LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In 2016, the Woodland-based nonprofit Tuleyome purchased 1,280-acres along a portion of the north fork of Cache Creek in Lake County.

Known as Silver Spur Ranch, the property is located in the heart of the 330,780-acre Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.

Since the purchase, Tuleyome has been working with multiple agencies and partners on several ongoing scientific studies.

The California Department of Water Resources has a water quality monitoring station on Cache Creek as it flows through Silver Spur.

The Department of Water Resources California Data Exchange Center installs, maintains and operates an extensive hydrologic data collection network including snow reporting gages for the Cooperative Snow Surveys Program as well as precipitation and river stage sensors for flood forecasting. The monitor has been collecting data since late 2000.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, uses Silver Spur as one of its annual deer survey locations. Their study utilizes game cameras and the collection of fecal pellets to study DNA.

The annual, five-week study has taken place since 2017, shortly after Tuleyome acquired the ranch.

While Tuleyome does not permit hunting on the property, hunters are allowed pass through the ranch to utilize the Bureau of Land Management-managed lands to the west, east, and north.

In 2018, the Pawnee fire burned through Silver Spur Ranch. Tuleyome applied for and received funding from the Sacramento Zoo to study how wildlife, especially mammals, returned to the area after the burn. A dozen wildlife cameras were set up in different habitat types to monitor the property.

The cameras provided us the opportunity to see what happens when humans are not around. It became clear that deer, bear, bobcats and mountain lions utilize Silver Spur.

The fire in 2018 also put Silver Spur on the radar of Dr. Timothy Stark from the University of Illinois -Urbana Champaign. He and his team are monitoring the impact of wildfires on landslides in Lake County.

There are multiple landslides of varying sizes — some have burned, some have not. Dr. Stark has installed weather stations on Silver Spur as part of a USDA-funded study. The weather stations collect data including precipitation, wind speed and direction, temperature, and soil moisture.

The most recent study to utilize Tuleyome’s Silver Spur Ranch is CDFW’s Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program.

This program is conducting vegetation surveys in Lake County to include in their North Coast and Ranges Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project.

They will use the information to create a description of plant communities (vegetation types) and a vegetation map of a section of the North Coast, including Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and portions of Lake counties.

Tuleyome’s Silver Spur Ranch is a gorgeous place in the heart of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. These studies are helping us understand the importance and uniqueness of the Monument and will provide information when the Monument Management Plan is being developed by the BLM and U.S. Forest Service.

Nate Lillge is the adventures and engagement director for Tuleyome.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The Clearlake Police Department is attempting to locate a missing man.

They are seeking information about Charles Ness.

Police said Ness was on Friday between 6 and 6:30 p.m. in the area of 6101 Old Highway 53 in Clearlake. He was possibly headed to J&L Market on a mountain bike.

Ness is described as a white male adult, 6 feet, 1 inch tall, and 250 pounds, with brown hair shaved on sides and short on top, with hazel eyes.

When last seen, he was wearing a shirt of unknown color and blue baggy jeans.

If you have any information regarding Ness’ whereabouts please contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251, Extension 1.

 

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

The COVID-19 pandemic had a stark negative impact on students’ math scores, new data from Michigan shows. Math achievement growth over the three-year period from spring 2019 through spring 2022 was substantially lower – approximately 7 national percentiles – than among comparable students the three years prior.

There were even larger decreases among students who are Black or Latino, low income or who attended the majority of schools that taught remotely for at least part of the 2020-2021 academic year.

Effects on scores for English language arts, which include reading and writing, were small and generally not statistically significant.

To arrive at these findings, we looked at individual test scores and other data from Michigan.

First we looked at how math and English language arts test scores on Michigan’s annual statewide M-STEP exam grew between 2019 and 2022 for a group of students in third grade through fifth grade in spring 2019.

We compared these students’ test score growth with growth achieved by similar students who were in those same grades three years earlier, before the pandemic began. This provides us with a broad view of the impact of the pandemic on school learning as measured through test scores.

We also looked at scores from a series of benchmark tests taken between fall 2020 and spring 2022 to measure how achievement growth changed within each school year leading up to and following the height of the pandemic.

While other studies also show how the pandemic set back student achievement, our research looks at how achievement was affected over the course of the pandemic rather than just the end result. And the picture is pretty clear: Using a set of exams given at the beginning and end of each school year, we found a large drop in achievement between fall 2020 and spring 2021.

While student achievement began to improve in spring 2021, that recovery has been too slow to enable students to reach pre-pandemic expectations for test scores.

And, just as Black, Latino and low-income students suffered the largest drops in test scores during the pandemic, their math recovery has also slightly lagged behind white students and students who were more affluent.

Why it matters

This study adds to the research on how the pandemic appears to have exacerbated racial and economic achievement gaps. These gaps are important because lower achievement among disadvantaged groups could lead to lower college enrollment rates and, in turn, lower earnings.

What still isn’t known

Research is starting to show how quickly students are recovering and whether students are catching up at a rate fast enough to overcome pandemic learning disruptions. Some interventions, such as tutoring and after-school programming, are in place to attempt to speed up the recovery, but we do not yet know how effective they are.

We also don’t know for sure why there were disproportionate learning delays in math relative to English language arts. One possibility is that families found it easier to supplement reading instruction at home compared to math.

What’s next

Our next study looks at how the pandemic affected how students were identified for special education services. We are assessing how the inability to have in-person contact between teachers, school professionals and students made it harder to assess and serve students who might benefit from special education. Delays in access to these services could have substantially affected their academic, developmental and behavioral progress.

Scott A Imberman, Professor of Economics and Education Policy, Michigan State University and Katharine O. Strunk, Professor of Education Policy and Economics, Michigan State University

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has new dogs — big ones, little ones, seniors and puppies — waiting to be adopted this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Anatolian shepherd, Belgian malinois, Catahoula leopard dog, Chihuahua, German shepherd, hound, mastiff, pit bull, plott hound, pointer 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.

The following dogs 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.

Female terrier

This 6-year-old female terrier has a gray coat

She is in kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-5393.

Male German shepherd puppy

This 6-month-old male German shepherd puppy has a black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-5315.

‘Zeus’

“Zeus” is a 2-year-old male mastiff with a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-5070.

Female German shepherd

This 3-year-old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-5396.

Anatolian shepherd-mastiff mix

This 3-year-old male Anatolian shepherd-mastiff mix has a short fawn coat.

He is in kennel No. 5, ID No. LCAC-A-5276.

‘Zeta’

“Zeta” is a 1-year-old female pit bull terrier with a black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-5427.

Female pit bull terrier

This 3-year-old female pit bull terrier has a brown and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-5400.

Female hound-shepherd mix puppy

This 3-month-old female hound-shepherd mix puppy has a black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-5370.

Male Catahoula leopard dog puppy

This 3-month-old male Catahoula leopard dog puppy has a short tan and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-5354.

Female pointer-retriever mix

This 9-year-old female pointer-retriever mix has a short white coat with brown markings.

She is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-5404.

Male German shepherd

This two and a half year old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-5337.

Male German shepherd

This 1 year old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-5324.

Male plott hound

This 2-year-old male plott hound has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-5143.

Female pit bull terrier

This 5-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short gray and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-5321.

Male Chihuahua-terrier mix

This 2-year-old male Chihuahua-terrier mix has a short white coat.

She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-5381.

Female Chihuahua

This 2-year-old female Chihuahua has a short brown and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-5379.

Male shepherd

This 2-year-old male shepherd has a black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-5423.

Male pit bull terrier

This 5-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short white coat with red markings.

He is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-5322.

Female pit bull terrier

This 6-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-5410.

Male shepherd

This 1 and a half year old male shepherd has a short tricolor coat.

He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-5424.

Female shepherd

This 2-year-old female shepherd has a short yellow and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-5369.

Male pit bull puppy

This 5-month-old male pit bull puppy has a white coat.

He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-5325.

Male Belgian malinois

This 1 and a half year old male Belgian malinois has a tan and black coat.

He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-5409.

Male shepherd

This 2-year-old male shepherd has a short tan coat with white markings.

He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-5344.

Male shepherd mix puppy

This 6-month-old male shepherd mix puppy has a black coat with white markings.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-5408.

Female shepherd

This 10-month-old female shepherd has a tricolor coat.

She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-5323.

‘Jojo’

“Jojo” is a one and a half year old female pit bull terrier with a short tricolor coat.

She is in kennel foster care, ID No. LCAC-A-5312.

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.

What's up for July? Mars and Venus go their separate ways, Saturn cruises with a dusty young star, and it's prime time for the Milky Way.

You'll find Venus and Mars in the west after sunset throughout July. The pair moved ever closer in the sky during June, and they begin July appearing quite near to each other, but it's time for them to part company. You'll notice them trending lower as the month goes on, with Venus in particular being noticeably lower each night.

During the second week of July, reddish-colored Mars will appear very close to the blue-white star Regulus. Mars is quite distant from Earth right now, and appears at its dimmest for the year in July and August.

This month it appears at about the same brightness as Regulus, and you should easily be able to see the difference in their color with your eyes, or a pair of binoculars. They're closest together on July 9 and 10.

And on July 20, the Moon will pass through, appearing just next to Mars. Mercury also pops up – quite low in the sky – in the second half of July, for those with views of the horizon.

During July, you'll have giant planets Jupiter and Saturn keeping you company in the late night and early morning hours. And notably, you'll find Jupiter shining brightly beneath the crescent moon on the morning of July 11. Now, Jupiter appears quite a bit brighter than Saturn, and it's not just because Jupiter's a little bigger.

See, the farther away something is in space, the fainter it tends to be, and Saturn's certainly farther away from Earth than Jupiter. But it's also farther away from the Sun, and being more distant means it receives much less sunlight than Jupiter to begin with.

So it's the combination of being both farther from the Sun and farther from Earth that makes Saturn appear so much fainter.

Now, Saturn cruises across the sky with bright star Fomalhaut in July. At around 440 million years old, Fomalhaut is a fairly young star. NASA's Webb Space Telescope recently revealed new details in the dusty debris disk that surrounds it.

Webb showed that there's more structure in the disk than was previously known, with three distinct belts made of debris from collisions of larger bodies, probably not unlike the asteroids and comets in our own planetary system.

And researchers think the belts most likely are carved by the gravitational forces produced by unseen planets. It's a nice reminder that most stars you gaze upon represent entire planetary systems. Each one is a sun, and most have a family of worlds in orbit around them.

Finally, a reminder that July is prime time for viewing the bright core of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The Milky Way core is visible looking toward the south in July, as a faint, diagonal band of light, as soon as it's fully dark.

Packed with enormous numbers of stars, along with dark clouds of dust, you can view its faint glow with your own eyes from locations away from bright urban centers.

So if you have the opportunity to go camping or skywatching away from the city, it's truly one of the most awe inspiring sights of the night sky, and not to be missed!

Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions to explore the solar system and beyond at www.nasa.gov.

Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Health officials and forecasters are warning of extreme heat this weekend and urging community members to take measures to protect themselves.

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for Lake County and other parts of Northern California through Sunday night due to the increasing temperatures.

The advisory, in effect through 9 p.m. Sunday, warns of temperatures as high as 108 degrees.

Temperatures are expected to top the century mark on Saturday and Sunday before dropping into the 90s by Monday. By Thursday, temperatures are forecast to drop into the high 80s.

“This weekend, millions of people across five states will experience unusual heat. Human-caused climate change made this event more likely and more intense,” said Dr. Andrew Pershing, vice president of science at Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about the changing climate and how it affects people’s lives.

Climate Central said forecasts indicate a three-day stretch of “anomalous and extreme heat” is expected across California and the rest of the southwest through Monday.

The California Department of Public Health urged Californians to protect themselves from extreme heat over the Fourth of July weekend and remaining summer months by staying cool, hydrated, connected and informed.

“Summer heat waves can be dangerous, especially for young children, older adults, people with chronic diseases and disabilities, outdoor workers, people who are unhoused and those who are pregnant,” said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón. “It's important to protect yourself and your loved ones by checking in on friends and family who may need assistance, monitoring weather forecasts, staying hydrated, limiting time outdoors, and visiting cooling centers.”

CDPH said extreme heat is defined in most of the U.S. as an extended period — two to three days — of high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees.

Extreme heat often results in the highest annual number of deaths among all weather-related disasters, the agency said.

California is experiencing more frequent episodes of extreme heat, posing a greater danger to Californians from heat-related illness, state health officials reported.

Community members are urged to follow the following guidelines to stay safe.

Stay cool (during the hottest times of the day):

• Those without air conditioning should check with their city or county for cooling centers or visit public locations such as a library or shopping mall.
• Avoid physical exertion or exercising outdoors.
• Wear lightweight, light colored, loose clothing, hats, sunglasses and sunscreen.

Stay hydrated:

• Drink plenty of fluids, especially water, even when not thirsty; drink sports drinks (in moderation with water) to help replace electrolytes lost during exercise.
• Avoid sugary, alcoholic, and very cold drinks.
• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Stay connected:

• Monitor those at high risk of heat-related illness including infants and young children; people 65 years of age or older; individuals with chronic illness, disabilities or who are pregnant.
• Use a buddy system when working in the heat.

Stay informed:

• Check the local news for weather forecasts, extreme heat alerts and cooling centers.

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.