CLEARLAKE, Calif. – It's a kitty cat takeover at Clearlake Animal Control this week.

The shelter has a growing offering of cats and kittens, plus several dogs.

This week's featured dogs include mixes of Chihuahua and American Staffordshire Terrier. The available cats come in a variety of ages, sizes and coat types.

To meet the animals, contact Marcia Taylor, the animal control outreach technician, at 707-994-8201, Extension 103, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or contact Animal Control Officer Jenna Tuller at Extension 115 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. those same days or leave a message on Fridays or weekends.

Also follow Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook for the latest updates.

Below are this week's available pets.

Litters of kittens

These litters of kittens feature all different colors, with both males and females to choose from. Shelter staff said they are very tame and lovable, plus playful and entertaining.

They are feline leukemia negative.

'Flannel'

“Flannel” is a young male domestic short hair mix with a gray coat.

Shelter staff anticipate that he would make an excellent mouser.

'Kikie'

“Kikie” is a female domestic short hair mix with a gray coat.

Shelter staff said Kikie was rescued from a very bad situation.

Despite that, she loves everyone, and would make a great addition to any family, staff said.

She also is house trained.

'Little Man'

“Little Man” is a male domestic short hair mix with a tabby coat.

“Little Man has a truly sad story. He deserves to know what it's like to have a real home with food and water available at all times,” according to shelter staff.

He is house trained and ready for a new family.

'Monkey'

“Monkey” is a domestic short hair mix kitten with a gray tabby and white coat.

“Monkey truly lives up to his name while 'hanging' out in his crate. He is starving for attention but doesn't cry about it,” shelter staff said.

He's also reported to be very fun and entertaining. He wants to play with all the big dogs at the shelter and gets covered in dog drool.

He's good with anyone and all other animals, staff said.

'Nala'

“Nala” is a young American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short white coat and brown markings.

Shelter staff describe Nala as a sweet little girl who needs someone to love her.

She already is spayed and microchipped, and ready to join her new family.

'Nina'

“Nina” is a little female Chihuahua mix with a short black and white coat.

She is spayed, microchipped, house trained and up-to-date on her shots.

Shelter staff said she is shy and not child-friendly.

'Nutmeg'

“Nutmeg” is a 5-month-old American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a brown brindle coat and white markings.

She is reported to get along with other dogs and with cats.

“She is a sweet baby looking for her forever home,” said shelter staff.

'Toca'

“Toca” is a neutered male senior looking for his forever lap.

Toca is a Chihuahua mix with a tan and white coat.

He is good with other dogs, cats and loves everybody. He's neutered and house trained.

The staff said there isn't a mean bone in his body.

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.

LUCERNE, Calif. – A Monday afternoon fire destroyed a singlewide mobile home in a Lucerne park.

The fire at Lorraine Village on Highway 20 was first reported at around 3 p.m., according to scanner reports.

Northshore Fire responded, with Cal Fire and the US Forest Service also dispatched to assist, reports from the scene indicated.

The arriving units reported there were live power lines down, which was hampering their efforts to fight the fire. Pacific Gas and Electric was requested to respond.

There had been concerns the fire could spread to nearby wildland, but reports from the scene indicated that the quick arrival of firefighters prevented it from moving beyond the mobile home park.

Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos reported just before 3:30 p.m. that the fire was under control.

Due to a breached and failed meter, Beristianos reported over the air that the main propane supply to the park needed to be temporarily shut off while repairs were made, with the propane company called and asked to respond to the scene.

Beristianos told Lake County News that the mobile home, which had an addition, was destroyed in the fire.

He said a neighboring home sustained damage to its swamp cooler and siding, and had broken windows as a result of the fire.

The owner of the home that was destroyed was in a back bedroom at the time the fire began and escaped uninjured. Beristianos said a working smoke detector would have alerted the resident sooner.

The resident and two cats were displaced and are being assisted by Red Cross, Beristianos said.

Total resources on scene included seven engines, one medic unit, two command personnel, two support vehicles and a total of 24 personnel, Beristianos said.

Beristianos said the fire's cause is 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.

With water conservation falling to 21.5 percent savings in June – down from 27.5 percent a year ago – the State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday announced that it is closely monitoring conservation levels, will scrutinize actions by water suppliers where use has risen dramatically and is carefully reviewing the "stress tests" to ensure that water supply reliability claims are complete and accurate.

"Californians have continued to conserve without top down mandates, but the question is whether we can save enough and keep it up for the long haul,” said State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus. “While last winter’s rains allowed us to ease state mandated conservation, that didn’t mean the drought was over or that local conservation efforts should stop – and we’re looking carefully at the data to see what’s happening where, and why."

Cumulatively, local water suppliers have saved 1.75 million acre feet in the 13 months since mandatory conservation goals began – enough water to supply 8.8 million people for a year. The cumulative average savings June 2015-June 2016 is 24.2 percent.

Although new regulations that took effect in June give local water suppliers more autonomy to set their own conservation goals based on local supply conditions, the State Water Board has maintained since mid-2014 that it expects suppliers to continue emphasizing water conservation to their customers as a top priority as California enters the summer months, when the opportunity for water savings is greatest.

While local water suppliers may have relaxed water use restrictions that were in place last summer – the statewide prohibitions, from operation of fountains without recirculating pumps, to irrigation of turf in street medians, remain in place.

“Conservation should be the California way of life," said Marcus. "Some relaxation of conservation in light of the relief we got last winter and other supply conditions is appropriate and expected; abandonment of conservation is not. Saving water now extends local water supplies into an uncertain future, and saves money in the long term on the need to develop additional supplies. In particular, the summer months are the time it’s easiest to save by reducing outdoor irrigation to the minimum needed to water trees and shrubs while letting our lawns go the color of the surrounding hillsides.”

June conservation data

· Statewide water savings for June 2016 was 21.5 percent (143,130 acre feet or 46.6 billion gallons), a decrease from May 2016’s 28.1 percent savings, and also a decrease from June 2015’s 27.5 percent statewide savings (60.6 billion gallons).

· Cumulative statewide percent reduction for June 2015 – June 2016 (13 months) is 24.2 percent, which equates to 1,752,918 acre-feet (571.2 billion gallons).

· Statewide average R-GPCD for June 2016 was 104.9 gallons; (an 18 percent increase) up from 86.7 R-GPCD in May 2016 and also above 98.1 R-GPCD reported for June 2015. All June data can be found on this page.

Revised emergency regulations

Starting in June, the State Water Board’s recently updated emergency water conservation regulations give urban water agencies the ability to set their own conservation standards based on a “stress test” of supply reliability.

Water suppliers must demonstrate that they have sufficient supplies to withstand three years of continuous drought or take additional measures that include mandatory conservation targets. The regulation is in effect through January 2017.

The deadline to submit the “stress test” results and three-year resiliency plans was June 22. While most urban water suppliers and wholesale water providers have submitted materials, the State Water Board staff is following up with a number of suppliers whose submissions appear inaccurate, incomplete, or unclear.

Once all of the submissions have been received and are complete, the State Water Board will make them publicly available.

While water suppliers may calculate lower conservation targets for purposes of state enforcement, the State Water Board expects that they will continue to promote and achieve water conservation at the local level and enforce prohibitions on wasting water first enacted in July 2014.

The board expectation is that all water suppliers will continue encouraging their customers to conserve, even if they pass their “stress test” and demonstrate that they will have sufficient water after three additional dry years.

Moreover, the board is prepared to come back in early 2017 to reimpose new mandatory water restrictions if needed.

Permanent ban on wasting water

The recently adopted regulation is part of a wider effort to build on short-term, emergency water restrictions to establish permanent conservation measures that improve long-term drought preparedness and eliminate the worst water-wasting practices.

Officials said these actions will help achieve a top priority of the state’s Water Action Plan: to “Make Conservation a California Way of Life.”

In May, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued an executive order calling for new permanent water use efficiency targets for each urban water supplier and for strengthening local Water Shortage Contingency Plans.

The local “stress test” data and three-year resiliency plans collected by the State Water Board will serve as a bridge to these actions and inform the development of new water use efficiency targets.

The State Water Board regulation also continues the statewide ban on specific wasteful uses, such as hosing off sidewalks, driveways and other hardscapes; washing cars with hoses not equipped with a shut-off nozzle; and watering lawns in a manner that causes runoff.

Prohibitions also remain against homeowners associations or local governments taking action against homeowners who reduce or stop watering lawns. As directed by the executive order, the State Water Board will be making these prohibitions permanent.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – The four people who died in a Friday crash in Humboldt County involving a REACH medical transport plane have been identified.

The Humboldt County Coroner's Office on Monday said the four crash victims were Crescent City residents Larry Mills, 54; Deborah Kroon, 49; Michelle Tarwater, 30; and April Rodriquez, 35.

REACH Air Medical Services said Mills was the plane's pilot, while Kroon was the flight nurse and Tarwater was a certified flight paramedic. Rodriguez was a patient they were taking to Oakland.

The four died early Friday morning while en route from the REACH Air Medical Services and Cal-Ore Life Flight base at Crescent City Airport to Oakland International Airport aboard a twin-engine Piper PA31.

Early into the flight, Mills declared an emergency due to smoke in the cockpit and said he was going to return to Crescent City. Communication was lost with the plane minutes later when it disappeared off radar northeast of Arcata, REACH said.

A search that took place over the course of Friday found the crash site north of McKinleyville at around 10 a.m. By Friday night, the bodies of all four had been recovered, authorities said.

Mills was a devoted father and husband with more than 20 years of flying experience. He'd been a volunteer first responder for 12 years and had been with Cal-Ore since April.

Kroon came to the United States from New Zealand and had spent 25 years as a critical care nurse, working in hospitals across the country. She had joined Cal-Ore in October 2014.

Tarwater, who had been with Cal-Ore since 2011, was the first in the region to receive National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians-Paramedic certification.

“Due to privacy concerns for the family, the company cannot share any information about the patient at this time,” REACH said in its statement.

The cause of the crash remained unknown on Monday.

The National Transportation Safety Board was on scene investigating the accident, with a preliminary report expected in 10 to 14 days.

“We all have the same questions, but until we have factual reports from the NTSB, there is nothing more we can share,” said REACH President Sean Russell.

REACH said a memorial procession and service for Mills, Kroon and Tarwater will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 3.

The procession will begin at noon that day and will lead from the Crescent City Fire Department to Brookings, Ore.

The services will be held at the band shell in Azalea Park in Brookings. Seating will begin at 1 p.m. due to the anticipated large turnout, with the service at 3 p.m. Additional details are available at http://reachair.com/news-events/ .

On Monday, state Sen. Mike McGuire tweeted a picture from the floor of the State Senate when a motion was passed to adjourn in honor of the four crash victims.

REACH has bases throughout Northern California, including one in Lakeport.

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.

Remembering 3 brave members of the Cal-Ore flight crew - along w/ patient - who passed away in the #Humboldt crash. pic.twitter.com/7FamGpymc3

— Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) August 2, 2016

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Warm water, lack of oxygen and a heavy biomass load in Clear Lake are among the factors that local and state officials believe are behind a fish die-off in the Lakeport area that occurred over the weekend.

Melanie Pressley, who lives on the lake in the north Lakeport area, said the lake looked good on Saturday night, but when she got up Sunday, she saw hundreds of dead fish on the water.

She said there was a wide variety of fish involved in the die-off – “big, small, medium, anything in between.”

Pressley said that in the 10 years she has lived at her current residence in Lakeport, she's never seen such a die-off, although they're not uncommon on the lake.

“I've heard of it, I've never seen it in a big mass like this,” she said.

Carolyn Ruttan of Lake County Water Resources said she got a report of the die-off on Sunday. She confirmed Pressley's statement that all types of fish were involved.

The area where the die-off occurred starts at Berger Bay, which Ruttan said is the midpoint between north and south Lakeport on the eastern side of Clear Lake, and moves south along the southern part of the lake's upper arm.

“In my opinion, it's low oxygen,” Ruttan said of the die-off's cause.

Ruttan explained that it's fairly common for such die-offs to occur in the summer when oxygen levels drop, “especially in those coves and little nooks and crannies around our lake where there's very little water movement.”

She said there was another die-off two to three weeks ago in Cache Creek.

Warm water can't hold as much dissolved oxygen as cold water, which is why fish dive down deeper, looking for cooler temperatures, Ruttan said.

In such cases, she said boats on the lake help with moving the water and improving conditions.

Pressley said she emailed the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which sent out a representative on Monday afternoon to visit with her.

She said the Fish and Wildlife staffer also raised the issues of low oxygen levels and heat.

“They're looking into other things as well,” she said.

Ruttan said another factor is that a cyanobacteria bloom is going on. She said it is prevalent in the Oaks and lower arms and most of the upper arm, even in the middle of the upper arm.

“This particular cyanobacteria has been blooming off and on since May,” she said.

Ruttan said the cyanobacteria bloom creates oxygen but also uses that oxygen at night.

The progress of decomposition also requires oxygen, Ruttan said.

“The amount of biomass in our lake right now is enormous,” and much of it is due to that cyanobacteria bloom, Ruttan said.

Some fish in the lake that were introduced and not native – such as threadfin shad – suffer terribly from big temperature and oxygen swings, Ruttan said. In past years there have at times been large threadfin shad die-offs on the lake.

She noted that the bass is one of the most robust fish, although it relies on threadfin shad as a food sources.

Ruttan said often it's the larger, older fish that get hit the hardest by low oxygen conditions.

“Seniors are not as able to grab as much oxygen,” she said, explaining that their gills don't work as well, and because they're already compromised they just succumb.

Pressley said there is still a big mass of dead fish by her home.

However, she said a group of vultures and pelicans – which she and her family are jokingly calling the “Lakeport cleanup crew” – are doing their part to disperse the fish by eating them.

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.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Updates to the city's zoning ordinances will be the main agenda topic for the Clearlake Planning Commission's meeting this week.

The Clearlake Planning Commission will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

The commission will host a public workshop on the city's zoning interpretation and procedures manual.

Gary Price, the city's contract planner, explains in his report to the commission that the city is in the process of conducting a comprehensive update to its zoning code, which he said has many conflicts and internal inconsistencies “that have caused it to be difficult to understand and administer.”

Since April, city staff has developed the zoning interpretation and procedures manual which is meant to provide a mechanism for staff to develop consistent interpretations of the code on an as-needed basis, provide consistent procedures for administering the code and provide an understanding to staff and the zoning code update team of how to best develop the new code based on the city's organizational and resource needs, according to Price.

On Tuesday the commission will review the evolving manual “to understand what interpretations and procedures have been developed” during the city's planning program since April, Price said.

He said staff appreciates any comments and suggestions the commission will have on the manual.

“Also, as the Manual evolves and grows over the next six months, staff would anticipate returning to the Commission for another workshop or study session to continue this overview of staff's work,” Price said.

The meeting is open to the public, and community input on the manual is welcome.

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.