, economic and cultural sustainability objectives of the rule.

This includes recommendations intended to deepen the level of stakeholder collaboration in forest planning, as well as recommendations regarding outreach, adaptive management, monitoring, wilderness, climate change, intergovernmental relations, species protection, and water resources.

The committee, formed in January 2012, advises the Secretary of Agriculture through the Chief of the Forest Service by providing advice and recommendations on the new rule and its directives.

The proposed planning directives guide implementation of the planning rule which was published in the Federal Register in April 2012, and became effective a month later.

“The members of this committee collectively bring to the table a vast amount of knowledge, passion and interest in our national forests and grasslands,” said Bonnie. “We thank this diverse group of members for their hard work in rolling up their sleeves to provide us recommendations on the 2012 Planning Rule. This committee further illustrates our commitment to an open and transparent planning rule and process for implementation.

“This committee worked long and hard through a host of difficult issues to present us with these recommendations to help us manage our public lands for the greatest good,” Tidwell said. “The recommendations reinforce the importance of this Planning Rule and the role our national forests and grasslands serve for the American public – whether that be through recreation, clean water or supporting local economies.”

The committee is comprised of 21 members with varied backgrounds, who represent the full range of public interests in management of the National Forest System lands and who also represent geographically diverse locations and communities.

All FACA meetings are open to the public, and all proceedings and relevant documents are posted online at http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/planningrule/home/?cid=stelprdb5346267 .

The agency’s planning rule Web site has the latest information on the committee, the planning rule and its directives.

REDDING, Calif. – As trees grow larger in even-aged stands, competition develops among them. Competition weakens trees, as they contend for soil moisture, nutrients, and sunlight. Competition also increases trees’ risk to bark beetles and diseases, and subsequently leads to a buildup of dead fuels.

A recent study, led by Dr. Jianwei Zhang, research forester at the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station, considered if the onset of this risk could be determined.

The study, which appears in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, also considered if the relationship between density and mortality varies with site quality as ponderosa pine stands developed.

Based on the analysis of 109 long-term research plots established on even-aged natural stands and plantations from 1944 to 1988, and 59 additional ponderosa pine plots measured by the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis group, these researchers found that site quality affected the relationship between density and mortality.

“Any silvicultural treatments that enhances growth will reduce mortality rate for a given stand density.” Dr. Zhang said. “By establishing the self-thinning boundary lines from the size-density trajectories, the onset of mortality risk can be determined for ponderosa pine stands.”

The research also confirmed the added value of such long-term study sites which allow new questions to be addressed that were not included in the original studies.

Other recently published research from this group of scientists demonstrated thinning forest stands to a lower density reduces fuel buildup significantly, and enhances its economic value by increasing growth of residual trees.

Specifically, stand basal area, which is the cross sectional area of all trees in a stand measured at breast height, is not affected by thinning ponderosa pine stands to half the normal basal area of a specific site quality.

If the stand has experienced high mortality caused by bark beetles, it can be thinned more heavily without sacrificing timber, biomass, or volume increment and plant diversity.

In addition, results from these long-term studies show that early shrub removal and tree density control are the most effective and efficient ways to reduce fuel buildup.

Under Mediterranean climatic conditions, shrubs reduce overstory tree growth and keep tree crowns in contact with the shrub canopy. In turn, this growing fuel ladder can carry a ground fire into the crowns of the overstory trees.

Although carbon stocks may be the same with or without understory vegetation, by controlling competing vegetation, carbon is reallocated into the trees instead of shrubs; and carbon loss to wildfire is reduced.

These findings provide useful information for managers in their stand treatment projects within National Forest and private forestlands.

To read the full article, go to http://treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/45108 ; or http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/efh/staff/jzhang/ for other articles.