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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The city of Clearlake is moving forward with developing a program to help develop quality housing for working professionals.

The program is the result of a proposal that City Manager Alan Flora put before the council at its Oct. 1 meeting.

He received unanimous support and the council’s approval to earmark $1 million from Series B bond funds for the program.

Flora said staff is trying to figure out a creative solution to encourage housing development, especially market-rate development in the city.

That’s been difficult not just in Clearlake but in the state as a whole, Flora said.

While Clearlake has been home to a number of affordable housing developments over the years, they’re feasible because of subsidies offered by the state and federal governments, he said.

One of the long-term impacts of Northern California’s wildland fires, Flora said, has been to significantly increase construction costs, which now range about $300 per square feet.

For a 2,000-square-foot home, that’s a cost of $600,000. While that might work in a county like Napa, where average homes cost $719,000, or in Sonoma County, where the average home cost is $652,000, Flora said it doesn’t work in Lake County, where the average home cost is $262,000. It’s even less feasible in Clearlake, where the average home price is $173,000.

Flora said that in order to encourage new home construction, incentives are necessary. It would cost millions of dollars to fund a subdivision, so instead, he proposed focusing on individual homeowners and housing in the mid-range of $250,000 to $400,000.

Those are the kinds of homes sought after by professionals but hard to find in Clearlake. Both Adventist Health and Tribal Health have raised that issue when it comes to their employees finding homes. Because of a lack of housing, many employees for those two health care organizations have had to live in other areas of the county, he said.

Flora said the goal is to offset some of those challenges and make it easier for those professionals to build new homes in the city.

Proposed program requirements include that the home be owner-occupied; the applicant must have an existing job within Lake County or a verified employment offer; income level must be classified as median- to moderate-income level, ranging from $49,500 for a one-person household to $84,850 for a four-person household; have the ability to obtain commercial financing for the construction of a new stick-built home or new manufactured home; complete construction of the home within 12 months of the issuance of a building permit; the applicant must enter into an agreement with the city of Clearlake to meet the program requirements in exchange for various subsidies, otherwise the property revert to the city or a lien will be placed on the property to recover the amount subsidized; all obligation of the program participant to the City will cease with the issuance of a certificate of occupancy; and program participants must meet all local and state codes.

Program participants will receive assistance valued at $40,000. They can have a city-owned lot or assistant of up to $10,000 in purchasing another lot.

Flora said he’d hoped by now the city would have been able to acquire some of the tax-defaulted properties throughout the city and work them into this program. That’s not yet reasonable yet with the ongoing situation with the county’s treasurer-tax collector, he said.

While the $40,000 offered by the program wouldn’t cover all costs to build a house it would help cover fees and plan checks for a house up to 1,800 square feet in size, Flora said.

He said the city also has started reaching out to some banks and has talked to contractors, who have said it’s a great plan.

Another idea that’s being considered is to have an architect draw up some sample floor plans, he said.

“I think this is exciting,” said Vice Mayor Dirk Slooten, who raised the issue about whether people who are telecommuting could apply.

Flora said the program currently isn’t written that way, but since it’s a part of the changing workforce that’s likely to linger, if the council supported it, staff could figure out how to make the program work for such applicants.

Slooten asked if the $40,000 value would become a lien, but Flora said that wasn’t staff’s recommendation.

“Ultimately, I think, the goal here is new quality houses,” said Flora.

If an applicant built a home and decided to leave later, Flora said the city would still have what it wanted – a quality new home. He believed the banks, through a construction loan, would be a partner in making sure the construction was finished.

Councilwoman Joyce Overton said she’s fine with new housing but not fine with not putting on the lien requirement. She said she is concerned people will build the homes then sell and take the profit elsewhere, and she doubted they could depend on the banks.

Flora said staff wanted to move forward with developing the program, including coming up with an application. He said requirements could be changed.

“This is great. This is exactly what we should be investing in,” said David Claffey, a member of the city’s marketing committee and a candidate for council this year.

Claffey said that, in quickly doing the math, he estimated the program as presented could help develop 20 to 25 homes.

He asked how many homes have been developed yearly in the city. Flora replied that the bulk of them over the last few years have been Sulphur fire rebuilds.

Councilman Russ Perdock called the program “very exciting.”

The council voted to approve the proposal 5-0 and, in a separate motion, approved amending the budget to allow for use of the funds for the program.

Flora told Lake County News that he’s moving forward with putting the program together.

He’s developing some program flyers that can be shared with employers and others to get the word out about the program.

“I am also developing some partnerships with banks and contractors. The goal is to have a few places that are aware of the program and are willing to partner on these projects to make it as easy as possible for those interested in building,” he said.

Flora said he expects to be ready to take applications by Nov. 1 or before.

“There has been a lot of interest in this, so I am looking forward to getting some homes started,” Flora said.

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.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An incoming wind event that officials said is expected to have the driest humidity levels and the strongest winds of the wildfire season thus far could result in Pacific Gas and Electric turning off the power to portions of 38 counties on Sunday.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning across a large swath of Northern and Central California.

In Lake County, the red flag warning will be in effect from 11 a.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. Tuesday.

The agency also has issued a wind advisory that’s active from 5 p.m. Sunday through 11 a.m. Monday, and a freeze watch from midnight on Monday to 9 a.m. that day.

PG&E said as of early Sunday morning that shutoffs are likely, and that 26,227 Lake County customers – including 2,047 in the Medical Baseline program – are included in the potential outage area. That’s down from 31,590 county customers that initially were expected to be impacted.

The local shutoffs are tentatively scheduled to occur between 4 and 6 p.m. Sunday.

In Lakeport, where 1,228 customers are expected to be included if the shutoff occurs, city officials said they have deployed generators to critical water and wastewater facilities to ensure continued operation of these systems during the expected outage.

Customers can look up their address online to find out if their location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff, and find the full list of affected counties, cities and communities here.

PG&E said its Emergency Operations Center, Meteorology team and Wildfire Safety Operations Center are working together and tracking the wind event.

The National Weather Service’s specific forecast for Lake County said winds are expected to be up to the mid-40s on Sunday and in the high 30s on Monday.

If PG&E goes forward with the shutoff, it said it will open seven community resources centers in Lake County. The centers will be open from 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday.

At the centers, community members will be able to get snacks and water, charge devices, use wifi, and have access to an ADA-accessible restroom and washing station.

The centers will be located at the following locations:

– Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake.
– Mountain High Coffee, 16295 Highway 175, Cobb.
– Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Red Hills Property, 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville.
– Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport.
– Twin Pine Casino and Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown.
– Community Baptist Church, 2877 State Highway 20, Nice.
– Upper Lake Middle School, 725 Old Lucerne Road.

While there is still uncertainty regarding the strength and timing of this weather wind event, PG&E said high fire-risk conditions are expected to arrive Sunday morning and to subside Monday morning in most impacted areas, with windy conditions lingering in some regions through early Tuesday.

Once the all-clear is called, PG&E said it will begin patrol of the de-energized lines to assess whether they were damaged during the wind event.

PG&E said it will safely restore power as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring most customers within 12 daylight hours, based on current weather conditions.

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.
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The Earth and moon, shown here in a composite of two images from the Galileo mission of the 1990s, have a long shared history. Billions of years ago, they had connected magnetic fields. Credits: NASA/JPL/USGS.

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Earth’s surface was a menacing, hot mess. Long before the emergence of life, temperatures were scorching, and the air was toxic.

Plus, as a mere toddler, the Sun bombarded our planet with violent outbursts of radiation called flares and coronal mass ejections. Streams of charged particles called the solar wind threatened our atmosphere. Our planet was, in short, uninhabitable.

But a neighboring shield may have helped our planet retain its atmosphere and eventually go on to develop life and habitable conditions. That shield was the moon, says a NASA-led study in the journal Science Advances.

“The moon seems to have presented a substantial protective barrier against the solar wind for the Earth, which was critical to Earth’s ability to maintain its atmosphere during this time,” said Jim Green, NASA’s chief scientist and lead author of the new study. “We look forward to following up on these findings when NASA sends astronauts to the moon through the Artemis program, which will return critical samples of the lunar South Pole.”

A brief history of the moon

The moon formed 4.5 billion years ago when a Mars-sized object called Theia slammed into the proto-Earth when our planet was less than 100 million years old, according to leading theories.

Debris from the collision coalesced into the moon, while other remnants reincorporated themselves into the Earth. Because of gravity, the presence of the moon stabilized the Earth’s spin axis. At that time, our planet was spinning much faster, with one day lasting only 5 hours.

And in the early days, the moon was a lot closer, too. As the moon’s gravity pulls on our oceans, the water is slightly heated, and that energy gets dissipated. This results in the moon moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year, or about the width of two adjacent dimes. Over time, that really adds up.

By 4 billion years ago, the moon was three times closer to Earth than it is today – about 80,000 miles away, compared to the current 238,000 miles. At some point, the moon also became “tidally locked,” meaning Earth sees only one side of it.

Scientists once thought that the moon never had a long-lasting global magnetic field because it has such a small core. A magnetic field causes electrical charges to move along invisible lines, which bow down toward the moon at the poles.

Scientists have long known about Earth’s magnetic field, which creates the beautifully colored aurorae in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The movement of liquid iron and nickel deep inside the Earth, still flowing because of the heat left over from Earth’s formation, generates the magnetic fields that make up a protective bubble surrounding Earth, the magnetosphere.

But thanks to studies of samples of the lunar surface from the Apollo missions, scientists figured out that the moon once had a magnetosphere, too. Evidence continues to mount from samples that were sealed for decades and recently analyzed with modern technology.

Like Earth, the heat from the moon’s formation would have kept iron flowing deep inside, although not for nearly as long because of its size.

“It’s like baking a cake: You take it out of the oven, and it’s still cooling off,” Green said. “The bigger the mass, the longer it takes to cool off.”

This illustration shows magnetic field lines that Earth generates today. The moon no longer has a magnetic field. Credits: NASA.

A magnetic shield

The new study simulates how the magnetic fields of the Earth and moon behaved about 4 billion years ago. Scientists created a computer model to look at the behavior of the magnetic fields at two positions in their respective orbits.

At certain times, the moon’s magnetosphere would have served as a barrier to the harsh solar radiation raining down on the Earth-moon system, scientists write.

That’s because, according to the model, the magnetospheres of the moon and Earth would have been magnetically connected in the polar regions of each object. Importantly for the evolution of Earth, the high-energy solar wind particles could not completely penetrate the coupled magnetic field and strip away the atmosphere.

But there was some atmospheric exchange, too. The extreme ultraviolet light from the Sun would have stripped electrons from neutral particles in Earth’s uppermost atmosphere, making those particles charged and enabling them to travel to the moon along the lunar magnetic field lines.

This may have contributed to the moon maintaining a thin atmosphere at that time, too. The discovery of nitrogen in lunar rock samples support the idea that Earth’s atmosphere, which is dominated by nitrogen, contributed to the moon’s ancient atmosphere and its crust.

Scientists calculate that this shared magnetic field situation, with Earth and moon’s magnetospheres joined, could have persisted from 4.1 to 3.5 billion years ago.

“Understanding the history of the moon's magnetic field helps us understand not only possible early atmospheres, but how the lunar interior evolved,” said David Draper, NASA’s deputy chief scientist and study co-author. “It tells us about what the moon's core could have been like – probably a combination of both liquid and solid metal at some point in its history – and that is a very important piece of the puzzle for how the moon works on the inside.”

Over time, as the moon’s interior cooled, our nearest neighbor lost its magnetosphere, and eventually its atmosphere. The field must have diminished significantly 3.2 billion years ago, and vanished by about 1.5 billion years ago.

Without a magnetic field, the solar wind stripped the atmosphere away. This is also why Mars lost its atmosphere: Solar radiation stripped it away.

If our moon played a role in shielding our planet from harmful radiation during a critical early time, then in a similar way, there may be other moons around terrestrial exoplanets in the galaxy that help preserve atmospheres for their host planets, and even contribute to habitable conditions, scientists say.

This would be of interest to the field of astrobiology – the study of the origins of life and the search for life beyond Earth.

This illustration shows how Earth and its moon both had magnetic fields that were connected billions of years ago, helping to protect their atmospheres from streams of damaging solar particles, according to new research. Credits: NASA.


Human exploration can tell us more

This modeling study presents ideas for how the ancient histories of Earth and moon contributed to the preservation of Earth’s early atmosphere. The mysterious and complex processes are difficult to figure out, but new samples from the lunar surface will provide clues to the mysteries.

As NASA plans to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon through the Artemis program, there may be multiple opportunities to test out these ideas.

When astronauts return the first samples from the lunar South Pole, where the magnetic fields of the Earth and moon connected most strongly, scientists can look for chemical signatures of Earth’s ancient atmosphere, as well as the volatile substances like water that were delivered by impacting meteors and asteroids.

Scientists are especially interested in areas of the lunar South Pole that have not seen any sunlight at all in billions of years – the “permanently shadowed regions” – because the harsh solar particles would not have stripped away volatiles.

Nitrogen and oxygen, for example, may have traveled from Earth to moon along the magnetic field lines and gotten trapped in those rocks.

“Significant samples from these permanently shadowed regions will be critical for us to be able to untangle this early evolution of the Earth’s volatiles, testing our model assumptions,” Green said.

The other co-authors on the paper are Scott Boardsen from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Chuanfei Dong from Princeton University in New Jersey.

Elizabeth Landau works for NASA Headquarters.

When the moon had a magnetic field, it would have been shielded from incoming solar wind, as shown in this illustration. Credits: NASA.
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A road hazard tree in the August Complex area in Northern California. Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Sunday was another red flag warning day on the vast August Complex starting.

Crews have been challenged by numerous red flag warning days since the complex started August 16 and 17 due to lightning.

The entire August Complex, including the North and South zones, is estimated at 1,032,648 acres and 93-percent containment, with 729 personnel. It’s burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests.

The August Complex South Zone encompasses 594,249 acres and is 90-percent contained with 164 personnel assigned, officials said.

Fire Behavior Analyst Mike Beasley discussed the extreme fire weather conditions at the Sunday morning briefing.

“Any heat sources near the perimeter need to be checked and patrolled carefully today as the wind increases. If fire becomes established outside containment lines, crews can expect very active fire behavior with torching, spotting and running,” he said.

On Sunday, the Forest Service said crews held and patrolled firelines in those areas where heat sources may be lingering in berms near the perimeter.

Of utmost importance will be maintaining awareness for trees possibly falling across roads during the windy conditions. Fire will continue to smolder and creep in the Hellhole Canyon, the Forest Service said.

Officials said the South Zone fire managers are coordinating with incident management organizations for the northeast and northwest sides of the August Complex in order to share information and maximize the use of resources.

The complex is expected to be fully contained on Nov. 15.

Closure Order No. 08-20-14 is in effect for the Mendocino National Forest. Private properties accessed via a Forest System road may require a permit from the USDA Forest Service.

Contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316 for more information. Safety hazards include unstable trees that may fall, loose rocks and boulders, burning stumps and deep ash pits.
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A bat box at Clear Lake State Park in Kelseyville, California. Photo by Kathleen Scavone.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – I've always enjoyed observing bats appear at dusk as though by magic, while I'm relaxing on the deck at dusk.

They wing their way about the woods, silently sending out sound waves to echolocate moths, mosquitoes and more.

A bat or two has surprised me by flying out of the big shade umbrella as I unfurled it.

I wasn't able to attract bats to the bat boxes attached to trees in the yard, but plan to play host to some bats as soon as I relocate the houses at the proper ten feet above ground in an open area directed to the south-southeast, with six to seven hours of sunshine.

I draw the line at my bat appreciation when they appear to show interest in my own home, however.

While tidying up outdoors beneath the chimney I noted some bat droppings or guano. At least I think that's what it is, and I'll know for sure after I have an inspection by a professional.

By doing a bit of bat research I've learned that many bats are protected species by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, due to the important role they play by consuming 50 to 100 percent of their weight in insects per night.

The CDFW's website states that, “Population declines have caused 17 of California's 24 native bat species to receive some level of state or federal protection.”

Since there are around 1,400 species of bats in the world and most are insectivorous, bats are heralded by farmers and the timber industry for their insect-suppressing abilities across the world.

Some species of bats are great at pollinating plants; in fact they are revered in Mexico where they pollinate agave, for tequila-making.

Some bats are known to aid in saving stroke victims. It turns out that there is an anti-clotting enzyme in bat saliva that can be synthesized.

Bats have supported science in other ways too, such as sonar research, advances in vaccine development and more.

Bats are mammals with a lifespan of 30 years or more. These furry critters can reach flight speeds of 60 miles per hour. Also, bats groom themselves like a cat and nurse their young – usually one 'pup' per year.

In nature, the bat's main predators are snakes, hawks, owls and raccoons. Typically bats find a snug place to roost, such as loose tree bark or tree cavities, but they may find a nice place under roof shingles, in attics or crevices in buildings to raise their pups. They can enter a crack or crevice that is less than half an inch in width!

Did you know Oct. 24 to 31 is International Bat Week? The CDFW tells us that during this time folks are invited to become “bat heroes” by informing others of the important role bats play, protect bats and their habitat, install a bat box home for bats on your property or join a citizen-science bat monitoring program.

To learn more about bats, bat box building, and learn a song called “Bats on the Brink” by Mister G a Latin GRAMMY winner, visit https://batweek.org/.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”


A bat interpretive panel at Clear Lake State Park in Kelseyville, California. Photo by Kathleen Scavone.

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E-cigarettes. Photo courtesy of RISE.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In 2020, Red Ribbon Week, the nation's largest and longest-running drug-use prevention campaign which runs from Oct. 23 to 31,, turns 35.

Red Ribbon Week has informed millions of children and parents about the danger of drugs and alcohol, influencing positive choices and behaviors.

However, one drug that hasn’t received as much attention lately is nicotine, which is highly addictive.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released its 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which measures a variety of risky behaviors, including tobacco use.

The survey found that in California, more than 42 percent of high school students reported having tried e-cigarettes and more than 18 percent reported using currently. More than seven percent reported currently using smokeless tobacco.

The common thread among these products is flavored nicotine which the tobacco industry uses to spark curiosity and mask the harsh taste of tobacco. If sweet fruity flavors seem harmless, the high dose of nicotine teens get when they use, isn’t.

Rural communities have long been targeted by the tobacco industry. For decades, the tobacco industry has taken advantage of often weaker tobacco retail laws in rural areas and push misleading advertising, marketing and promotions that tie tobacco use to values such as strength, independence and resilience, while using images of cowboys, hunters and racecars to make smoking seem like it’s a part of life.

In recent years, they have added new products like e-cigarettes, but the intent is the same.

For example, Lakeport Unified School District was part of the California Healthy Kids Survey that also measures risk-related behaviors.

The 2018-19 survey found that 27 percent of 11th graders reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days (and 26 percent for ninth graders), but just 5 percent report using traditional cigarettes.

The 2019 High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey also found that California high school students overall are using smokeless tobacco more than students nationally.

Part of the problem may also be the perception of nicotine.

“Make no mistake, nicotine is the tobacco industry’s tool to hook our kids to deadly products – that hasn’t changed,” said Shelly Brantley, project director of Rural Initiatives Strengthening Equity, or RISE, a program dedicated to combatting tobacco’s harms in California’s rural communities, such as Lake County.

“What’s changed is how they’re packaging this drug. The tobacco industry continues to target our communities and portray tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, as being less harmful, but that’s far from the truth, especially for youth,” she said.

“Aside from the health problems these products present, they often contain high amounts of nicotine, which is a harmful drug that is basically brain poison for youth, and the tobacco industry now has it wrapped up in sweet, fruity flavors in a variety of forms to entice kids to try them, and far too often, get addicted,” said Brantley. “Not only is nicotine a highly addictive drug for youth, but nicotine exposure can actually change the chemistry in teens’ brains and can impact learning, memory and attention.”

Brantley added, “The tobacco industry views our kids as their next generation of customers, and nicotine is their tool to hook them. We need to talk with our kids about what nicotine really is – it’s a harmful, addictive drug.”

To find out information about how RISE combats tobacco harm in rural communities, including Lake County, and to take action, visit https://www.ca-rise.org/.

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Compared to any other age group, the combination of inexperience and distracted driving habits put teenage drivers at the greatest risk of danger.

The California Highway Patrol has been awarded a grant to help young drivers learn how to eliminate high-risk actions and decrease their chances of being in a crash.

Designed for newly licensed teen drivers and their parents or guardians, the Start Smart program is currently being conducted online for 2020-21 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The two-hour course has been developed specifically to reduce vehicle crashes that cause serious injuries and fatalities.

The free program incorporates innovative techniques to capture the attention of teens and parents, while addressing common driving dangers.

“The Start Smart program is an effective tool for teens and their parents to combat young drivers’ risky driving behaviors,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “The department is committed to making a difference in the future of California’s youth through continued traffic safety educational efforts.”

The Start Smart curriculum is based on collision statistics, teen driver and passenger behaviors, Graduated Driver License, or GDL, laws, cultural changes and the need for stronger parental involvement. Parents and guardians are reminded of their responsibility to teach their new driver and model good driving behaviors.

Parents and teenagers can register for a Start Smart class by contacting their local CHP office.

The CHP’s Clear Lake Area office in Kelseyville can be reached by phone at 707-279-0103.

More information about Start Smart and the GDL program can be found on the free CHP Start Smart mobile app, which is available on Android and iOS devices.

The app also includes access to the California Driver Handbook and a trip logger to keep track of the user’s driving time to help them prepare to obtain their license.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The mission of the CHP is to provide the highest level of safety, service and security.
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The Feather River Hatchery in Oroville, California. California Department of Fish and Wildlife photo by Penny Crenshaw.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – In addition to destroying and threatening thousands of homes and businesses, the devastating Glass Fire in Napa and Sonoma counties jeopardized the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Inland Chinook Salmon Program – until the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville came to the rescue.

The Feather River Fish Hatchery is owned and maintained by the California Department of Water Resources, and operated by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW.

Each year, CDFW raises approximately 800,000 Chinook salmon smolts and fingerlings for planting and recreational fishing in large foothill and valley reservoirs from Fresno County to Trinity County.

These landlocked salmon often grow quite large and fill an ecological and recreational angling niche in these deep-water impoundments not typically occupied by other fish species.

The state record inland Chinook salmon came from Trinity Lake in 2013 weighing 20 pounds, 15 ounces. Anglers regularly catch inland Chinook salmon weighing 7 to 8 pounds at Lake Oroville and 5 to 6 pounds at Folsom Lake.

The inland Chinook salmon originate with eggs collected and spawned at the Feather River Fish Hatchery each fall from salmon returning to the Feather River. The eggs and fish are excess to the hatchery’s annual production goals.

Egg trays at Feather River Hatchery in Oroville, California. California Department of Fish and Wildlife photo by Penny Crenshaw.

About 1.4 million Chinook salmon eggs were collected from the Feather River Fish Hatchery in early October and designated for the Inland Chinook Salmon Program.

Ordinarily, most of these eggs are taken to CDFW’s Silverado Fisheries Base in Napa County for incubation, where they remain until the baby salmon are big enough for stocking.

The Silverado Fisheries Base suffered power outages and came under evacuation orders as a result of the Glass Fire.

In response to the emergency and with assistance from CDFW’s Inland Chinook Salmon Program staff, temporary adjustments were made at the Feather River Fish Hatchery to keep the eggs, incubate them and grow out the salmon until the Silverado Fisheries Base is once again able to accommodate the fish, likely in November.

CDFW staff set up additional fish-rearing incubators in their Inland Chinook Salmon Building. That building typically only has space to hold 300,000 eggs and baby salmon destined for Lake Oroville. Thanks to the extra effort, the Feather River Hatchery is now holding 1.4 million eggs that represent the entire annual production of the state’s Inland Chinook Salmon Program.

“Understanding the inherent risk of losing an entire year’s production, CDFW staff will play a crucial role in ensuring future inland Chinook fisheries in Folsom, Oroville and eight other lakes and reservoirs,” said Kyle Murphy, a senior environmental scientist with CDFW’s Fisheries Branch. “This interagency teamwork will have long-reaching effects for thousands of anglers in central and northern California.”

Adding to the stress, the Feather River Fish Hatchery itself was ordered to evacuate for a day Oct. 15 due to a nearby fire in Oroville. Both the Oroville fire and the Glass Fire have been contained and no longer pose threats to either facility.

Tanks at Feather River Hatchery in Oroville, California. California Department of Fish and Wildlife photo by Penny Crenshaw.
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LUCERNE, Calif. – Lake County Behavioral Health Services has been awarded $2 million to expand early psychosis intervention services through a competitive grant.

This grant opportunity came through the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission, which also oversees Mental Health Services Act funding for California counties.

Behavioral Health Services has long provided services to young people experiencing the early onset of psychosis, as well as other behavioral or emotional challenges.

Officials saisd this grant will facilitate a significant expansion of services in line with an evidence-based fidelity model.

Significant growth is expected in the following areas:

– Clinical training on cutting-edge, evidence-based practices for this population;
– Training on community screening and identification of youth experiencing the early onset of psychosis;
– Supported employment;
– Co-occurring substance use disorder services;
– Psychoeducational groups for families, caregivers and parents; and
– Psychoeducational and wellness groups for youth.

Symptoms of psychosis can appear in childhood and adolescence, and may or may not lead to a life-long mental illness.

The goal of early intervention services is to effectively treat and hopefully prevent these symptoms from becoming a chronic illness.

It is estimated that 5 to 8 percent of the general population may experience symptoms of psychosis in a given year, and there may be an even higher incidence in children and adolescents.

Signs and symptoms of psychosis may include:

– Hearing, seeing, tasting or believing things that others don’t;
– Persistent, unusual thoughts or beliefs that can’t be set aside regardless of what others believe;
– Strong and inappropriate emotions or no emotions at all;
– Withdrawing from family or friends;
– A sudden decline in self-care;
– Trouble thinking clearly or concentrating.

Behavioral Health Services will begin implementation of this grant later this year, and project implementation will take place over four years.

The agency said this is an exciting opportunity to expand and improve our services to young people in Lake County.

“Lake County Behavioral Health Services strives to provide the highest quality behavioral healthcare to some of our most vulnerable community members,” the county said in a written statement.

For more information, contact Lake County Behavioral Health Services at 707-274-9101 or 707-994-7090.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric on Sunday began a public safety power shutoff in response to the biggest wind event of the season, an action that’s impacting hundreds of thousands of residents across portions of 36 counties.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning that covers most of California due to the winds now working their way across the state.

Red flag warnings are a factor that PG&E considers in determining whether to use public safety power shutoffs, or PSPS, to reduce fire danger.

PG&E’s shutoff, which began on Sunday afternoon, is impacting 361,000 customers in targeted portions of Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kern, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba counties, PG&E reported.

Due to changing weather conditions, 105,000 customers who previously had been notified that their power could be turned off were removed from the shutoff’s scope, the company said.

In Lake County, 21,621 customers are included in the shutoff, including 1,572 customers in the Medical Baseline program. Earlier on Sunday, PG&E had removed about 5,000 county customers from the scope, including portions of the Northshore.

By 6 p.m. Sunday, PG&E said it had cut power to 225,000 of its customers, with another 136,000 to lose power during the course of the evening.

PG&E Senior Meteorologist Scott Strenfel said an ultra-dry air mass is washing across the state and that, as of Sunday evening, the region is entering the most critical period of the wind event.

In the North Bay hills, 53-mile-per-hour gusts have been recorded while relative humidity is at 15 percent. Gusts are forecast to be as high as 70 miles per hour, he said.

Strenfel said they believe a second round of winds could hit late Monday and into Tuesday over the region’s elevated terrain.

He said all agencies monitoring the winds – including the National Weather Service – agree that this will be the strongest event of the season, he said.

Strenfel said the forecast for the next 10 days shows no rain, but at the same time it doesn’t show a return of offshore diablo wind events. He said relative humidity is expected to begin to taper up in the coming days.

PG&E said it expects to see an all clear about midday on Monday, with plans to restore power in stages from Monday night through Tuesday night, safety permitting. Before restoring power, crews will inspect equipment for potential damage from the windstorm.

PG&E has opened seven community resource centers in Lake County, where people can get snacks and water, access wifi, charge devices and have access to ADA-accessible bathrooms. They’re open until 10 p.m. Sunday and will be open at 8 a.m. on Monday.

The centers are at the following locations:

– Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake.
– Mountain High Coffee, 16295 Highway 175, Cobb.
– Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Red Hills Property, 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville.
– Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport.
– Twin Pine Casino and Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown.
– Community Baptist Church, 2877 State Highway 20, Nice.
– Upper Lake Middle School, 725 Old Lucerne Road.

For additional information, visit PG&E’s website.

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.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has two new dogs among the canines waiting for new families this week.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

“Banjo.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Banjo’

“Banjo” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short tan and white coat.

He is dog No. 4267.

“Bella.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female American Bully mix.

She has a short beige and tan coat.

She is dog No. 3537.

“Charlie.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Charlie’

“Charlie” is a male adult Chihuahua with a short tan coat.

He has been neutered.

Charlie is recovering from surgery to fix a broken leg.

He is dog No. 4277.

“Chester.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Chester’

“Chester” is a male Chihuahua mix with a short tan coat.

He is dog No. 360.

“Chuckie.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Chuckie’

“Chuckie’ is a small male adult German Shepherd mix.

He has a short tan and black coat.

He is dog No. 4297.

“Jack.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Jack’

“Jack” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short yellow coat.

He is dog No. 4155.

“Lady.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Lady’

“Lady” is a female German Shepherd mix.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3683.

The shelter is open by appointment only due to COVID-19.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

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.
Posted On

 

A girl wearing a mask walks down a street in the Corona neighborhood of Queens on April 14, 2020 in New York City. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance clarifying what exactly “close contact” means when it comes to transmission of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The previous guidance suggested that a close contact occurred when a person was within six feet of an infectious individual for 15 consecutive minutes. Now, the CDC is acknowledging that even brief contact can lead to transmission. Specifically, the new guidance suggests that those spending a total of 15 minutes of contact with an infectious person over the course of a 24-hour period should be considered in close contact.

Despite the change, most public health professionals have been clear for months that there is nothing magic about six feet. In the same way, there is nothing magic about 15 minutes. These should be used as rough estimates to indicate the types of contact that are relatively higher risk.

This new guidance, then, is an important recognition of the ease with which this virus can spread. It is not a dramatic reversal of CDC guidance, like those related to masks and the back-and-forth on testing of asymptomatic individuals.

This change reflects new evidence that has emerged. This change is an example of how science works. As an epidemiologist who studies respiratory virus transmission, I actually don’t think this change will greatly impact how we live our lives during the pandemic, but it does represent continued evidence of how easily this virus spreads. 

Why the change?

The new advice comes on the heels of an outbreak investigation published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The investigation found that a prison employee in Vermont was infected, most likely during a series of brief contacts with infected but asymptomatic inmates.

The inmates were waiting on test results in a quarantine unit. The employee reported no close contacts outside of work and they hadn’t traveled outside the state. At the time Vermont was experiencing low levels of community spread. The outbreak investigation used video evidence from surveillance cameras in the prison to document the short interactions. Each interaction lasted about a minute, and in total the employee was in close contact with the infected inmates for about 17 minutes over the course of an eight-hour shift. For at least some of those interactions, the infected inmates weren’t wearing masks.

Documenting infectious contact is hard for respiratory viruses. After all, we can’t see the virus moving through the air. The video footage in this case represents pretty robust evidence. And so the CDC is recognizing the possibility that shorter interactions carry some risk.

This change is also an acknowledgment that the previous definition makes at least one explicit assumption that may not be true. The major assumption of the old rule is that there is a threshold effect of exposure. That is, once you’ve been exposed to a certain amount of virus (15 minutes’ worth), your risk of disease increases. The flip side of this assumption is that at levels below that threshold your risk remains low. That is why we’ve seen some schools mistakenly moving students around at 14-minute intervals.

The new guidance suggests that there is more of a dose-response relationship between viral exposure and risk of disease. Which is to say, the more virus you are exposed to, the higher your risk, even if the exposure doesn’t happen all at once.

Two people at a drive-through testing service.
Medical personnel secure a sample from a person at a drive-through coronavirus COVID-19 testing station at a Kaiser Permanente facility on March 12, 2020 in San Francisco, Calif. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images


What does it mean?

While I don’t think this update will result in big changes, one thing it does do is expand the pool of people for contact tracing. In the ideal scenario, this change could mean that we catch more cases early after exposure. Those people can then begin to quarantine before they become infectious and spread it on to others.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

Take, for example, the upcoming holidays. Having family over for Thanksgiving typically means sharing a meal, and likely spending several hours in close contact with others. That is still a risk, especially since those without symptoms can spread the disease.

The people who attend that gathering would all have been considered close contacts before, and they still are. But now, brief interactions that add up over time – for example, with a server at a restaurant – will be considered close contact.

This change by CDC suggests that we need to be more careful about brief interactions – for example, in the office or at school. We shouldn’t think to ourselves “This will only be a minute, I don’t need my mask.” The importance of wearing masks at all times to protect others has never been more clear. We may not know that we’re infected, and even a brief, unmasked encounter could spread the virus.The Conversation

Ryan Malosh, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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