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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Plans are under way for a new garden tour and landscaping challenge taking place in 2017.

Citizens Caring 4 Clearlake, www.CC4CL.org , a nonprofit organization working under the umbrella of NCO Volunteer Network to beautify Clearlake through community action, is planning the Gems of Clearlake Garden Tour to showcase the talents of local gardeners on April 8, 2017.

Anyone interested in allowing their yard to be included in future garden tours is asked to contact the CC4C Landscaping Committee at 707-701-3554.

In conjunction with the garden tour, CC4C is issuing a landscaping challenge to the citizens and businesses of Clearlake.

Anyone who has an inclination to create or improve a garden spot, and wishes to participate, should send a dated “Before” photograph to CC4C Landscape Challenge, c/o 14225 Ridge Rd., Clearlake, CA 95422, no later than Oct. 1, 2016, to enter. Include contact information. Send email entries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Put “CC4C Landscape Challenge” as the subject.

Categories are most creative, most improved, best use of recycling and drought tolerant.
 
First prize will be $250. There also will be second and third place prizes, honorable mentions and every contestant who completes the challenge will receive a prize for participating. Participants are encouraged to photograph their “during” efforts, also, for possible publication.
 
Dated “after” photos must be received by May 1, 2017, and the winner will be selected by June 1, 2017.
 
Clearlake is a wonderful place to grow as a community. Let’s get to work to show just what we can accomplish together.

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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – With the Clayton fire approaching, St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake has been closed and patients are being evacuated, and authorities have closed a stretch of Highway 29 near Lower Lake.

The Clayton fire was at 2,000 acres, with 5-percent containment Sunday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.

Hospital officials confirmed Sunday afternoon that the facility – located on 18th Avenue in Clearlake – had been closed due to the fire.

“All patients are being transferred to Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport. St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake will remain closed until further notice,” the hospital said in a statement.

Radio reports indicated that about 16 or 17 patients needed to be transported from the hospital, with not enough fire resources available to have the patients and staff shelter in place. Due to stretched resources, authorities were calling for ambulances from around the county to help with the transports.

Shortly after the hospital confirmed the evacuation, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said that, due to the fire activity in Lower Lake, Highway 29 was closed between Spruce Grove North and Bell Park, with traffic rerouted.

On Sunday the fire's growth – it was jumping roads and containment lines – necessitated an increasing number of evacuations in and around Lower Lake as well as part of the Avenues area in Clearlake.

Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin also declared an emergency due to the fire, as Lake County News has reported.
 
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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Dark matter, the mysterious substance that constitutes most of the material universe, remains as elusive as ever.

Although experiments on the ground and in space have yet to find a trace of dark matter, the results are helping scientists rule out some of the many theoretical possibilities.

Three studies published earlier this year, using six or more years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, have broadened the mission's dark matter hunt using some novel approaches.

“We've looked for the usual suspects in the usual places and found no solid signals, so we've started searching in some creative new ways,” said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “With these results, Fermi has excluded more candidates, has shown that dark matter can contribute to only a small part of the gamma-ray background beyond our galaxy, the Milky Way, and has produced strong limits for dark matter particles in the second-largest galaxy orbiting it.”

Dark matter neither emits nor absorbs light, primarily interacts with the rest of the universe through gravity, yet accounts for about 80 percent of the matter in the universe.

Astronomers see its effects throughout the cosmos – in the rotation of galaxies, in the distortion of light passing through galaxy clusters, and in simulations of the early universe, which require the presence of dark matter to form galaxies at all.

The leading candidates for dark matter are different classes of hypothetical particles. Scientists think gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light, can help reveal the presence of some of types of proposed dark matter particles.

Previously, Fermi has searched for tell-tale gamma-ray signals associated with dark matter in the center of our galaxy and in small dwarf galaxies orbiting our own.

Although no convincing signals were found, these results eliminated candidates within a specific range of masses and interaction rates, further limiting the possible characteristics of dark matter particles.

Among the new studies, the most exotic scenario investigated was the possibility that dark matter might consist of hypothetical particles called axions or other particles with similar properties.

An intriguing aspect of axion-like particles is their ability to convert into gamma rays and back again when they interact with strong magnetic fields.

These conversions would leave behind characteristic traces, like gaps or steps, in the spectrum of a bright gamma-ray source.

Manuel Meyer at Stockholm University led a study to search for these effects in the gamma rays from NGC 1275, the central galaxy of the Perseus galaxy cluster, located about 240 million light-years away.

High-energy emissions from NGC 1275 are thought to be associated with a supermassive black hole at its center.

Like all galaxy clusters, the Perseus cluster is filled with hot gas threaded with magnetic fields, which would enable the switch between gamma rays and axion-like particles.

This means some of the gamma rays coming from NGC 1275 could convert into axions – and potentially back again – as they make their way to us.

Meyer's team collected observations from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) and searched for predicted distortions in the gamma-ray signal.

The findings, published April 20 in Physical Review Letters, exclude a small range of axion-like particles that could have comprised about 4 percent of dark matter.

“While we don't yet know what dark matter is, our results show we can probe axion-like models and provide the strongest constraints to date for certain masses,” Meyer said. “Remarkably, we reached a sensitivity we thought would only be possible in a dedicated laboratory experiment, which is quite a testament to Fermi.”

Another broad class of dark matter candidates are called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). In some versions, colliding WIMPs either mutually annihilate or produce an intermediate, quickly decaying particle. Both scenarios result in gamma rays that can be detected by the LAT.

Regina Caputo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, sought these signals from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), which is located about 200,000 light-years away and is the second-largest of the small satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way.

Part of the SMC's appeal for a dark matter search is that it lies comparatively close to us and its gamma-ray emission from conventional sources, like star formation and pulsars, is well understood.

Most importantly, astronomers have high-precision measurements of the SMC's rotation curve, which shows how its rotational speed changes with distance from its center and indicates how much dark matter is present. In a paper published in Physical Review D on March 22, Caputo and her colleagues modeled the dark matter content of the SMC, showing it possessed enough to produce detectable signals for two WIMP types.

“The LAT definitely sees gamma rays from the SMC, but we can explain them all through conventional sources,” Caputo said. “No signal from dark matter annihilation was found to be statistically significant.”

In the third study, researchers led by Marco Ajello at Clemson University in South Carolina and Mattia Di Mauro at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California took the search in a different direction. Instead of looking at specific astronomical targets, the team used more than 6.5 years of LAT data to analyze the background glow of gamma rays seen all over the sky.

The nature of this light, called the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB) has been debated since it was first measured by NASA's Small Astronomy Satellite 2 in the early 1970s.

Fermi has shown that much of this light arises from unresolved gamma-ray sources, particularly galaxies called blazars, which are powered by material falling toward gigantic black holes.

Blazars constitute more than half of the total gamma-ray sources seen by Fermi, and they make up an even greater share in a new LAT catalog of the highest-energy gamma rays.

Some models predict that EGB gamma rays could arise from distant interactions of dark matter particles, such as the annihilation or decay of WIMPs.

In a detailed analysis of high-energy EGB gamma rays, published April 14 in Physical Review Letters, Ajello and his team show that blazars and other discrete sources can account for nearly all of this emission.

“There is very little room left for signals from exotic sources in the extragalactic gamma-ray background, which in turn means that any contribution from these sources must be quite small,” Ajello said. “This information may help us place limits on how often WIMP particles collide or decay.”

Although these latest studies have come up empty-handed, the quest to find dark matter continues both in space and in ground-based experiments. Fermi is joined in its search by NASA's Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle detector on the International Space Station.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

For more information about NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, visit www.nasa.gov/fermi .

Francis Reddy is with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Cal Fire's evening update as of 8 p.m. Sunday listed the size of the Clayton fire at 3,000 acres, with 5 percent containment and 10 structures destroyed.

The current damage cost estimate is $1,500,000.

No injuries have been reported.
 
According to Cal Fire the fire is burning aggressively towards the north, crossing Morgan Valley Road and Cache Creek, and is impacting the communities of Lower Lake and Clearlake. St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake has been evacuated.
 
The fire behavior remains intense and additional resources arrived throughout the day. Structures are threatened and currently mandatory evacuations are in place while structure defense continues.
 
The fire area terrain is grassy oak woodland, heavy brush with difficult access. Areas evacuated include Clayton Creek Road, all of Morgan Valley Road, North Spruce Grove Road to Jerusalem Grade Road,l Highway 53 at the Highway 29 junction north to Highway 20 with advisory evacuations for Jerusalem Grade Road.
 
Road Closures: Clayton Creek Road at Highway 29, all of Morgan Valley Road to the Napa County line, North Spruce Grove Road and junction of Spruce Grove Rd and Jerusalem Grade South Spruce Grove Road off Highway 29.
 
Resources assigned to the fire include 122 engine/truck companies, 22 water tenders, 15 volunteer companies, 24 fire crews, seven helicopters, 107 overhead personnel and 22 bulldozers, six air tankers and a total of 1,044 personnel.
 
Earlier in the day power lines in Clearlake were deenergized resulting in the closure of the Highlands Senior Center.

Three evacuation centers remain open: Kelseyville High School, 5480 Main St., 707-279-4923, Twin Pine Casino, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown, 800-564-4872; and the Seventh-day Adventist Church,  3500 Hill Road East, Lakeport, 707-263-6002.

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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Fire officials said the Clayton fire near Lower Lake burned more acreage overnight.

The fire, burning since just before 5 p.m. Saturday, had reached 1,400 acres and was 5-percent contained by Sunday morning, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire said four residences have been destroyed.

On Sunday morning Cal Fire said the fire has a rapid rate of spread and volatile fire activity, with crews preparing for a challenging and intense fire fight. The fire is burning in grassy oak woodland, with heavy brush and difficult access.

With structures continuing to be threatened by the fire, evacuation orders remained in effect on Sunday morning. Red Cross is operating a shelter at the Highlands Senior Center in Clearlake.

Shortly after 4:30 a.m. Sunday, the Lake County Sheriff's Office ordered additional mandatory evacuations on all of Morgan Valley Road to Butte Rock Ranch Road in Lower Lake due to the fire.

Cal Fire said the resources assigned Sunday include 500 personnel, 43 fire engines, 15 fire crews, eight dozers, eight water tenders, four helicopters and three airtankers.

In addition to Cal Fire, cooperating agencies include fire districts from around Lake County, the United States Forest Service, the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the California Highway Patrol.

Cal Fire said the fire's cause remains under investigation.

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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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – On July 24, 2011, the Lake County Historical Society, a nonprofit organization, opened the Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum to the public marking the beginning of what would become one of the most important educational and cultural sites in Lake County.

Through its displays, activities and collections, the stage stop offers the public a chance to step back in time, experiencing and learning about the region’s history, geography and culture.

In addition to free general public admission, the museum hosts regularly scheduled educational programs for local school children, community activities and provides facilities for large group gatherings such as family reunions, meetings, lectures, community fundraising events, weddings and training programs.

The stage stop operates and flourishes solely by donations of time and money.

Join the Ely docents and volunteers on Friday, Aug. 26, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at the Riviera Hills Restaurant & Lounge for a fundraiser round up Italian style.

Enjoy an evening of family, friends and fun as they raise a fork (and some funds) to complete the blacksmith shop.

Feast as the Italians do on a multi-course buffet of antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno and dolce. A no host bar will be available.

John Parker, Ph.D., will be the keynote speaker talking about an 1876 Lake County painting that was recently discovered in the Rothschild collection.

Opportunities to win raffle baskets and bid on silent and live auction items will round out the evening of fun. A boat tour of Anderson Marsh for six led by Parker is just one of the auction items that will be available.

Tickets for the feast and fun are $50 per person and must be purchased in advance by Monday, Aug. 15. Seating is limited, so purchase now. Stop by the museum during visitor hours and purchase them from the docents or call 707-279-0493.

Riviera Hills Restaurant & Lounge is located at 10200 Fairway Drive, Kelseyville. Please support the Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum, preserving Lake County’s past, present and future.

The museum is located at 9921 Highway 281 (Soda Bay Road) in Kelseyville, CA, near Clear Lake Riviera, just north of Highway 29-Kit's Corner. Current hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, check out www.elystagestop.org , www.lakecountyhistory.org ,  www.facebook.com/elystagestop or call the Ely message line at at 707-533-9990.

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scavonerodmansign
“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” – Mary Oliver

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – If you haven't treated yourself to a walk at beautiful Rodman Preserve in a while, you need to head to the great outdoors to view the wildlife, woods and wetlands of the preserve and nature education center.

Rodman Preserve is located at 6350 Westlake Road in Upper Lake.

Walks commence at 8 a.m. each Saturday June through August, and 9 a.m. September through May.

The Rodman Preserve's volunteer docent will guide you along the preserve's undulating trails near wild wetlands replete with herons, egrets and grebes, up through a gentle rise of oak woodlands chock full of woodpeckers, raptors of many descriptions, deer, ground squirrels – and more!

I recently had the pleasure of hiking with the land trust's knowledgeable docent, Katherine Lindsley.

During the one and a half hour walk we were fortunate enough to see a vast variety of avian species: great blue heron, grebes, red-headed acorn woodpeckers, flycatcher, nuthatch, white egret, vulture, red-tailed hawk and more.

We spied a family of deer browsing on the grasses and the ground squirrels scolded us as we walked by their dens and mounds.

The ground under the oaks has been “rototilled” by the active critters, providing just the right conditions for an oak woodland nursery to take hold.

Rodman Preserve is one of the Lake County Land Trust's important land resources.

The Lake County Land Trust is a local, charitable nonprofit organization which is instrumental in preserving and protecting Lake County's diverse land resources, such as forests, parks, wetlands and wildlife habitats.

According to the Lake County Land Trust's Web site, “The LCLT is purchasing the 31-acre Melo property in the Big Valley Wetlands as an effort to protect portions of the last remaining significant habitat on Clear Lake."

scavonerodmanlindsley

Wetlands are vital to our precious lake to clean and filter the water, as well as provide habitat for nesting birds, such as grebes.

The tule plant, once vital to Indians who lived on the lake for thousands of years, needs to reestablish itself along the lake's perimeters to once again become nature's filter at the water's edge.

The Lake County Land Trust holds an annual benefit dinner to raise funds for important projects.

This year it will be held at the Lodge at Blue Lakes on Oct. 8. The dinner is not to be missed, and will include schmoozing with friends, music, a great silent auction and a tasty meal – all set on sparkling Blue Lakes.

For more information on Rodman Preserve and the Lake County Land Trust visit http://www.lakecountylandtrust.org/ .

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, 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.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

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Hunters should use caution with wild rabbits

Question: I’d like to try some rabbit hunting but hear they may carry some kind of disease. Is this true?

If so, is this anything to be concerned about and what precautions should I take? (Jeff J., Stockton)

Answer: You may be referring to “tularemia,” a bacterial disease that wild rabbits occasionally carry.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “tularemia is a disease of animals and humans caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. Rabbits, hares and rodents are especially susceptible and often die in large numbers during outbreaks. Humans can become infected through several routes, including tick and deer fly bites, skin contact with infected animals and ingestion of contaminated water. Symptoms vary depending on the route of infection. Although tularemia can be life-threatening, most infections can be treated successfully with antibiotics.”

To be safe, hunters should take precautions by wearing latex gloves when field dressing their rabbits to minimize exposure to the disease.

Be sure to properly cool the animal after field dressing it, and to always cook it thoroughly. Tularemia is named after the place where it was discovered – Tulare.

Booyah Boo Rig

Question: I would like to use a Booyah Boo Rig in coastal ocean waters and possibly for stripers in the Sacramento River. It has five places for flashers or grubs but only one will have a hook. The others are just attractants. Would this be OK? (Dave K.)

Answer: As long as the rig does not exceed the allowable number of hooks (which generally is three hooks or three lures with up to three hooks each for inland waters), it is legal.

Ocean regulations are less restrictive. Generally, any number of lines and hooks may be used but bear in mind that there are hook/line restrictions for some fish species in both inland and ocean waters, so you’d need to read the regulation for each specific species to know for sure.

Can boat owners be cited for their passengers’ fishing violations?

Question: I'm a small recreational boat owner (ocean fishing). If somebody on my boat violates any Fish and Wildlife laws (e.g. hook barb not completely removed for salmon fishing), am I liable in any way for this infraction?

What are my legal “game law” responsibilities for my boat guests? (John S.)

Answer: In ocean waters, boat limits apply to all persons on board. “All persons aboard a vessel may be cited where violations involving boat limits are found, including, but not limited to the following violations: A-Overlimits: B-Possession of prohibited species: C-Violation of size limits: D-Fish taken out of season or in closed areas” (California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 27.60). If the issue is illegal gear, the officer will try to determine which person was using it.

Hunting for small game with pellet guns

Question: I am 21 years old and am wondering if I need a license or any type of permit to carry an air rifle? Do I need a permit or license to hunt small game or for target shooting?

To be honest, I don't like real guns. I just want to go target shooting with my dad and maybe some hunting for small game with my friends. I plan to go camping this summer with some friends to celebrate my 22nd birthday.

It would be great to know what the laws are regarding carrying and hunting with pellet guns. Can you please let me know? (Adeh M.)

Answer: You may use a pellet gun for target practice in areas where shooting is allowed. This includes gun ranges, some public lands (e.g. Forest Service or BLM), and private lands where you have permission to be.

Many cities and counties do not prohibit the use of pellet guns but you should check in with the local sheriff’s department to be sure.

Resident small game mammals and birds may be taken with air rifles if you first obtain a California hunting license.

In order to get a hunting license, you must first pass a Hunter Education course. Some species like upland game birds require an upland game bird validation on your license.

After obtaining a hunting license, you will need to become familiar with the laws and regulations pertaining to small game hunting.

These regulations are contained in the current Waterfowl and Upland Game Hunting Regulation booklet. The regulations pertaining to the take of small game regulations begin on page 26.

A summary of these regulations can also be found on our Web site.

Carrie Wilson is a marine environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While she cannot personally answer everyone’s questions, she will select a few to answer each week in this column. Please contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Lower Lake, Calif -- The Lake county sheriff's office reports the following Konocti Unified School District schools will be closed on Monday, August 15, 2016.

Due to fire activity Lower Lake High, Lower Lake Elementary, Carle, Konocti Education Center, Burns Valley, Pomona, East Lake and Clearlake Crea

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Control this week has a group of primarily big dogs ready for adoption.

The dogs available this include mixes of American Bulldog, German Shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, pit bull and shepherd.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

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

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

3ljpitdog

'LJ'

“LJ” is a female pit bull terrier and pug mix with a short red and brown coat with white markings.

She's in kennel No. 3, ID No. 5561.

5bwfemalepit

Pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix has a short black and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 5, ID No. 5378.

6bingo

'Bingo'

“Bingo” is a female adult pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short buff coat and already is spayed, so her adoption fee will be lower.

She's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 5249.

9mayamericanbulldog

'May'

“May” is a female American Bulldog mix.

She has a short black and white coat.

Shelter staff said she allows handling of her ears, mouth, paws, and tail with ease. She did fine in the cat room, and takes treats very gently.

She's in kennel No. 9, ID No. 5446.

11tricolorhound

Female hound

This female hound has a short tricolor coat.

She's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 5616.

13graymalepit

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short brown brindle coat.

He's in kennel No. 13, ID No. 5619.

14pitbullpup

Female pit bull terrier puppy

This female pit bull terrier puppy has a short brindle and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 14, ID No. 5612.

15bluefemalepit

Pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix has a short blue and white coat.

Shelter staff said she is very sweet and just wants attention.

She's in kennel No. 15, ID No. 5456.

17maleshepherdmix

Male shepherd mix

This male German Shepherd mix has a short tan and black coat.

Like his kennel mate, he's friendly and calm.

He's in kennel No. 17, ID No. 5392.

22brownfawnpit

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short brown coat.

He's in kennel No. 22, ID No. 5601.

23shelbyshepherd

'Shelby'

“Shelby” is a female shepherd mix with a short black and tan coat.

She's in kennel No. 23, ID No. 5602.

24stormdog

'Storm'

“Storm” is a female pit bull terrier mix with a brown and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 24, ID No. 5363.

26roadie

'Roadie'

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

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

29femalegreatpyrenees

Female Great Pyrenees

This female Great Pyrenees has a long white coat.

Shelter staff said she is very sweet but needs socialization.

She's in kennel No. 29, ID No. 5614.

33greatpyrenees

Female Great Pyrenees

This female Great Pyrenees has a long white coat.

Like the other Great Pyrenees in the shelter – which she came in with, staff said – she has a nice temperament but has been undersocialized.

She's in kennel No. 33, ID No. 5613.

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

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

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

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

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

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Firefighters from around Lake County and from Cal Fire are battling a fast-moving wildland fire near Lower Lake.

The Clayton fire was first reported just before 5 p.m. Saturday in the area of Clayton Creek Road and Highway 29.

The fire rapidly spread from the 100-foot by 100-foot arriving units found to more than 10 acres 20 minutes later. As of just before 5:45 p.m., the fire was estimated to be between 50 and 60 acres, according to radio reports.

By 7:30 p.m., the fire was estimated to have grown to between 400 and 450 acres, with 15-percent containment and 200 structures threatened.

Lake County Fire and Cal Fire units were among the first to respond, and issued a call for an in-county strike team from fire districts around the county.

Incident command reported concerns about the fire's growth should the evening winds pick up in the area.

Cal Fire's Copter 104 quickly arrived on scene, with radio reports stating that air attack and tankers were on the way and more were being requested.

The California Highway Patrol reported that the sheriff's office had requested Clayton Creek Road be shut down at Highway 29 at 5:10 p.m. due to the fire.

Structures were reported to be threatened in the fire area, with incident command requesting sheriff's deputies begin evacuations in the Ellen Springs Drive area just before 5:15 p.m.

The sheriff's office subsequently reported that residents on Clayton Creek Road and Ellen Springs Drive were being ordered to evacuate, with a shelter being established at Twin Pine Casino in Middletown.

Pacific Gas and Electric also has been requested to shut off power in the fire area. It later reported that more than 1,300 customers were without power.

Cal Fire incident command indicated another 15 engines plus additional air resources were being dispatched.

Incident command also put out the call for another immediate need strike team, this time from Mendocino County, to help with structure protection.

Just before 6:15 p.m., the sheriff's office ordered residents to immediately evacuate Spruce Grove Road North to Old Spruce Grove Road in Middletown and the Lower Lake area.

Minutes later, the sheriff's office said evacuations in Lower Lake were in effect for Cantwell Ranch Road, Morgan Valley Road, Riata Road, Teklas Road Hale, Daly Hill, Teklas, Spruce Grove Road to Noble Ranch Road and Ellen Springs.

The sheriff's office said Middletown High School declined to open its facility for evacuees – likely due to the recent start of school – so evacuated residents were being directed to respond to the Highlands Senior Center on Bowers Avenue in Clearlake.

Additional details will be posted as they become available.

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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