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The Yuki and Sanhedrin Wilderness Areas, established in 2006, contain Mendocino National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. Visitors and hunters are encouraged to become familiar with the new boundaries.
To help with this, agency representatives will be available to distribute maps and wilderness information at stations near the boundary.
The establishment of the Yuki and Sanhedrin Wilderness Areas also added land to the Snow Mountain Wilderness, specifically additions to the State Game Reserve. Hunters should be aware of areas where wildlife is protected.
Wilderness areas can be accessed on foot or by horseback for a variety of recreational activities, including hunting, fishing, camping and hiking. Motor vehicles and other wheeled transportation, including bikes and deer carts, are not allowed in wilderness areas.
The Mendocino National Forest is still under fire restrictions. Campfires are only allowed with a California Campfire Permit in campfire rings in designated campgrounds. Permit holders are also allowed to use lanterns or portable stoves using gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel in other areas of the forest.
While it hasn’t been an active fire season on the forest, there is still a significant risk of wildfire until fire season ends with drenching rains. Hunters and visitors are asked to be aware of areas that have burned in the past few years, specifically in wilderness areas.
There is inherent risk in any outdoor activity. Visitors should be aware of the challenges associated with recreating in wilderness areas, including:
Falling dead trees or tree branches – commonly known as snags – especially in windy conditions. Note that trees in burned areas may still look alive, but could be unstable after being burned.
Weak and unstable spots on the forest floor from burned out stumps and roots.
Slippery conditions from ash, needles, and other debris, particularly when wet.
Flash floods and mudslides in burned areas without vegetation.
Visitors should be prepared for changing weather conditions, including temperature fluctuations and the potential for precipitation, especially at higher elevations.
Campsites should be located away from burned areas, areas that may be subject to falling or rolling debris or trees, or beneath cliffs or steep slopes. Visitors are also asked to help protect forest resources by remaining on designated roads. Motor vehicle use maps are available for the Mendocino National Forest.
When planning a trip to the forest, it is recommended that you tell somebody where you are going, when you are leaving and when you plan on being back. Also, bring plenty of food, water and clothing for conditions.
The harvest season for illegally grown marijuana coincides with deer season. Visitors are asked to be aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.
For additional safety, hunters and those accompanying them are encouraged to wear orange to prevent accidental shootings.
Other recreational visitors are encouraged to wear brightly colored clothing visible from a distance as well for safety.
For more information, please contact the Mendocino National Forest Grindstone Ranger District at 530-934-3316, Upper Lake Ranger District at 707-275-0676, Covelo Ranger District at 707-983-8004 or visit www.fs.fed.us/r5/mendocino .
However, giving your estate outright to your beneficiaries (i.e., into their name) offers no such protection.
Before you die, you have the opportunity to protect your estate for the benefit of your loved ones. Why pass up that opportunity? Let’s look at each of these concerns and consider possible solutions.
It is possible to protect inheritances against your beneficiary’s own creditors. Your assets do not answer for your heirs own debts (except if they are also your debts) unless and until your loved ones inherit the assets directly.
Accordingly, you can protect the assets that you leave to your heir by transferring your estate to a so-called “discretionary, spend-thrift trust” that is managed for his benefit.
The managing trustee would have absolute discretion either to use the assets for your heir’s benefit or to distribute directly to him without ever being required (except in limited cases) to pay the beneficiary’s creditors.
Of course, in that case the trustee could not be the heir himself because the creditor protection would be lost. The desired outcome depends entirely on your estate being left to such a trust. Otherwise, once assets are received by your beneficiaries these assets are subject to creditor action.
Another issue is whether your estate might become involved in a beneficiary’s subsequent divorce. If your beneficiary is married and inherits assets from you, then provided that such assets are kept solely in the name of your beneficiary, any subsequent divorce will not implicate a division of that asset.
But, if your beneficiary retitles what he/she receives from you, or commingles the inherited money, then a later divorce may result in half going to their ex-spouse.
Keeping the inheritance in a trust or buying an annuity (in their name) will help protect against the inheritance becoming co-owned by the beneficiary’s spouse.
Even if creditors and divorce are not an issue, some beneficiaries cannot manage money for one reason or another.
If you leave money to a person who is a “spendthrift,” more than likely their inheritance will be consumed by bad spending compulsions.
A so-called “support trust” – where the trustee is directed or authorized to make trust distributions either to your beneficiary or for his/her benefit (i.e., to help pay for necessities) – will prevent the beneficiary from wasting the money by allowing the money to be invested, and used wisely for his benefit.
Another concern is a beneficiary who has an alcohol, drug, gambling or other addiction.
The inheritance if received directly may simply fuel the problem. A “substance abuse” trust provision that requires the beneficiary to be tested and not be allowed to receive any funds until he/she tests ‘clean’ is needed in that case. The trustee can even pay directly for a rehabilitation program with trust funds.
In summary, with proper estate planning, you can do much to preserve assets left to surviving loved ones.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 1st St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
Officer Jeremy Jensen was involved in the crash, according to CHP Officer Steve Tanguay, the Clear Lake office's public information officer.
Jensen was traveling southbound on Highway 29 when, as he was preparing to initiate a traffic stop, the patrol car went to the right onto the right shoulder, Tanguay said.
Tanguay said Jensen then lost control of the patrol car as it came back to the left and overturned. The patrol car stopped east of the roadway on its wheels.
Jensen complained of pain and was treated and released from Sutter Lakeside Hospital, said Tanguay.
The collision is still under investigation, Tanguay added.
The Wednesday crash is the second incident this summer to have resulted in an injured CHP officer.
On July 13 Officer Rob Hearn was injured as he was attempting to give medical aid to a Lake County Sheriff's deputy, as Lake County News has reported.
The deputy's patrol car, which had been parked on the side of Highway 29, had been hit by a vehicle just after midnight.
As Hearn was standing nearby, helping the deputy, the sheriff's patrol car was hit head-on by a second vehicle. The patrol car was pushed into Hearn, throwing him into some bushes off the roadway.
Hearn, who sustained major injuries, is now back at work and “100 percent,” said Tanguay.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The checkpoint will take place from 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, to 2 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, according to a report from the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Drivers will be checked for DUI and driver's licenses on S. Main Street, just north of Highway 175, in Lakeport, according to the report.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Lakeport Police Department and the Clearlake Police Department are working together with the Office of Traffic Safety to reduce the number of drunk drivers on Lake County’s roads.
Local law enforcement is working under a grant administered by the Office of Traffic Safety which allows deputy sheriffs and police officers to focus their attention on finding DUI drivers, when they are most likely to be on the road.
Deputies and officers also will conduct patrols and locate convicted DUI drivers who have failed to comply with the orders of a court.
The city of Clearlake’s contractor, Fedco Construction, will start construction work on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Collector Street Rehabilitation Project on Tuesday, Sept. 22, officials reported this week.
Burns Valley Road between Rumsey Road and Woodland Drive, Division Avenue between Lakeshore Drive and Pine Street and Austin Drive between Pine Street and Old Highway 53 will be under reconstruction from Sept. 22 through Oct. 15, the city reported.
Work will start first on Burns Valley Road and continue to Austin Drive. The road project will involve the excavation and removal – or grinding – of the existing asphalt surfacing, the old road base, placement of new asphalt pavement and minor underground utility repair.
Officials reported the new asphalt pavement will be placed in two lifts, a base course, and finished course.
Electronic message boards will advise motorists of the work schedule and road closures, and there may be delays. Work hours will be Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The city reported that portions of Burns Valley Road and Austin Avenue will be subject to closure, but access to local residents will be made available at all times during construction.
Because the schedule is weather dependent, cooler or rainy weather could delay the work schedule.
City Administrator Dale Neiman said the base bid for the work awarded to Fedco was for $647,536. About two-thirds of a mile will be paved.
In all, the city has approximately $1,628,717 in funds set aside for this and other projects, with $813,600 coming from federal stimulus funds and $815,000 of local funds from a combination of sources, Neiman said.
In an effort to have road work ready for funding, Neiman said the city began design on the project last summer.
Thanks to the work of City Engineer Bob Galusha, Clearlake was the first agency in Caltrans' District 1 to receive permission to bid and award a project for stimulus funds.
“Our design was done and we were expecting to get authorization to bid in April,” said Neiman.
When the state received the stimulus funds from the federal government earlier this year, it released funds directly to agencies in larger urban areas but in smaller areas like Lake County the funds were divided up by the area planning council.
Dealing with state and federal rules made things “a lot more complicated and time consuming,” Neiman said.
After getting Caltrans District 1's approval on the project, they had to get approval from Caltrans' Sacramento office, then from federal highway officials both in Washington and California, a process that took about two months, Neiman said.
Clearlake's road project finally went to bid in June and the city opened bids in July. However, all of them had problems and were rejected, so Neiman said they went out to bid again in August. The next round of bids included Fedco's.
At the council's next meeting they'll consider several additional road work projects on Modoc, Arrowhead and Pomo, Neiman said. The staff will recommend approving the road improvement project on Pomo, from the school down to Lakeshore Drive. The lowest bid on that is $118,000.
That will use up the federal funds and, with it, exhaust the federal rules that the city has to follow. Neiman said the city will be left with about $800,000 and will go out to bid next January on three other road projects.
Based on past experience, January is the best time of year to get bids, said Neiman, because contractors are lining up work for the spring.
With the state planning to withhold five months' worth of the city's gas tax revenue – which they're supposed to pay back eventually – Neiman said, “We're not in real good financial shape by any means.”
He said the city may need to use some of that leftover $800,000 to fund the Public Works Department – which normally is supported by the gas tax funds – before it bids out its other projects early next year.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The operation began around 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Bauman said sheriff's deputies, along with agents from the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), were involved in the operation.
He said it took place along a five mile stretch in the area of Dry Creek Road and the Dry Creek Cutoff near Middletown.
In all, about 5,800 marijuana plants were eradicated, said Bauman, who didn't have a season eradication total immediately available.
Area residents reported seeing numerous trucks, cars and agents as part of the operation, along with a helicopter.
Bauman estimated that there is at least another month of eradication work ahead for officials before the marijuana growing season ends for the year.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at