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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Saturday memorial service honored the life and contributions of the Lake County Sheriff’s deputy who died in the line of duty last month.

Deputy Rob Rumfelt, 50, was remembered as a fearless Marine, a dedicated member of law enforcement, a devoted family man and a constant friend.

“Rob was much more than a cop,” said his longtime friend, Lt. Norman Taylor of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, one of those who eulogized Rumfelt on Saturday. “He was more things than I can list in my short time here,” a man who lived “a full, adventurous life.”

Rumfelt died on Aug. 22 following a car crash while he was leaving the scene of a domestic violence call in Lakeport.

So far, officials investigating Rumfelt’s death have indicated that a medical emergency – possibly a heart attack – may have precipitated the crash and claimed Rumfelt’s life, and that the crash itself may not have been the direct cause.

He and another deputy had fought with a domestic violence suspect and arrested the man shortly before he left the scene in his patrol vehicle, which hit a tree a short distance away.

Rumfelt’s death in the line of duty was the first for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office in 36 years, and the fourth in the agency’s history.

About 1,000 people – including police officers, sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrol, State Parks and Fish and Wildlife officers from around the state, firefighters from local agencies and from Cal Fire plus community members – filled the infield at Don Owens Stadium at Clear Lake High School for the Saturday morning service.

Also in attendance were a number of county leaders and state dignitaries, among them, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who was among the speakers; State Sen. Mike McGuire; and Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.

Rumfelt’s immediate family members were escorted to the event in a large limousine and a black SUV, and his wife and children arrived in a tan Humvee sporting a Jolly Roger – the flag featuring the skull and crossbones on a black background first used as the pirate’s flag some 300 years ago.,

References to Rumfelt’s fondness for “the pirate life” were made throughout the ceremony. Another Jolly Roger hung below the American flag on the football field’s flagpole; Taylor recounted the “pirate bar” he helped Rumfelt build in his backyard and at one point, as if on cue, a small flock of seagulls flew around the field.

Sheriff Brian Martin recalled Rumfelt as not just a dedicated lawman but also as a friend, a fun-loving man whose loss has hit his brothers and sisters in law enforcement hard.

“I am grateful for the good times and the bad times I spent with Rob,” Martin said. “I am grateful for the times that we laughed together, I am grateful for the times we worked together.”

Martin also took the opportunity to thank those who support law enforcement, not just families and friends but others in the community, noting the sacrifices inherent in the profession.

Attorney General Becerra also paid homage to Rumfelt, pointing out that the football stadium’s scoreboard continued to show the score from the football game the night before, in which the Clear Lake Cardinals beat Fort Bragg in overtime. Rumfelt had been a football coach for the high school, and looking on from the audience were many of his football players, wearing their jerseys.

Becerra acknowledged the many different people whose lives were touched by Rumfelt, from high school football players to family and his colleagues in law enforcement.

“He strengthened the fabric of our society,” Becerra said, calling Rumfelt a hero.

The ceremony included a gun volley, the playing of “Taps,” the presentation of the American flag to his wife and parents and a flyover by the California Highway Patrol, which had three of its aircraft perform the “missing man” formation, in which a plane banked off and away from the others.

One of the day’s most poignant moments came with the “last roll call” for Rumfelt, when a recording of Lake County Central Dispatch was played in which the dispatcher called Rumfelt’s badge number – No. 453 – twice, each time saying, “no response,” before giving his end of watch as Aug. 22 at 9:15 p.m.

Later in the service, Sheriff Martin and Undersheriff Chris Macedo presented a folded American flag to Rumfelt’s widow, Kelly, and then Capt. Chris Chwialkowski and Lt. Taylor carried flags in wooden cases to Rumfelt’s parents.

The ceremony ended with hundreds of deputies, police officers and firefighters forming a processional way, with the Rumfelt family being driven between the lines of men and women in uniform as they offered a salute.

The full ceremony is featured in the video at the top of the page.

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.

"Nature tells every secret once." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – For the sheer variety and beauty of avian species, you can't beat Lake County for bird watching.

As an example, the astonishingly eye-catching beauty of a wood duck is unforgettable.

The male of the species sports gleaming green, tan and brown color blocks reminiscent of a Piet Mondrian color composition.

I spotted a pair of wood ducks on Cache Creek one morning while hiking at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park. The quiet elegance of the pair floating on the soft water was breathtaking.

Wood ducks, medium in size at approximately 21 inches in length, are known for using their specially adapted sharp claws to perch in trees, and nest in tree cavities, or specially constructed nesting boxes near marshes and water.

The female wood duck, like most female birds, is subdued in her coloring. She may lay over a dozen eggs if the conditions are right. If wood ducks nest too close together they tend to lay fewer eggs.

After the eggs incubate for about 30 days the tiny ducks are equipped to hop right into the water – up to 50 feet down, without the aid of the parents, and begin fending for themselves.

Other than the call of the mother duck, the hatchlings take to their life in the open, well, like a duck to water!

Omnivores, their food consists of bugs, berries and seeds, for the most part. Luckily, the wood duck count is on the rise once again, but during the 19th century the waterfowl were threatened in areas around the globe due, in part to hunting and loss of habitat.

Thankfully, with the advent of the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, their numbers have slowly risen.

To become involved in bird conservation, you may want to think about building a birdhouse for wood ducks.

The plans can be found at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Web site, listed below, where you may also listen to the distinctive sound of a wood duck: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Duck/id.

For information about the California Wood Duck Program visit its Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/California-Wood-Duck-Program-78713057314/.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also formerly wrote for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Anderson Marsh is known for its wildlife, and on an outing this summer one man captured two bears playing in the area.

Floyd Hayes said he was canoeing at Anderson Marsh, south of Garner Island, one morning in July with a friend when they spotted something unusual.

“We were shocked to see two black bears swimming and then playing with each other in the water,” Hayes said.

He said they were a long way away, but he was able to capture the bears at play with his telephoto lens.

Hayes took a sequence of photos which he then put together into the video above “to illustrate them enjoying the bear necessities of life.”

Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission have observed massive amounts of energy swirling over Jupiter’s polar regions that contribute to the giant planet’s powerful auroras – only not in ways the researchers expected.

Examining data collected by the ultraviolet spectrograph and energetic-particle detector instruments aboard the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, a team led by Barry Mauk of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, observed signatures of powerful electric potentials, aligned with Jupiter’s magnetic field, that accelerate electrons toward the Jovian atmosphere at energies up to 400,000 electron volts.

This is 10 to 30 times higher than the largest auroral potentials observed at Earth, where only several thousands of volts are typically needed to generate the most intense auroras – known as discrete auroras – the dazzling, twisting, snake-like northern and southern lights seen in places like Alaska and Canada, northern Europe, and many other northern and southern polar regions.

Jupiter has the most powerful auroras in the solar system, so the team was not surprised that electric potentials play a role in their generation.

What’s puzzling the researchers, Mauk said, is that despite the magnitudes of these potentials at Jupiter, they are observed only sometimes and are not the source of the most intense auroras, as they are at Earth.

“At Jupiter, the brightest auroras are caused by some kind of turbulent acceleration process that we do not understand very well,” said Mauk, who leads the investigation team for the APL-built Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI). “There are hints in our latest data indicating that as the power density of the auroral generation becomes stronger and stronger, the process becomes unstable and a new acceleration process takes over. But we’ll have to keep looking at the data.”

Scientists consider Jupiter to be a physics lab of sorts for worlds beyond our solar system, saying the ability of Jupiter to accelerate charged particles to immense energies has implications for how more distant astrophysical systems accelerate particles.

But what they learn about the forces driving Jupiter’s auroras and shaping its space weather environment also has practical implications in our own planetary backyard.

“The highest energies that we are observing within Jupiter’s auroral regions are formidable. These energetic particles that create the auroras are part of the story in understanding Jupiter’s radiation belts, which pose such a challenge to Juno and to upcoming spacecraft missions to Jupiter under development,” said Mauk.

“Engineering around the debilitating effects of radiation has always been a challenge to spacecraft engineers for missions at Earth and elsewhere in the solar system,” Mauk said. “What we learn here, and from spacecraft like NASA’s Van Allen Probes and Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) that are exploring Earth’s magnetosphere, will teach us a lot about space weather and protecting spacecraft and astronauts in harsh space environments. Comparing the processes at Jupiter and Earth is incredibly valuable in testing our ideas of how planetary physics works.”

Mauk and colleagues presented their findings in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.

For more information visit https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu.

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at https://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno and https://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – In response to a reported sighting of a mountain lion near the Lakeport Unified School District campus this week, the district has asked parents to take special measures to protect children on their way to school.

On Thursday afternoon, Superintendent April Leiferman put the campus in an instruction lockdown just before kindergarten dismissal after a woman driving to the school to pick up her child reported seeing a large mountain lion headed toward campus.

Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said that at 1:40 p.m. Thursday the parent was driving on Lakeshore Boulevard toward Lange Street when she saw what she believed was a mountain lion running from the wooded area near the lake across the road to the field adjacent to Lakeport Elementary School.

Rasmussen said the parent immediately school staff, who in turn notified the school resource officer and school administration.

Leiferman drove through all of the school campuses and said that all of the students were indoors within 60 seconds of the lockdown and Lakeport Police units quickly responded.

Rasmussen said three Lakeport Police units, two units from State Parks plus California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers responded to the scene.

“We wanted to take all precautions,” Rasmussen said.

He said the officers and wardens hiked around looking for the mountain lion. “They didn’t find any sign of it.”

Even so, as a precaution, Fish and Wildlife remained on scene until after school was out and all staff and students had left the campus, said Rasmussen.

Leiferman said she immediately sent out a text message and phone call to parents notifying them of the incident, and greeted parents who were arriving to pick up their children to explain the situation.

She said students were picked up in the classrooms by their parents or walked in a group to the buses.

After meeting with Rasmussen, Leiferman said school administration decided they weren’t comfortable having students walk home.

As a result, students who usually walk home either called for a ride or received a ride home in buses the staff secured to drive them, Leiferman said.

“It frightened me, to say the least,” Leiferman said of the situation.

Leiferman said parents were appreciative of the efforts taken, and while it may not have been convenient, it was safe, adding that she would always err on the side of the students’ safety.

Thursday’s sighting was the second mountain lion within the city limit in less than three months.

On the afternoon of June 19, a city employee reported seeing a young adult mountain lion in the Forbes Creek drainage south of the fairgrounds baseball fields and west of the Lakeport Public Works yard, as Lake County News has reported.

Police said the animal was seen in an area covered by heavy brush and grass, and wasn’t acting aggressive.

Rasmussen said bears also have been spotted in Lakeport over the years.

Leiferman said that due to her concerns about both of this year’s mountain lion sightings, she asked parents in the Thursday message to drive their children to school, have them ride a bus or walk in a large group until further notice.

She said parents are going to use their judgment, but that young children should not be walking alone and all children are safer in groups.

“I’m sure everybody’s going to keep an eye out,” she said.

Protecting people and wildlife

Mountain lions are parts of Lake County’s wildlife population, although they aren’t usually spotted in the county’s cities.

Wildlife officials report that mountain lions are quiet, solitary and elusive, and typically avoid people.

They also rarely attack people, although the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported that conflicts between the animals and humans are increasing as California’s human population expands into mountain lion habitat.

Fish and Wildlife spokesman Lt. Chris Stoots said that the last couple of years have shown a change in wild animals’ behavior patterns, “but there’s no specific reason that anyone is pointing to.”

Stoots said those changes are due to a variety of factors. A key issue is California’s growing population, which is resulting in habitat loss and encroachment as people move into more remote areas.

Also leading to different types of encounters are human practices, such as leaving out food and water for pets overnight and letting pets roam at night, which Stoots said creates food sources and, as a result, a more sustainable place for wildlife to live closer to human.

The last several years of drought also are likely to have played a role in animal behavioral changes, he said.

Stoots said juvenile wildlife are more likely to wander into areas close to humans due to lack of experience and curiosity, leading to greater potential for conflict and interaction.

Stoots said people also are more aware of encounters because of the speed and efficiency of communication, including social media, which he said is a good thing.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife offers the following tips for living in and staying safe in mountain lion country.

- Don’t feed deer; it is illegal in California and it will attract mountain lions.
- Deer-proof your landscaping by avoiding plants that deer like to eat. For tips, request “A Gardener’s Guide to Preventing Deer Damage” from the agency’s offices.
- Trim brush to reduce hiding places for mountain lions.
- Don’t leave small children or pets outside unattended.
- Install motion-sensitive lighting around the house.
- Provide sturdy, covered shelters for sheep, goats and other vulnerable animals.
- Don’t allow pets outside when mountain lions are most active – dawn, dusk and at night.
- Bring pet food inside to avoid attracting raccoons, opossums and other potential mountain lion prey.
- Do not hike, bike, or jog alone.
- Avoid hiking or jogging when mountain lions are most active – dawn, dusk, and at night.
- Keep a close watch on small children.
- Do not approach a mountain lion.
- If you encounter a mountain lion, do not run; instead, face the animal, make noise and try to look bigger by waving your arms; throw rocks or other objects.
- Pick up small children.
- If attacked, fight back.
- If a mountain lion attacks a person, immediately call 911.

For more information visit https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Keep-Me-Wild/Lion.

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.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Adventist Health Clear Lake executives and Project Restoration community partners gathered on Friday to celebrate the opening of Restoration House.

The five-bedroom house in Lower Lake will provide transitional housing to vulnerable members of the community.

Restoration House was funded by a $300,000 grant from Adventist Health, Adventist Health Clear Lake’s parent corporation.

“We are so proud to see this example of our commitment to community wellness open its doors,” said David Santos, Adventist Health Clear Lake president and chief executive officer. “It is a tangible response to a community need and is aligned with our mission to inspire health, wholeness and hope.”

Restoration House will house clients enrolled in the Project Restoration collaboration, which involves Clearlake city government, local law enforcement, fire district/EMS leaders and public and private community agencies in a united effort to serve individuals in the community who are high utilizers of local services, whether that be time in the hospital or encounters with the local police.

Project Restoration involves the partners in addressing an individual’s whole needs, instead of each agency focusing on a particular issue.

The goal of this approach is to better serve these “super-utilizers” while freeing up time and resource for local agencies to address other community concerns and goals.

Russ Perdock, mayor of Clearlake, first prompted the creation of Project Restoration in response to homelessness in the city.

“We have a lot of work to do, and this partnership lays a great foundation for our greater vision,” Perdock said at a gathering of the Project Restoration partners following a ribbon cutting. “Kudos to Adventist Health and all the partners for pushing the red tape out of the way to say ‘what can we do to help people and make our city better?’”

Marylin Wakefield, manager of grants and community outreach at Adventist Health Clear Lake, shared stories about the first client enrolled in the program and the success he is seeing so far.

Wakefield is managing the Restoration House program with Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth.

The home will welcome its first client on Oct. 3 and will have on-site management 24 hours a day.

All clients will be enrolled in Adventist Health Clear Lake’s intensive outpatient case management program.

“With this home and our approach to address all 16 domains of care, we have the ability to create wholeness beyond shelter,” Kimbell-Auth said.

Tim Celli, acting Clearlake Police chief, echoed Wakefield’s happiness in the client’s success.

“Through this project, we are seeing real results,” Celli said. “It encourages our officers, builds community trust and ultimately helps those who need us most.”

Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Community Wellness team has been working hard to set up the home as an inviting space.

“Project Restoration is approaching one client at a time,” said Shelly Mascari, director of community wellness. “However, we hope that this is a seed that helps Lake County reach a point where we are effectively addressing homelessness.”

If individuals would like to learn more about Project Restoration or donate needed items to Restoration House, they are invited to contact Marylin Wakefield at 707-995-5831.