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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Save the Redwoods League, along with a team of renowned scientists, have announced initial findings from a multiyear study aimed at predicting how rapid global climate change will affect redwoods in old-growth forests over time.
Among the study's key findings, researchers found ancient redwood forests can store up to three times more carbon above ground than non-redwood forests worldwide.
Changing environmental conditions have triggered a growth surge in coast redwoods and giant sequoias, researchers said, and California summers have warmed, but precipitation has remained highly variable and not decreased over recent decades.
Scientists also developed a new tree ring record from ancient redwoods throughout California to support the study of how redwoods have been affected by severe droughts, fires and flooding in the past centuries.
The study, called the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative (RCCI), is a collaborative research program that began in 2009.
It is led by Save the Redwoods League and top scientific researchers from UC Berkeley, Humboldt State University, the Marine Conservation Institute and other organizations to study past, present and future impacts of climate change on coast redwoods and giant sequoia forests.
Save the Redwoods League is the only nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting ancient redwood forests throughout their natural range.
“These results bolster our mission to protect redwoods because these trees are pulling incomparable amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere which helps combat global warming,” said Emily Burns, Director of Science for Save the Redwoods League. “We have found ancient forests where climate conditions are accelerating growth and we predict these places will stay vibrant habitat refuges for other plants and animals in the foreseeable future.”
“There's no question that our climate is changing. With this research, we have laid the foundation for understanding how we can be responsible caretakers for these magnificent forests in the years ahead,” said Harry Pollack, Chief Operating Officer for Save the Redwoods League. “We started this study because we can't afford to wait. With only five percent of the world's ancient redwood forests left, Save the Redwoods League needs to continue to lead conservation work as we've done for 95 years.”
Save the Redwoods League announced the first round of study results on this past Wednesday, Aug. 14, during a day-long symposium at The David Brower Center in Berkeley by the top researchers involved in the study.
The researchers involved included Stephen Sillett, Allyson Carroll and Robert Van Pelt from Humboldt State University; Todd Dawson and Anthony Ambrose from UC Berkeley; and Healy Hamilton from the Marine Conservation Institute and Sound Science, LLC.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Seventeen solid oak pews with padded seats plus a baptismal pool, with a total value of more than $40,000, were donated to the new Valley Cowboy Church in Spring Valley by Hospice Services of Lake County.
The pews and pool were included in hospice's purchase of the former Calvary Baptist Church property on Parallel Drive in Lakeport.
As part of its commitment to recycle and re-use contents of the building, Hospice Services of Lake County sought a buyer for the pool and pews.
After talking with pastors Jackie Hansen-Merritt and Joe Merritt of the Valley Cowboy Church, hospice officials agreed to donate the items to the new church.
Several members of the church, including both pastors, came with two large trailers and pickup trucks to move the pews to their new home.
The baptismal pool was dismantled and removed from the Parallel Drive site over several days.
“The only things we already have are a piano and a horse trough,” said Hansen-Merritt when they came to pick up the pews.
She was thrilled to get the pool and pews, and said the congregation was growing.
The Valley Cowboy Church is located at 1556 New Long Valley Road in Spring Valley.
The building once housed a different church and the new pastors have opened the walls to expand the sanctuary accommodating the new pews and a larger congregation.
Future improvements include building a fenced area on the church grounds for horses so members of the congregation can ride their horses to church and have a safe place to leave them while they attend services.
Hansen-Merritt said the idea came to her when she realized how many of the local residents in Spring Valley had to drive miles out of the valley to attend church, and those that couldn’t drive didn’t have a church to go to.
Many of the residents in the valley have horses and she thought the local residents should have the option to ride their horses to church.
For more information about the Valley Cowboy Church, contact Pastor Jackie Hansen-Merritt at 707-350-1109.
Christine Hutt works for Hospice Services of Lake County, Calif.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week Lake County Animal Care and Control has a number of large breed dogs ready for adoption.
Coonhound, hound, lab and border collie mixes are available and needing new homes.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
'Zeus'
“Zeus” is a 9-month-old male Labrador Retriever-border collie mix.
He has a short chocolate- and white-colored coat, weighs 56 pounds and has been neutered.
He's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 37370.
Male Labrador Retriever mix
This male Labrador Retriever mix is 7 months old.
He has a short brown coat and weighs 29 pounds. Shelter staff did not report if he had been altered.
Find him in kennel No. 8, ID No. 37318.
'Samantha'
“Samantha” is a 5-month-old Australian Shepherd mix.
She has a short blue merle coat, weighs 23 pounds and has been spayed.
She's in kennel No. 13, ID No. 37520.
'Dee'
“Dee” is a 10-month-old bluetick coonhound.
She weighs nearly 22 pounds, has a short blue merle coat and has been spayed.
Find her in kennel No. 14a, ID No. 37287.
'Missy'
“Missy” is a 4-year-old bluetick coonhound.
She weighs 39 pounds, has a short blue merle coat and has been spayed.
She's in kennel No. 14b, ID No. 37288.
'Bear'
“Bear” is a 1-year-old Labrador Retriever mix.
He has a short black coat and weighs 66 pounds. Shelter staff did not report if he had been neutered.
He's in kennel No. 16, ID No. 37345.
Female hound mix
This female hound mix is 8 years old.
She has a short black coat and weighs 54 pounds. It was not reported if she had been spayed.
Find her in kennel No. 25, ID No. 37390.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Something big is about to happen on the sun.
According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip.
“It looks like we’re no more than three to four months away from a complete field reversal,” said solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. “This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system.”
The sun’s magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun’s inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself.
The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of “Solar Max” will be behind us, with half yet to come.
Hoeksema is the director of Stanford’s Wilcox Solar Observatory, one of the few observatories in the world that monitor the sun’s polar magnetic fields.
The poles are a herald of change. Just as Earth scientists watch our planet’s polar regions for signs of climate change, solar physicists do the same thing for the sun.
Magnetograms at Wilcox have been tracking the sun’s polar magnetism since 1976, and they have recorded three grand reversals – with a fourth in the offing.
Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: “The sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle.”
A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, literally, a big event. The domain of the sun’s magnetic influence (also known as the “heliosphere”) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto.
Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.
When solar physicists talk about solar field reversals, their conversation often centers on the “current sheet.”
The current sheet is a sprawling surface jutting outward from the sun’s equator where the sun’s slowly-rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current.
The current itself is small, only one ten-billionth of an amp per square meter (0.0000000001 amps/m2), but there’s a lot of it: the amperage flows through a region 10,000 km thick and billions of kilometers wide. Electrically speaking, the entire heliosphere is organized around this enormous sheet.
During field reversals, the current sheet becomes very wavy. Scherrer likens the undulations to the seams on a baseball.
As Earth orbits the sun, we dip in and out of the current sheet. Transitions from one side to another can stir up stormy space weather around our planet.
Cosmic rays are also affected. These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy.
Cosmic rays are a danger to astronauts and space probes, and some researchers say they might affect the cloudiness and climate of Earth.
The current sheet acts as a barrier to cosmic rays, deflecting them as they attempt to penetrate the inner solar system.
A wavy, crinkly sheet acts as a better shield against these energetic particles from deep space.
As the field reversal approaches, data from Wilcox show that the sun’s two hemispheres are out of synch.
“The sun’s north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up,” says Scherrer. “Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of Solar Max will be under way.”
When that happens, Hoeksema and Scherrer will share the news with their colleagues and the public.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement for areas of Northern California, including Lake County, warning of the potential for thunderstorms beginning Sunday afternoon and lasting into next week.
A low pressure system off the coast may bring the storms over interior Northern California, forecasters said.
Isolated storms are expected over the region's mountains, possibly spreading into the Sacramento Valley over the next several days, the report explained.
In Lake County, there is a 20-percent chance of thunderstorms and a small amount of rain on Sunday after 11 a.m., with similar chances for showers and storms on Monday, according to the forecast.
On Tuesday, the chances of showers are expected to rise to 30 percent, the National Weather Service said.
Sunnier conditions, with no expectations of precipitation, are forecast for next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Updates will be posted if conditions change.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Two Nevada children who were the focus of a Friday statewide Amber Alert in California have been located.
Lillyanna Ramires, 9, and her brother, Martin Angel Rosales, 3, were found safe in the Sacramento area, according to an early Saturday morning update from the state of Nevada’s Amber Alert system.
The children were taken from the Department of Child and Family Services in Elko, Nev., on Wednesday by their noncustodial parents, Martin Cisneras Rosales, 33, and Amber Schenck, 29.
The California Highway Patrol issued the Amber Alert for the area from Sacramento south to Mexico on Friday evening.
Details about the children’s recovery were not immediately available early Saturday morning.