LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors will hear presentations this week on the latest regarding the effort to create a new sheriff’s headquarters at the former armory and the update of the general plan.

The‌ ‌board will meet beginning ‌at‌ ‌9‌ ‌a.m. Tuesday, March 26, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The‌ ‌meeting‌ ‌can‌ ‌be‌ ‌watched‌ ‌live‌ ‌on‌ ‌Channel‌ ‌8, ‌online‌ ‌at‌ ‌https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx‌‌ and‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌county’s‌ ‌Facebook‌ ‌page. ‌ Accompanying‌ ‌board‌ ‌documents, ‌the‌ ‌agenda‌ ‌and‌ ‌archived‌ ‌board‌ ‌meeting‌ ‌videos‌ ‌also‌ ‌are‌ ‌available‌ ‌at‌ ‌that‌ ‌link. ‌ ‌

To‌ ‌participate‌ ‌in‌ ‌real-time, ‌join‌ ‌the‌ ‌Zoom‌ ‌meeting‌ ‌by‌ ‌clicking‌ ‌this‌ ‌link‌. ‌ ‌

The‌ ‌meeting‌ ‌ID‌ ‌is‌ 898 5454 2089, ‌pass code 874486.‌ ‌The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16699006833,,89854542089#,,,,*874486#. The meeting can also be accessed via phone at 669 900 6833.

At 10:30 a.m., Public Services Director Lars Ewing is scheduled to give the board an update on the project to transform the former Lakeport Armory into the new headquarters of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

The county acquired the property, next to the Lake County Jail campus, as part of a property swap with the state of California.

Ewing’s memo to the board explains that the preliminary construction cost estimate for the armory is approximately $20 million, and there isn’t a source of funding for the project that’s so far been identified.

“Built infrastructure project designs such as the armory run the risk of becoming outdated or even obsolete as more time passes from the completion of design to construction. Consequently, even though the project is fully funded through design, the decision to advance the project to 100% design requires your Board’s input,” Ewing wrote.

In addition to asking the board to decide on the next steps in the project, Ewing will seek the board’s approval for a second amendment between the county and Dewberry Architects Inc. for architectural engineering design services.

At 2 p.m., the board will receive a presentation from planning staff on an overview of "Lake County 2050," which is the update of the county’s general plan and local area plans updates.

The full agenda follows.

CONSENT AGENDA

5.1: Adopt proclamation designating the month of March 2024 as Women’s History Month in Lake County.

5.2: Second reading of an ordinance amending the purchasing ordinance: Article X of Chapter Two of the Lake County Code to include increased purchasing limits, additional definitions, modify requirements for exemptions from competitive bidding and additional procedures for informal and formal bidding.

5.3: Approve addition to the appendices of the Lake County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP - 2023) to include Appendix G: Communities At Risk (CAR) Designations.

5.4: Approve resolution authorizing the amendment to the standard agreement between county of Lake and the Department of Health Care Services for the period of July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2027 and authorizing the Behavioral Health director to sign the amendment.

5.5: Approve Amendment No. 1 to the agreement between county of Lake and I.D.E.A. for consulting for professional consulting services in the amount of $50,000 for fiscal year 2023-2024 and authorize the chair to sign.

5.6: Approve Board of Supervisors minutes for March 19, 2024.

5.7: (A) Approve the purchase of 5 Motorola radios from the Sheriff/OES budget 2704, object code 62.74 and (B) Authorize the Sheriff to issue a purchase order to Command Communications in an amount not to exceed $45,000.

5.8: (a) Approve amendment 12 to agreement between the county of Lake and Sun Ridge Systems Inc for the purchase and installation of Mindbase Link software interface in the amount of $5,350; and (b) authorize the chair of the board to sign.

5.9: (a) Waive the formal bidding process pursuant to Lake County Code Section 2-38.2 as competitive bidding would produce no economic benefit to the county; (b) approve agreement between county of Lake and Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP pursuant to state of California Master Agreement 2018-18, and authorize the chair to sign.

5.10: Sitting as the Board of Directors for the Lake County Watershed Protection District, approve Amendment 2-A to the agreement between the Lake County Watershed Protection District and Monument Inc. for appraisal and acquisition services for the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project and authorize the chair of the board of directors to sign the agreement.

TIMED ITEMS

6.2, 9:03 a.m.: Pet of the Week.

6.3, 9:05 a.m.: Sitting as the Lake County Housing Commission, consideration of the Lake County Housing Commission Housing Choice Voucher Program Administrative Plan for 2024 and Five-Year Plan for 2024 - 2029 and Signing of HUD Forms HUD-50077-CR, HUD-50077-SL, and HUD-5075-5Y.

6.4, 9:07 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of March 2024 as Women’s History Month in Lake County.

6.5, 9:15 a.m.: Presentation of the semi-annual Employee Service Awards for the county of Lake to recognize years of service.

6.6, 10 a.m.: Continued from March 19, public hearing — (a) Consideration of resolution approving an application for funding and the execution of a grant agreement and any amendments thereto from the 2023-2024 Funding Year of the State CDBG Mitigation Resilience Infrastructure (MIT-RIP) Program; and (b) authorize the county administrative officer or designee to submit the grant application.

6.7, 10:30 a.m.: a) Consideration of update on Armory Repurposing project and provide direction to staff for next steps; and b) consideration of amendment two to the agreement between the county of Lake and Dewberry Architects Inc., for Architectural Engineering Design Services.

6.8, 11:15 a.m.: Hearing on account and proposed assessment for 7129 E State Hwy 20, Lucerne CA (APN 006-023-02).

6.9, 11:30 a.m.: Hearing on account and proposed assessment for 7119 E State Hwy 20, Lucerne CA (APN 006-023-01).

6.10, 1:30 p.m.: Presentation and update on the current status of the Hydrilla Eradication Program activities for the Clear Lake area.

6.11, 2 p.m.: Presentation of overview of "Lake County 2050" General Plan and local area plans updates.

UNTIMED ITEMS

7.2: Consideration of letter of support for congressionally directed spending request for Adventist Health.

7.3: Consideration of agreement between county of Lake and BHC Sierra Vista Hospital Inc. for acute inpatient psychiatric hospital services and professional services associated with acute inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations in the amount of $100,000 for fiscal year 2023-24.

7.4: Consideration of Amendment No. 2 to the agreement between county of Lake and North Valley Behavioral Health LLC for acute inpatient psychiatric hospital services and professional services associated with acute inpatient psychiatric hospitalization in the amount of $750,000 for fiscal year 2023-2024.

7.5: Consideration of Amendment No. 1 to the agreement between county of Lake and Sutter Center for psychiatry for acute inpatient psychiatric hospital services and professional services associated with acute inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations in the amount of $225,000 for fiscal year 2023-24.

7.6: Consideration of Amendment No. 1 to the agreement between the county of Lake and Vista Pacifica Enterprises Inc. for adult residential support services and specialty mental health services in the amount of $300,000.00 for fiscal year 2023-2024.

7.7: Consideration of Amendment No. 1 to the agreement between county of Lake and California Psychiatric Transitions for acute inpatient psychiatric hospital services, inpatient competency restoration services and professional services associated with acute inpatient psychiatric hospitalization in the amount of $250,000 for fiscal year 2023-24.

7.8: Consideration of Amendment No. 1 to the Agreement between County of Lake and Crisis Support Services of Alameda County for after hours crisis support services in the amount of $89,400 for fiscal year 2023-24 and authorize the chair to sign.

7.9: Consideration of appointments to the General Plan Advisory Committee.

7.10: Consideration of the distribution of excess proceeds in the amount of $1,346,589.30 from Tax Defaulted Tax Sale #160 held May 27, 2022 (per R&T §4675).

CLOSED SESSION

8.1: Public employee evaluation: Public Works director.

8.2: Public employee evaluation: Registrar of Voters.

8.3: Conference with legal counsel: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code section 54956.9(d)(2), (e)(1) – One potential case.

8.4: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9 (d)(1) – CPUC Application 22-09-018, Application of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Pacific Generation LLC (U 39 E).

8.5: Conference with legal counsel: Existing Litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9 (d)(1) – CPUC Application 21-06-021, Application of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (U39M).

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

More U.S. counties experienced population gains than losses in 2023, as counties in the South saw faster growth and more Northeast and Midwest counties had population losses turn to gains, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2023 estimates of population and components of change.

Approximately 60% (1,876) of U.S. counties gained population from 2022 to 2023, an increase from the 52% of counties (1,649) that experienced population growth between 2021 and 2022.

Among the nation's 3,144 counties, the average change from 2022 to 2023 was 0.29%, up from 0.17% the previous year.

For Lake County, the report showed that the population decreased by as much as 1.5%.

All of Lake’s neighboring counties also had decreases, with the exception of Colusa, which grew up to 1.5%.

“Domestic migration patterns are changing, and the impact on counties is especially evident,” said Lauren Bowers, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch. “Areas which experienced high levels of domestic out-migration during the pandemic, such as in the Midwest and Northeast, are now seeing more counties with population growth. Meanwhile, county population growth is slowing down out west, such as in Arizona and Idaho.”

This was the first time since 2020 that more counties in the Midwest had population gains (542) than losses (513), narrowing the average annual change among the region's 1,055 counties to a loss of 0.02% from a loss of 0.09% a year earlier.

While the Northeast still had more counties losing (113) than gaining (105) population in 2023, population loss among its counties moderated compared to the previous year. The average annual change among the region's 218 counties slowed from -0.24% to -0.07% in 2023. The number of counties with population increases rose from 83 in 2022 to 105 in 2023.

On average, counties in the South experienced faster growth in 2023 than in 2022. Among its 1,422 counties, the average annual change was 0.56%, up from 0.31% the prior year. Approximately 67% (950) of the counties in the region experienced population gains in 2023, up from 59% (836) in 2022.

The West, whose average population change ranked highest among the four regions in 2022, fell behind the South in 2023. The average annual change among the region's 449 counties slowed from 0.51% to 0.34%.

On average, large and moderate-sized counties grew while small counties got smaller. Among the 618 counties with populations over 100,000, the average change from 2022 to 2023 was 0.76%. Moderate-sized counties with populations between 10,000 and 100,000 grew 0.36% on average.

Conversely, among the 741 smallest counties in the nation, those with populations below 10,000, the average annual decrease was 0.27% in 2023 compared to 0.35% the previous year.

Components of change

Sixty-two percent of counties, up from 60% in 2022, experienced positive net domestic migration in 2023. In addition, net domestic migration generally moderated among some of the counties with the largest amounts of net domestic in-migration and out-migration in 2022. The 10 counties with the largest net domestic in-migration were mostly in the South. In contrast, the top 10 counties with largest net domestic out-migration were mostly in large metro areas, with some experiencing considerably less net domestic out-migration in 2023 than in 2022.

The number of counties with positive net domestic migration increased in all regions except the West, where 253 counties experienced positive domestic migration in 2023, down from 275 counties in 2022. The Northeast saw the largest increase in the share of counties with positive domestic migration from 44% in 2022 to 52% in 2023. The number of southern counties with positive rates of domestic migration increased from 957 in 2022 to 1,014 in 2023, while the number of those counties in the Midwest increased from 561 to 581.

Eighty percent (2,515) of U.S. counties had positive net international migration in 2023. Miami-Dade County, Florida (54,457), and Harris County, Texas (41,665), had the largest gains from net international migration. All counties in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island experienced positive net international migration.

As the nation's death rate declined in 2023, so did the frequency of natural decrease. Deaths outnumbered births in fewer counties: 2,171 or 69% experienced natural decrease, down from 2,337 (74.3%) in 2022.

Just over 70% of counties in the Northeast, South and Midwest regions had natural decrease. The West was the region with the lowest share, 241 (53.7%) of its 449 counties experiencing natural decrease in 2023.

Maine was the only state where all counties experienced natural decrease. Other states where a majority of counties had natural decrease were Alabama (55 of 67); Arkansas (66 of 75); Illinois (86 of 102); Kentucky (100 of 120); Michigan (73 of 83); Ohio (71 of 88); Pennsylvania (57 of 67); and Tennessee (82 of 95).

Five Florida counties led the nation in natural decrease: Pinellas (4,945); Sarasota (3,399); Brevard (3,044); Volusia (3,003); and Marion (2,480).

Births outnumbered deaths in 961 counties (31%) in 2023, led by Alaska (with 25 of 30 counties) and New Jersey (with 17 of 21).

Nationally, the counties with the highest levels of natural increase in 2023 were Harris County, Texas (34,695); Los Angeles County, California (22,216); Dallas County, Texas (19,550); Kings County, New York (14,174); and Tarrant County, Texas (13,010).

Among counties with a population of 20,000 or more, the 10 fastest-growing were in the South—six in Texas (Kaufman, 7.6%; Rockwall, 6.5%; Liberty, 5.7%; Chambers, 5.0%; Comal, 5.0%; Ellis, 4.9%); two in Georgia (Jackson, 5.5%; Dawson, 5.1%); and one each in South Carolina (Jasper, 4.9%) and Virginia (New Kent, 4.7%).

Of the counties with populations above 20,000, Lassen County, California, experienced the biggest (3.9%) decrease in 2023. Randolph County, Missouri, followed with a loss of 2.1%. Population in Bronx County, New York, continued to decline, dropping by 1.8% in 2023 after dropping 3.0% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2021.

Eight of the 10 counties that led the nation by numeric change in 2023 were in Texas. This included Harris County, which added 53,788 residents and was the largest-gaining county in the nation, followed by Collin County (36,364) and Montgomery County (31,800).

Maricopa County, Arizona, the largest-gaining county in the nation in 2022, dropped to fourth in 2023 with a gain of just over 30,000 residents. Polk County, Florida, ranked fifth after adding 29,948 residents.

The remaining top five population gainers were all in Texas: Denton (29,943); Fort Bend (27,859); Bexar (27,488); Tarrant (27,301); and Williamson (24,918). Denton County gained nearly 30,000 new residents, pushing its population to just over 1 million and making it the seventh Texas county to reach this milestone.

Los Angeles County, California, had the highest numeric population decline of 56,420 in 2023, compared to a loss of 89,697 people in 2022. Both drops stemmed from negative domestic migration. Kings, Queens, and Bronx counties in New York followed with population losses of 28,306; 26,362; and 25,332, respectively.

Among other large declines were Cook County, Illinois, which lost 24,494 people; Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (-16,294); and Orange County, California (-14,617).

 

Some say there are two types of concrete – cracked and on the brink of cracking. But what if when concrete cracked, it could heal itself?

We’re part of a team of materials scientists and microbiologists that has harnessed the power of bacteria to create biological fibers that initial results suggest can heal cracks in concrete. We’re working on a technology that, if we work out the kinks and manage to bring it to the market one day, could extend the life span of concrete.

Cracking concrete

Picture a bridge exposed to snow, rain, temperature changes and trucks carrying heavy loads. The concrete on the bridge will gradually develop cracks from stress and wear. Over time, these cracks expand, allowing water and corrosive substances that weaken the concrete to penetrate further down.

At some point, local authorities have to pay for repairs, which are not only expensive but also disrupt traffic and drain public resources.

Now, consider a medical patient recovering from a severe injury. As the patient’s cells recognize the damage, they release tiny healing agents – like microscopic repair crews. These agents target the wounded area, mending tissues and restoring the cells’ functionality. What if concrete had the same kind of self-healing ability as human tissue?

A self-healing concrete

Our team at the Advanced Infrastructure Materials lab at Drexel University was inspired by self-healing tissue in the human body. We developed an addition to concrete we call BioFiber.

BioFiber has three essential functions: It heals itself on its own, it stops cracks from growing wider, and it remains intact inside the concrete when there aren’t any cracks.

Each BioFiber has three key components: a tough core fiber made of a polymer called polyvinyl alcohol, a porous layer of hydrogel infused with Lysinibacillus sphaericus bacteria, and a damage-responsive outer shell. When cracks hit the BioFiber, its outer shell breaks and releases the bacteria into the crack, which starts the self-healing process.

The strong core fibers in BioFiber bridge the cracks and stop them from growing wider during the healing process.

Surrounding the core fiber, the hydrogel layer is made up of a mesh of polymer chains at the molecular level that attract water. Their spongelike structure can absorb and hold large volumes of water. During the production process, we add calcium to help the hydrogel solidify.

The hydrogel itself is made up of a natural polymer found in seaweed called alginate, which has special properties that allow it to trap bacteria. Alginate isn’t toxic and is even safe for biomedical applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering.

The hydrogel houses endospores, which are dormant bacteria. Once the outer shell cracks and the endospores are awakened from their dormant state, they facilitate the self-healing.

Activating BioFiber

The endospores need water to activate. Luckily, the middle hydrogel layer absorbs water well. When the concrete cracks, and water from rain, humidity or street runoff seeps in, the spores wake up.

The spores ingest carbon that we specifically add into the concrete mix, as well as calcium in the concrete itself. With these materials, the bacteria facilitates a chemical reaction called microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation, or MICCP. This reaction creates calcium carbonate crystals, which build up and fill in the cracks in the concrete.

The crystal shape varies, from sphere to needle-shaped, and each shape is strong enough to heal the cracks. We can alter the type of crystals the bacteria produces by changing the pH level, calcium source and type of bacteria.

Concrete acts like a solid, tough substance because it’s a mix of cement, sand, gravel and water. We toss the BioFibers into the mix and spread them out as the concrete is mixed, ensuring they’re evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

Once the self-healing process ends and the bacteria dies, the activated BioFiber is done – it can’t heal anymore. But since the concrete has many BioFibers distributed throughout, another fiber can mend the next crack. At the moment, we do not know how many cracks BioFiber concrete can heal, and we’re conducing more research to figure that out.

To feed the bacteria, we add the amount of food it needs to stay alive and heal the cracks, depending on how many cracks we anticipate them having to fix. When the bacteria runs out of food, the process stops. The bacteria can live for roughly a couple of weeks during the healing process.

While BioFiber shows initial promise, it does have shortcomings, which could make manufacturing it at a larger scale challenging. The manufacturing process and materials used are specialized and not always affordable and practical. While our first tests suggest that BioFiber extends the life span of concrete, we’ll need more testing, including field trials, to verify those early results.

We hope to eventually commercialize and manufacture the fibers at larger production scales, while in the meantime we continue to run tests and study how to improve BioFiber’s self-healing abilities. We’d like to one day get these fibers into roads and sidewalks to potentially prevent cracking in aging concrete.

Mohammad Houshmand, Ph.D. Candidate in Civil Engineering, Drexel University and Yaghoob Farnam, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Drexel University

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

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The city of Clearlake Recreation and Events Department will hold its second annual Bunny Brunch on Saturday, March 30.

The brunch will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Clearlake Youth Center, located at Redbud Park at 4750 Golf Ave.

The Bunny Brunch includes waffles, eggs and sausage, with juice or milk.

A special appearance by the Easter Bunny will be the highlight of the Bunny Brunch, followed by an egg hunt.

Purchase Bunny Brunch tickets through this Eventbrite link.

A limited number of tickets will also be available at the door (prices subject to slight increase).

The Recreation and Events Department also will be holding monthly Bingo Nights at the Youth Center on the second Saturday of every month (except December) with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.

For more information regarding other Youth Center events or other City sponsored events, please subscribe to the Recreation and Events calendar which can be found on the city of Clearlake website.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a new group of dogs waiting for adoption this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan husky, American blue heeler, Anatolian shepherd, Australian shepherd, border collie, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Labrador retriever, pit bull, Queensland heeler, Rottweiler, shepherd and terrier.

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.

Those dogs and the others shown on this page at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.

The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

 

With the arrival of spring in North America, many people are gravitating to the gardening and landscaping section of home improvement stores, where displays are overstocked with eye-catching seed packs and benches are filled with potted annuals and perennials.

But some plants that once thrived in your yard may not flourish there now. To understand why, look to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent update of its plant hardiness zone map, which has long helped gardeners and growers figure out which plants are most likely to thrive in a given location.

Comparing the 2023 map to the previous version from 2012 clearly shows that as climate change warms the Earth, plant hardiness zones are shifting northward. On average, the coldest days of winter in our current climate, based on temperature records from 1991 through 2020, are 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 Celsius) warmer than they were between 1976 and 2005.

In some areas, including the central Appalachians, northern New England and north central Idaho, winter temperatures have warmed by 1.5 hardiness zones – 15 degrees F (8.3 C) – over the same 30-year window. This warming changes the zones in which plants, whether annual or perennial, will ultimately succeed in a climate on the move.

As a plant pathologist, I have devoted my career to understanding and addressing plant health issues. Many stresses not only shorten the lives of plants, but also affect their growth and productivity.

I am also a gardener who has seen firsthand how warming temperatures, pests and disease affect my annual harvest. By understanding climate change impacts on plant communities, you can help your garden reach its full potential in a warming world.

Hotter summers, warmer winters

There’s no question that the temperature trend is upward. From 2014 through 2023, the world experienced the 10 hottest summers ever recorded in 174 years of climate data. Just a few months of sweltering, unrelenting heat can significantly affect plant health, especially cool-season garden crops like broccoli, carrots, radishes and kale.

Winters are also warming, and this matters for plants. The USDA defines plant hardiness zones based on the coldest average annual temperature in winter at a given location. Each zone represents a 10-degree F range, with zones numbered from 1 (coldest) to 13 (warmest). Zones are divided into 5-degree F half zones, which are lettered “a” (northern) or “b” (southern).

For example, the coldest hardiness zone in the lower 48 states on the new map, 3a, covers small pockets in the northernmost parts of Minnesota and has winter extreme temperatures of -40 F to -35 F. The warmest zone, 11b, is in Key West, Florida, where the coldest annual lows range from 45 F to 50 F.

On the 2012 map, northern Minnesota had a much more extensive and continuous zone 3a. North Dakota also had areas designated in this same zone, but those regions now have shifted completely into Canada. Zone 10b once covered the southern tip of mainland Florida, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, but has now been pushed northward by a rapidly encroaching zone 11a.

Many people buy seeds or seedlings without thinking about hardiness zones, planting dates or disease risks. But when plants have to contend with temperature shifts, heat stress and disease, they will eventually struggle to survive in areas where they once thrived.

Successful gardening is still possible, though. Here are some things to consider before you plant:

Annuals versus perennials

Hardiness zones matter far less for annual plants, which germinate, flower and die in a single growing season, than for perennial plants that last for several years. Annuals typically avoid the lethal winter temperatures that define plant hardiness zones.

In fact, most annual seed packs don’t even list the plants’ hardiness zones. Instead, they provide sowing date guidelines by geographic region. It’s still important to follow those dates, which help ensure that frost-tender crops are not planted too early and that cool-season crops are not harvested too late in the year.

User-friendly perennials have broad hardiness zones

Many perennials can grow across wide temperature ranges. For example, hardy fig and hardy kiwifruit grow well in zones 4-8, an area that includes most of the Northeast, Midwest and Plains states. Raspberries are hardy in zones 3-9, and blackberries are hardy in zones 5-9. This eliminates a lot of guesswork for most gardeners, since a majority of U.S. states are dominated by two or more of these zones.

Nevertheless, it’s important to pay attention to plant tags to avoid selecting a variety or cultivar with a restricted hardiness zone over another with greater flexibility. Also, pay attention to instructions about proper sun exposure and planting dates after the last frost in your area.

Fruit trees are sensitive to temperature fluctuations

Fruit trees have two parts, the rootstock and the scion wood, that are grafted together to form a single tree. Rootstocks, which consist mainly of a root system, determine the tree’s size, timing of flowering and tolerance of soil-dwelling pests and pathogens. Scion wood, which supports the flowers and fruit, determines the fruit variety.

Most commercially available fruit trees can tolerate a wide range of hardiness zones. However, stone fruits like peaches, plums and cherries are more sensitive to temperature fluctuations within those zones – particularly abrupt swings in winter temperatures that create unpredictable freeze-thaw events.

These seesaw weather episodes affect all types of fruit trees, but stone fruits appear to be more susceptible, possibly because they flower earlier in spring, have fewer hardy rootstock options, or have bark characteristics that make them more vulnerable to winter injury.

Perennial plants’ hardiness increases through the seasons in a process called hardening off, which conditions them for harsher temperatures, moisture loss in sun and wind, and full sun exposure. But a too-sudden autumn temperature drop can cause plants to die back in winter, an event known as winter kill. Similarly, a sudden spring temperature spike can lead to premature flowering and subsequent frost kill.

Pests are moving north too

Plants aren’t the only organisms constrained by temperature. With milder winters, southern insect pests and plant pathogens are expanding their ranges northward.

One example is Southern blight, a stem and root rot disease that affects 500 plant species and is caused by a fungus, Agroathelia rolfsii. It’s often thought of as affecting hot Southern gardens, but has become more commonplace recently in the Northeast U.S. on tomatoes, pumpkins and squash, and other crops, including apples in Pennsylvania.

Other plant pathogens may take advantage of milder winter temperatures, which leads to prolonged saturation of soils instead of freezing. Both plants and microbes are less active when soil is frozen, but in wet soil, microbes have an opportunity to colonize dormant perennial plant roots, leading to more disease.

It can be challenging to accept that climate change is stressing some of your garden favorites, but there are thousands of varieties of plants to suit both your interests and your hardiness zone. Growing plants is an opportunity to admire their flexibility and the features that enable many of them to thrive in a world of change.

Matt Kasson, Associate Professor of Mycology and Plant Pathology, West Virginia University

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

BERKELEY, Calif. — Texans have long endured scorching summer temperatures, so a global warming increase of about 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 Celsius) might not sound like much to worry about.

But a new study concludes that the heat index — essentially how hot it really feels — has increased much faster in Texas than has the measured temperature: about three times faster.

That means that on some extreme days, what the temperature feels like is between 8 and 11 F (5 to 6 C) hotter than it would without climate change.

The study, using Texas data from June, July and August of 2023, highlights a problem with communicating the dangers of rising temperatures to the public. The temperature alone does not accurately reflect the heat stress people feel.

Even the heat index itself, which takes into account the relative humidity and thus the capacity to cool off by sweating, gives a conservative estimate of heat stress, according to study author David Romps, a professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2022, Romps co-authored a paper pointing out that the way most government agencies calculate the heat index is inaccurate when dealing with the temperature and humidity extremes we're seeing today. This leads people to underestimate their chances of suffering hyperthermia on the hottest days and of their chances of dying.

Texas is not an outlier. Recently, Arizona's most populous county, covering most of Phoenix, reported that heat-associated deaths last year were 50% higher than in 2022, rising from 425 in 2022 to 645 in 2023. Two-thirds of Maricopa County’s heat-related deaths in 2023 were of people 50 years or older, and 71% occurred on days when the National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning, according to the Associated Press.

"I mean, the obvious thing to do is to cease additional warming, because this is not going to get better unless we stop burning fossil fuels," Romps said. "That's message No. 1, without doubt. We have only one direction we can really be taking the planet's average temperature, and that's up. And that's through additional burning of fossil fuels. So that's gotta stop and stop fast."

The reason that it feels much hotter than you'd expect from the increase in ambient temperature alone is that global warming is affecting the interplay between humidity and temperature, he said. In the past, relative humidity typically dropped when the temperature increased, allowing the body to sweat more and thus feel more comfortable.

But with climate change, the relative humidity remains about constant as the temperature increases, which reduces the effectiveness of sweating to cool the body.

To deal with the irreversible temperature increases we already experience, people need to take precautions to avoid hyperthermia, Romps said. He advised that, for those in extreme heat situations and unable to take advantage of air conditioning, "you can use shade and water as your friends.

"You can coat yourself in water. Get a wet rag, run it under the faucet, get your skin wet and get in front of a fan. As long as you are drinking enough water and you can keep that skin wetted in front of the fan, you're doing a good thing for yourself."

Romps' study was published March 15 in the journal Environmental Research Letters (ERL).

It's the humidity

Romps, an atmospheric physicist, got interested several years ago in how the human body responds to global warming's increased temperatures.

Although the heat index, defined in 1979, is based on the physiological stresses induced by heat and humidity, he noted that the calculations of the heat index did not extend to the extremes of heat and humidity experienced today.

Romps and graduate student and now postdoctoral fellow Yi-Chuan Lu extended the calculation of the heat index to all combinations of temperature and humidity, enabling its use in even the most extreme heat waves, like those that buffeted Texas in the summer of 2023.

Over the decades, the nation's major weather forecaster, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service, has dealt with the lack of calculated values for high heat and humidity by extrapolating from the known values. Romps and Lu found, however, that the commonly used extrapolation falls far short when conditions of temperature and humidity are extreme.

Although the heat index has now been calculated for all conditions using the underlying physiological model, those values have not yet been adopted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

After Lu spent a sweltering summer in Texas last year, Romps decided to take the state as a case study to determine how global warming has affected the perceived heat stress represented by the corrected heat index.

“I picked Texas because I had seen some high heat index values there that made me think, OK, this is a state that this summer is probably experiencing combinations of heat and humidity that are not being captured properly by NOAA’s approximation to the heat index,” he said.

He found that, while temperatures peaked at various places and times around the state last summer, one place, Houston’s Ellington Airport, stood out. On July 23, 2023, he calculated that the heat index was 75 C, or 167 F. Global warming accounted for 12 F (6 C) of that heat index, he said.

“It sounds completely insane,” Romps said. “It’s beyond the physiological capacity of a young, healthy person to maintain a standard core temperature. We think it’s hyperthermic, but survivable.”

The fact that people can survive such temperatures is a testament to the power of evaporative cooling to cool the body, though intense sweating requires the heart to pump more blood to the skin to shed heat, which is part of heat stress.

In a 2023 paper, Romps and Lu argued that what many have referred to as the maximum survivable temperature, a wet bulb temperature of 35 C (equivalent to a skin temperature when sweating of 95 F, close to the average person’s core body temperature), would actually rarely lead to death in a young and healthy adult, though it would cause hyperthermia.

The wet bulb temperature is what a thermometer measures when a wet rag is wrapped around it, so it takes account of the cooling effects of sweat.

"Heat index is very much like the wet bulb thermometer, only it adds the metabolic heat that a human has that a thermometer does not have," Romps said. "We think if you kept your skin wet and you were exposed to 167 degrees, even though we're approaching something like a setting on the oven, you'd still be alive. Definitely not happy. But alive."

While the current study didn't try to predict when, in the future, heat waves in Texas might generate a heat index high enough to make everyone hyperthermic, "we can see that there are times when people are getting pushed in that direction," he said. "It's not terribly far off."

Romps plans to look at other regions in light of the improved heat index scale he and Lu have proposed and expects to find similar trends.

"If humanity goes ahead and burns the fossil fuel available to it, then it is conceivable that half of Earth's population would be exposed to unavoidably hyperthermic conditions, even for young, healthy adults," Romps said. "People who aren't young and healthy would be suffering even more, as would people who are laboring or are out in the sun — all of them would be suffering potentially life-threatening levels of heat stress."

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

Three crew members including NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson successfully launched at 8:36 a.m. EDT Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.

Dyson, along with her crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, will dock to the space station’s Prichal module about 11:09 a.m. on Monday, March 25, on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.

Docking coverage will begin at 10:15 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. NASA also will air coverage, starting at 1:15 p.m., of the crew welcome ceremony on NASA+ once they are aboard the orbital outpost. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

When the hatches between the station and the Soyuz open about 1:40 p.m., the new crew members will join NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin, already living and working aboard the space station.

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will be aboard the station for 12 days, before providing the ride home for O’Hara on Saturday, April 6, aboard Soyuz MS-24 for a parachute-assisted landing on steppe of Kazakhstan.

Dyson will spend six months aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, returning to Earth in September with Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos, who will complete a year-long mission on the laboratory.

This will be the third spaceflight for Dyson, the fourth for Novitskiy, and the first for Vasilevskaya.

Learn more about space station activities at https://www.nasa.gov/station.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The latest state report on unemployment shows that California’s rate rose slightly in February but Lake County’s went down.

The Employment Development Department said Friday that California’s unemployment rate increased to 5.3% in February, up from 5.2% in January, with a loss of 3,400 nonfarm payroll jobs. The state’s jobless rate in February 2023 was 4.5%.

In Lake County, unemployment in February was 7%, an improvement over the 7.4% rate reported in January. Lake’s February 2023 unemployment rate was 6.3%.

On the national level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate in February was 3.9%, up from 3.7% in January and 3.6% in February 2023. That’s the highest rate since January 2022.

Lake County’s total farm jobs rose by 13.5% while total nonfarm was up by 1.2% over January, the report showed.

Industries in Lake County with the largest job growth included wholesale trade, 14.3%; goods producing, 3.5%; and professional and business services, 2.7%. Only one industry reported a decrease — transportation, warehousing and utilities, which dropped by 1.5%.

California’s jobs market expansion turned 46 months old in February 2024. California has gained 3,037,600 jobs since the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020, which averages out to 66,035 per month.

The number of Californians employed in February was 18,321,900, a decrease of 20,100 persons from January’s total of 18,342,000 and down 82,600 from the employment total in February 2023, the report said.

At the same time, the EDD said the number of unemployed Californians was 1,027,000 in February, an increase of 13,100 over the month and up 165,400 in comparison to February 2023.

The report said California's downward-revised January 2024 nonfarm jobs total mirrors the nation, which also saw a large downward revision of approximately 124,000 jobs.

California’s number of jobs in the agriculture industry decreased from January by 2,100 to a total of 425,000 jobs in February. The agriculture industry had 26,100 more farm jobs in February 2024 than it did in February a year ago, the report said.

Lake County’s jobless rate ranked it No. 35 out of California’s 58 counties.

Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Colusa, 20.4%, No. 58; Glenn, 8.1%, No. 44; Mendocino, 6.2%, No. 27; Napa, 4.5%, No. 9; Sonoma, 4.4%, No. 8; and Yolo, 6.3%, No. 29.

San Mateo County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state in February, 3.7%.

In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, the EDD said there were 425,760 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the February 2024 sample week. That compares to 392,541 people in January and 380,768 people in February 2023.

Concurrently, EDD said 41,260 initial claims were processed in the February 2024 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 5,936 claims from January, but a year-over increase of 677 claims from February 2023.

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

California State Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division and its partners are encouraging off-highway vehicle enthusiasts to “Share the Trails,” the theme for the upcoming Spring OHV Safety Week, taking place from March 23 to 31.

This semiannual event promotes safe and responsible off-highway vehicle, or OHV, recreation across California's dedicated OHV public lands.

This year’s theme reminds OHV recreational users to focus on sharing the responsibility of following safety protocols and protecting the state’s natural resources.

“It’s important that everyone in the OHV community understands that they share the responsibility for safety,” said Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division, or OHMVR, Division Chief Callan McLaughlin. “We share our trails with many types of off-road vehicles and people of different skill levels, so everyone has the opportunity to enjoy our public lands.”

The Spring OHV Safety Week provides an excellent opportunity for all riders, both experienced and newcomers, to enhance their knowledge, skills, and awareness of safe OHV practices by taking safety courses and following simple rules. Training teaches everyone to “Share the Trails” by:

• Staying to the right: Practice proper trail etiquette by always staying to the right side of any trail.
• Show yourself: Use a whip and flag at least 8 feet from the ground and wear high-visibility clothing.
• Share your skills: Take a free safety class, which can help you become a more experienced rider, then share what you’ve learned with others.

During this year’s OHV Safety Week, several state vehicular recreation areas, or SVRAs, will host free safety training classes for OHV riders.

For those interested in participating in these free classes, schedules and sign-up information is available on the California Outdoor Recreation Foundation website.

In October 2020, the California OHMVR Commission passed a resolution dedicating two weeks of the year to promote and focus on safe and responsible OHV practices.

Working together with the Tread Lightly! Initiative, California Highway Patrol, California Outdoor Recreation Foundation, Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, ATV Safety Institute (ASI), Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association (ROHVA), Motorcycle Industry Council, Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), and Bureau of Land Management, the OHMVR Division has been providing a mix of safety messages and activities during the OHV safety awareness weeks, using park interpretive programs, in-person events, and safety messaging via various social media platforms. Additionally, ASI, ROHVA, and MSF have teamed up with the division to provide free dirt bike, all-terrain vehicle, and recreational OHV training.

California’s OHMVR Program was created in 1971 out of the critical need to better manage the growing demands for OHV recreation, while fostering respect for private property rights and protecting the state’s natural and cultural resources.

Today, there are nine SVRAs across California: Carnegie SVRA, Clay Pit SVRA, Eastern Kern County Onyx Ranch SVRA, Heber Dunes SVRA, Hollister Hills SVRA, Hungry Valley SVRA, Oceano Dunes SVRA, Ocotillo Wells SVRA and Prairie City SVRA.

These public lands provide recreational opportunities on approximately 145,000 acres of lands with more than 600 miles of designated OHV trails and terrain. Some SVRAs also feature camping, swimming, and other recreational opportunities. A variety of wildlife, sensitive habitats, plants, and animal species call them home.

The OHMVR program also supports safe and responsible OHV recreation beyond the State Park System. Since 1971, more than $803 million in grants, managed by the OHMVR Division, have been awarded to federal and local partners, funding acquisition and development, resource protection, safety and education, and law enforcement for OHV recreation.

For more information about the OHMVR Division, including grant opportunities, please visit https://ohv.parks.ca.gov/.

The Department of Water Resources on Friday announced a second increase in the State Water Project, or SWP, allocation forecast for 2024.

The forecasted allocation is now 30 percent of requested supplies, up from the 15 percent allocation update announced last month.

The State Water Project is a critical water source for 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million Californians.

The revised allocation forecast is based on snow survey measurements and data up until March 1 and spring runoff forecasts outlined in the latest Bulletin 120, which was released on March 8.

The next possible allocation update would come after the next round of snow surveys around April 1. Currently, the statewide snowpack is 98 percent of average for this date.

The State Water Project has been focused on maximizing the capture and storage of water from this winter’s storms.

Storage has increased by 630,000 acre-feet at Lake Oroville and by 150,000 acre-feet at San Luis Reservoir since Jan. 1.

The ability to move water south through the system has been significantly impacted by the presence of threatened and endangered fish species near the State Water Project pumping facility in the south Delta.

The presence of these fish species has triggered requirements within the State and federal permits for the operation of the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project that have significantly reduced pumping from the Delta.

This reduction in pumping has limited the ability to move water into San Luis Reservoir.

“DWR continues to take proactive measures and use the best available science to operate our water storage and delivery system to balance water supply needs while protecting native fish species,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “As we experience more extreme weather conditions, each year brings its own challenges and that’s why it’s so critical to continue to adapt our water system to build climate resilience.”

“We are pleased to see an increase in the allocation of SWP supplies for public water agencies and combined additional storage of 780,000 acre-feet at Lake Oroville and San Luis Reservoir. While 30% is certainly better than 15%, SWP agencies continue to pay for 100% of the system’s operation and maintenance regardless of how much water they receive,” said Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors.

However, Pierre said that had the Delta Conveyance Project — a critical upgrade to California’s water infrastructure relied on by 27 million people, 750,000 acres of farmland and countless businesses — been in place this winter, “we could have moved an additional 730,000 acre-feet of water from Jan. 1 to March 14 while keeping endangered species like steelhead safe.”

Pierre added, “California’s climate is rapidly changing, and we must modernize our infrastructure so we can respond quickly to take advantage of unpredictable, flashy storm events and store as much water as possible for the next inevitable dry period. With rain and snow in this weekend’s forecast, we hope to see an increase in the April allocation update.”

DWR’s efforts to adapt to a changing climate include the advancement of the Delta Conveyance Project, which would construct new infrastructure that will make it possible to move more water during high flow events while helping fish species like Steelhead trout avoid threats posed by current pumping infrastructure.

Additionally, DWR and its state, federal, and local partners continue to invest in groundwater recharge projects, surface water storage like Sites Reservoir, and the expansion of desalination and stormwater capture.

California’s reservoirs remain in good shape thanks to last year’s strong winter storms. Statewide, reservoirs are at 115 percent of average for this time of year, with Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s largest reservoir, at 125 percent of average and 86 percent of capacity.

The updated State Water Project allocation forecast announced Friday anticipates delivery of 30 percent of requested supplies to contractors south of the Delta, which accounts for the majority of contractors; 50 percent of requested supplies to contractors north of the Delta; and an anticipated 100 percent allocation to Feather River Settlement Contractors.

Allocations are updated monthly as snowpack, rainfall, and runoff information is assessed, with a final allocation typically determined in May or June following the April snow survey. The next possible allocation update would be in April.

Some adult children live with their parents. Perhaps they returned home after a divorce, the loss of a job, due to a disability, and perhaps they never left.

Often the parents provide free rent and utilities and even food and money to cover transportation and insurance. The children may take care of household chores.

What happens when the parents are incapacitated or die? Let us presume the parents have a living trust and durable powers of attorney to manage their assets.

If the parents become incapacitated but remain at home, the trust may expressly allow the children to live rent free as before. This presumes that the parents’ estate can afford to cover the expenses, including the additional expenses due to parents’ incapacity.

The dependent children may need to pay some or all the household expenses. Also, it may be necessary either to sell the house or to borrow against the equity. The trust should address these issues.

Typically, the parents’ trust says what happens if the incapacitated parents are no longer living at home because they live permanently at an assisted living or skilled nursing facility. Is the residence sold or maintained for the benefit of the dependent children? The possibilities vary with the circumstances. If the residence is sold, the trust may give the children time to relocate, and maybe, some cash to avoid problems and disagreements.

How are the sale proceeds used? Will the trust also assist the dependent children or must they wait till the parents die. Ultimately, when the parents die their trust will say how the estate is divided amongst the children, whether inheritances are distributed outright, are held in further trust, or used otherwise.

No one size fits all. Some parents feel that they need to leave more money to take care of dependent adult children who are unable to provide for themselves, especially disabled adult children. A special needs trust may be in order.

Sometimes the family home remains in trust to assist the children. The trust should say how the real property taxes, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and utilities are to be paid. Perhaps the parents may leave assets to pay some or all of such expenses.

The children may need to pay some or all these expenses, sooner or later. If the household related expenses cannot be paid the residence will have to be sold and the proceeds divided amongst the children, either equally or unequally, and again, either distributed outright or in further trust.

Holding assets in further trust may be necessary to protect children due to their inability to properly manage assets, due to their unpaid debts (creditor problems), due to predators, or due to the fact that they receive needs-based government benefits that may be lost unless the inheritance is placed into a special needs trust, as relevant.

Finally, parents with disabled children are often concerned about what happens to their dependent children after the parents die. Estate planning offers parents an opportunity to avoid unintended consequences and lessen the severity of what their dependent children will experience. It also gives the parents some peace of mind knowing that they have their affairs in order.

The foregoing discussion is not legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney for guidance.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at Dennis@DennisFordhamLaw.com and 707-263-3235.