SISKIYOU COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

**8/31/2012 1030 **

         The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office is lifting the Mandatory Evacuation Notice that was issued to residents of Seiad Valley that live on Seiad Creek Road, Seiad Oaks Road and some portions of the west side of Highway 96 due to the threat of the Goff Fire. Residents are now able to return to their homes. Some roads have been reopened. Reopened areas include from the intersection of Highway 96 to Seiad Creek Road and to the intersection of Seiad Creek Road and Seiad Oaks Road. From the intersection of Seiad Oaks Road to Low Gap Road the closure remains in effect until 8:00pm tonight.

For additional information contact the Siskiyou County Sheriff Department at (530) 841-2900, or the Goff Fire Information Center at (530)493-1514, or on the internet at <inciweb.org/incident/3117/>  Select Fort Complex, then select  the “Closures” tab or  “News”  tab, the Sheriff’s Department will also have current information and evacuation plans available via the Siskiyou County Sheriff Department Facebook page.

Bipartisan Group of  Senate Legislators Defeats AB 2179

 (SACRAMENTO) – Today, Assembly Bill (AB) 2179 was defeated on the Senate Floor after a robust debate.  AB 2179 would authorize the Department of Fish and Game (Department) to impose administrative penalties of up to $15,000 for violations of the Fish and Game Code.  The Department now has the ability to self-determine violations, the level of the fine, and the appeals process.

“This is especially disturbing given the ravenous appetite of this state for taxpayer dollars,” commented LaMalfa. “AB 2179 would empower the Department to become the judge, jury and executioner on Fish and Game violations and in a time when farmers and ranchers are struggling, the Legislature is attempting to make it more difficult to operate,”

“Farmers and ranchers in the North State have bent over backwards to accommodate the environmental concerns of the Department,” commented LaMalfa.  “Unfortunately, the goal posts are moved at every turn and my constituents are unable to comply.”

Although AB 2179 was defeated with only 11 votes supporting and 23 votes opposing, it is eligible for reconsideration in the Senate tomorrow. 

“With the legislative session ending at midnight tomorrow, my hope is that Legislators will continue to realize the long-term consequences of this bill on California and defeat it one final time,” said LaMalfa.

Senator Doug LaMalfa is a lifelong farmer representing the fourth Senate District including Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Siskiyou, Sutter, Del Norte, Placer, Trinity, Yuba and Nevada counties.

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• By Jenny Espino, Sean Longoria

Posted August 28, 2012 at 11:40 p.m.

Redding Record Searchlight

Siskiyou County officials Tuesday continued to shroud themselves in secrecy over their Aug. 16 vote to hire an investigator, following three closed-session evaluations of County Counsel Tom Guarino.

Meanwhile, David A. Prentice, a partner at Cota Cole, whose law firm offices are in Roseville and Madera, and an attorney representing the Board of Supervisors, did not respond to calls or emails seeking information about Guarino’s employment status and the nature of the investigation.

Supervisor Marcia Armstrong, the only board member to pick up her phone Tuesday morning, issued a terse, “No comment. Thank you,” and hung up.

Reached again at her home, she continued to reiterate “no comment, no comment, no comment” and referred questions to Prentice, who was in the county Tuesday afternoon likely for the board’s 1 p.m. meeting.

That meeting included two conferences in closed session with legal counsel. The first involved an ongoing case that is in the courts and the second was concerning “anticipated litigation,” according to an agenda posted on the county website.

Calls to find out whether any reportable action was taken during the closed session were not returned.

Guarino, who was at home Tuesday morning, declined to comment. “You’ll have to talk with the Board of Supervisors. Thank you,” he said.

Minutes from a Board of Supervisors meeting in June may shed some light on what led the board to consider launching an investigation.

A review shows supervisors June 19 briefly discussed entering closed session to discuss “personnel/budget” issues in the county counsel’s office. That was just a week after a lengthy discussion during a county budget hearing.

Read it:

 http://www.redding.com/news/2012/aug/28/siskiyou-county-official-keep-tight-lipped-about/?partner=newsletter_headlines

SB 1221, legislation authored by Senator Ted Lieu (D/28-Torrance) that would outlaw the use of dogs for hunting bears and bobcats in California, passed off of the Senate Floor on the evening of August 27th on a 22 to 13 vote. The bill will now go to the Governor’s desk for his consideration. The Governor has until September 30th to sign or veto the bill.

In addition to authorizing the use of dogs for scientific research and depredation purposes, recent amendments – opposed by COHA, California Houndsmen for Conservation, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, California Beekeepers Association, California Farm Bureau Federation, and others – include authorizing the Fish and Game Commission to establish a “Hound Tag Program” which would require that each dog used to pursue any mammal have a license tag bearing a unique identifying number and be microchipped. Further, the amendments allow DFG to charge a fee to cover the cost of the program. That means deer hunters, pig hunters, rabbit hunters, raccoon hunters – any hunter that uses a dog to pursue a mammal - is now impacted and taxed by this bill.

By establishing an unprecedented “use tax” for this method of take, SB 1221 goes far beyond the original intent of the bill and penalizes tens of thousands of hunters who don’t even hunt bears and bobcats. This amendment was included in an effort to offset the $400,000 annual loss of revenue to the Department of Fish and Game estimated by the Department of Finance.

It should also be noted, in addition to dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals, 29 California Counties strongly oppose SB 1221.

COHA NEEDS YOUR HELP! IF WE ARE TO DEFEAT THIS BILL ON THE GOVERNOR’S DESK, YOUR VOICE MUST BE HEARD! CLICK HERE FOR THE GOVERNOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION AND A SAMPLE OPPOSITION LETTER.

an Bear Hunting with Dogs Heads to Governor

SB 1221, legislation authored by Senator Ted Lieu (D/28-Torrance) that would outlaw the use of dogs for hunting bears and bobcats in California, passed off of the Senate Floor on the evening of August 27th on a 22 to 13 vote. The bill will now go to the Governor’s desk for his consideration. The Governor has until September 30th to sign or veto the bill.

In addition to authorizing the use of dogs for scientific research and depredation purposes, recent amendments – opposed by COHA, California Houndsmen for Conservation, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, California Beekeepers Association, California Farm Bureau Federation, and others – include authorizing the Fish and Game Commission to establish a “Hound Tag Program” which would require that each dog used to pursue any mammal have a license tag bearing a unique identifying number and be microchipped. Further, the amendments allow DFG to charge a fee to cover the cost of the program. That means deer hunters, pig hunters, rabbit hunters, raccoon hunters – any hunter that uses a dog to pursue a mammal - is now impacted and taxed by this bill. By establishing an unprecedented “use tax” for this method of take, SB 1221 goes far beyond the original intent of the bill and penalizes tens of thousands of hunters who don’t even hunt bears and bobcats. This amendment was included in an effort to offset the $400,000 annual loss of revenue to the Department of Fish and Game estimated by the Department of Finance.

It should also be noted, in addition to dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals, 29 California Counties strongly oppose SB 1221.

COHA NEEDS YOUR HELP! IF WE ARE TO DEFEAT THIS BILL ON THE GOVERNOR’S DESK, YOUR VOICE MUST BE HEARD! CLICK HERE FOR THE GOVERNOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION AND A SAMPLE OPPOSITION LETTER.

This is Thursday morning about 11 o’clock and things have changed considerably. Our power has been out for about a day and a half and just came on about four o’clock this morning. Everything in the freezer was just about thawed and going to be turning. Now we have puddles of ice cream that had melted and re-froze. Wonder if it will still taste the same? It sure does give pause to what we think is important and not and those things we take for granted, like power. I’m going to have to do something about making our own power here.

The fire has done a horseshoe turn and is now headed back toward us. The forest service came by yesterday afternoon to take our information on how many people live here, how we can be contacted, where the propane tanks are and what needs to be done to protect the structures. So sometime after tomorrow the fire should be reaching us again, it may be a little slower but it’s march toward our location seems to be inevitable. We still have lots of things stored in our travel trailer and ready to leave on any given notice. We went up to Seiad last night. Traffic was held up because of fire coming down onto the road, burning logs rolling onto the road and lots of fire crews standing around waiting to put them out. The site was truly spectacular and very scary, the heat was intense. Flames reaching hundreds of feet into the night sky and feeling the heat a half-mile away. Many people have evacuated from Seiad and moved their livestock and animals to the Fairgrounds in Yreka. There is a volunteer posse rounding up cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and even pigs. It looks like sheer pandemonium, although in an organized way. Sharon, of course, is a nervous wreck. If I could possibly do all the things she wants me to do, I would need to be Superman. There is ash falling everywhere and coating everything. I was reading a book on my front porch yesterday and I had to get up every half hour or so to brush all the ash off. Most of it is not hot but some of it just might be and fires are spotting where the hot ash comes down, I took some nice pictures but I don’t know if they will come out or not. Looking at the pictures on the camera, all I see is blur spots. I think it’s going to have to take a better camera and somebody who knows how to take night pictures of the fire.

Mining activity has stopped again. We seem to be at about 6 feet from where we left off last year. The overburden is being take off a few inches at a time with our old cat. Yesterday morning the poor old thing broke one of its tracks and now we’re going to have to hunt down parts for it. Not only that, but my smaller red backhoe is down until I get a new battery for it. So any mining has come to a halt. Christopher and Sandra are still on the fires, working their butts off. Sandra doesn’t think that she will have another meltdown now that she knows what to expect. They are all changing locations because fires never stay in one place for long. Then she has to take her truck back into the burned out areas where the firefighters were defending and pick up all the equipment left behind. This is going to take a while. Sharon’s father would say, “there be hard times in Americkee, don’t know what’s happened in Africkee.” One thing for sure, never a dull moment. When I get some pictures downloaded I’ll send them on, if they are legible.

Stan Meager

By USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service

USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service

Last modified: 2012-08-27T18:42:28Z

Published: Monday, Aug. 27, 2012 – 11:42 am

DAVIS, Calif., Aug. 27, 2012 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that four conservation organizations will receive approximately $2 million to fund five Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) projects in California. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers the grants that in California will include developing water quality trading markets in Sonoma County, improving pollinator habitat on farms and ranches and other conservation innovations.

“These grants will help spur creativity and problem-solving on California’s farms and ranches,” said Jeff Burwell, acting state conservationist in California. “These projects will help in the development of unique and innovative solutions that will make conservation more efficient in the future.”

New this year was a special emphasis on water quality trading markets to demonstrate how farmers and ranchers can help municipalities and other point sources overcome high pollution control costs. The Sotoyome Resource Conservation District (SRCD), based in Santa Rosa, Calif., will receive $570,000 to establish a credit trading market with the City of Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa has a wastewater treatment plant that sells treated wastewater to geothermal companies and other industries. Excess water is typically discharged into local water bodies. This credit trading market will allow Santa Rosa to pay SRCD to reduce on-farm nitrogen, by funding conservation practices, in exchange for nitrogen that is released through treated wastewater discharges.

“The complex and mixed land uses of the Laguna de Santa Rosa present both challenges and opportunities for watershed management. For years, we have believed that our watershed would benefit greatly from bringing together cities and rural landowners to achieve good conservation practices such as manure management, sediment reduction, and other water quality practices. We see this project as a way to accomplish that goal and to help landowners obtain funding for voluntary water quality projects that can improve their land, ag operations and quality of life,” said Kara Heckert, SRCD executive director.

Other CIG grants awarded are as follows:

• Sustainable Conservation will      receive $500,000 to demonstrate and quantify the effectiveness and      economics of a reciprocating biofilter to remove lagoon water nitrogen on      a commercial dairy in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

• The Regents of the University of      California will receive $330,000 to help improve farming practices      that benefit native bees.

• UC Regents will also receive      $120,000 to develop innovations for optimizing water and nitrogen use in      California’s tomato and cotton production as well as developing better      tillage and legume cover crop systems for these crops.

• The Xerces Society will      receive $1 million, through a multi-state project, to develop new and      innovation practices for pollinator conservation including expanding seed      mix choices and assessing conservation effectiveness.

NRCS administers CIG as part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Grants are awarded to state and local governments, federally recognized Indian tribes, non-governmental organizations and individuals. NRCS uses CIG to invest in innovative, on-the-ground conservation technologies and approaches with the goal of wide-scale adoption to address water quality and quantity, air quality, energy conservation, and environmental markets, among other natural resource issues.

NRCS has provided leadership in a partnership effort to help America’s private land owners and managers conserve their soil, water and other natural resources since 1935. For more information on NRCS, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/27/4761291/nrcs-partners-receive-2-million.html#storylink=cpy

7 p.m. for Pie N Politics of sharing desserts and socializing

7:15 p.m. meeting will start

Catholic Parish Hall

Fort Jones, corner of Main and Carlock  across from the Catholic Church

Lots to discuss

For more info contact President Tom Pease at 468-2414

I just saw a great bumper sticker. It read:

End the Bush Era — Vote Obama Out!

Critics be darned. I truly enjoyed the RNC tonight, especially speeches by  Ann Romney and Governor Christi.

– Editor Liz Bowen

PNP comment: Yep, these are wild animals and not humanized Disney characters. — Editor Liz Bowen

Associated Press

    Published: August 28th, 2012 07:27 AM
Last Modified: August 28th, 2012 09:54 AM

FAIRBANKS — A young woman has survived a bear attack.