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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Fish and Wildlife said Tuesday that it would not give the listing to the hitch, also known as the “chi” to Lake County’s Pomo tribes, but that a full species evaluation is underway.
That evaluation is expected to be completed in 2025. It’s possible that a listing following the regular process could follow, based upon the study’s conclusions.
“Lake County Farm Bureau believes in informed decisions made on the basis of thorough scientific research and analysis. We are confident that USFWS will continue to analyze the status of the Clear Lake hitch in order to make the most appropriate listing decision for the species by the original 2025 review period,” said Executive Director Rebecca Harper.
The Big Valley Pomo, which along with Lake County’s other tribes joined the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Fish and Game Commission in advocating for Fish and Wildlife to grant the emergency measure, voiced its disappointment in the decision.
Tribal Chair Philip Gomez said the emergency listing could have resulted in changes to water diversions that would have increased water flow in creeks during the spawning period.
Center for Biological Diversity representative Meg Townsend this week had cautioned that a listing itself doesn’t necessarily lead to saving a species.
As the species evaluation moves forward, Harper said agricultural stakeholders remain committed to voluntary actions that will improve spawning conditions for the hitch.
“Stakeholders will continue working with state and federal agencies as well as community partners to identify and implement strategies that allow us to move forward together,” Harper said.
Beginning in March, hitch began to run in large numbers in county creeks, which has appeared to be a result of this year’s high water levels.
That led to some overflow of creeks into fields in the Kelseyville area, which saw Harper and local farmers working alongside the tribes to safely move the fish to prevent them from being stranded.
“While acknowledging that one year of successful spawning will not save the species, seeing the chi in such significant numbers in our tributaries this spring has been very encouraging,” said Harper.
She added, “We hope that this successful spawning run will help to stabilize the population while ongoing in-lake and stream-based studies aim to address larger issues that may be impacting the population.”
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
The group will meet from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, 3985 Country Club Drive.
The meeting can be accessed via Zoom; the meeting ID is 957 8198 0635, pass code is 491079. For one-tap mobile, dial 16699006833,,95781980635#,,,,*491079# US.
The town hall’s board members, appointed by the Board of Supervisors on May 2, are Kathy Herdman, Priest Martinez, Atlas Pearson, Austin Pratt and Becky Schwenger.
The group will have a welcoming statement in which it will announce that the Central Region Town Hall “is solely an advisory body to provide recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.”
Action items include officer selection, times and dates for meetings, and the determining of future agenda items.
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- Written by: Rachel Goldsmith Turow, Seattle University
Mindfulness and self-compassion are now buzzwords for self-improvement. But in fact, a growing body of research shows these practices can lead to real mental health benefits. This research – ongoing, voluminous and worldwide – clearly shows how and why these two practices work.
One effective way to cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion is through meditation.
For more than 20 years, as a clinical psychologist, research scientist and educator, I taught meditation to students and clinical patients and took a deep dive into the research literature. My recent book, “The Self-Talk Workout: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Dissolve Self-Criticism and Transform the Voice in Your Head,” highlights much of that research.
I learned even more when I evaluated mental health programs and psychology classes that train participants in mindfulness and compassion-based techniques.
Defining mindfulness and self-compassion
Mindfulness means purposefully paying attention to the present moment with an attitude of interest or curiosity rather than judgment.
Self-compassion involves being kind and understanding toward yourself, even during moments of suffering or failure.
Both are associated with greater well-being.
But don’t confuse self-compassion with self-esteem or self-centeredness, or assume that it somehow lowers your standards, motivation or productivity. Instead, research shows that self-compassion is linked with greater motivation, less procrastination and better relationships.
Be patient when starting a meditation practice
I didn’t like meditation – the specific practice sessions that train mindfulness and self-compassion – the first time I tried it as a college student in the late ‘90s. I felt like a failure when my mind wandered, and I interpreted that as a sign that I couldn’t do it.
In both my own and others’ meditation practices, I’ve noticed that the beginning is often rocky and full of doubt, resistance and distraction.
But what seem like impediments can actually enhance meditation practice, because the mental work of handling them builds strength.
For the first six months I meditated, my body and mind were restless. I wanted to get up and do other tasks. But I didn’t. Eventually it became easier to notice my urges and thoughts without acting upon them. I didn’t get as upset with myself.
After about a year of consistent meditation, my mind seemed more organized and controllable; it no longer got stuck in self-critical loops. I felt a sense of kindness or friendliness toward myself in everyday moments, as well as during joyful or difficult experiences. I enjoyed ordinary activities more, such as walking or cleaning.
It took a while to understand that anytime you sit down and try to meditate, that’s meditation. It is a mental process, rather than a destination.
How meditation works on the mind
Just having a general intention to be more mindful or self-compassionate is unlikely to work.
Most programs shown to make meaningful differences involve at least seven sessions. Studies show these repeated workouts improve attention skills and decrease rumination, or repeated negative thinking.
They also lessen self-criticism, which is linked to numerous mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Meditation is not just about sustaining your attention – it’s also about shifting and returning your focus after the distraction. The act of shifting and refocusing cultivates attention skills and decreases rumination.
Trying repeatedly to refrain from self-judgment during the session will train your mind to be less self-critical.
An interconnected group of brain regions called the default mode network is strikingly affected by meditation. Much of this network’s activity reflects repetitive thinking, such as a rehash of a decadeslong tension with your sister. It’s most prominent when you’re not doing much of anything. Activity of the default mode network is related to rumination, unhappiness and depression.
Research shows that just one month of meditation reduces the noise of the default mode network. The type of meditation practice doesn’t seem to matter.
Establishing the formal practice
A common misconception about mindfulness is that it’s simply a way to relax or clear the mind. Rather, it means intentionally paying attention to your experiences in a nonjudgmental way.
Consider meditation the formal part of your practice – that is, setting aside a time to work on specific mindfulness and self-compassion techniques.
Cultivating mindfulness with meditation often involves focusing on paying attention to the breath. A common way to start practice is to sit in a comfortable place and bring attention to your breathing, wherever you feel it most strongly.
At some point, probably after a breath or two, your mind will wander to another thought or feeling. As soon as you notice that, you can bring your attention back to the breath and try not to judge yourself for losing focus for five to 10 minutes.
When I was just getting started meditating, I would have to redirect my attention dozens or hundreds of times in a 20-to-30-minute session. Counting 10 breaths, and then another 10, and so on, helped me link my mind to the task of paying attention to my breathing.
The most well-established technique for cultivating self-compassion is called loving-kindness meditation. To practice, you can find a comfortable position, and for at least five minutes, internally repeat phrases such as, “May I be safe. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I live with ease.”
When your attention wanders, you can bring it back with as little self-judgment as possible and continue repeating the phrases. Then, if you like, offer the same well wishes to other people or to all beings.
Every time you return your focus to your practice without judging, you’re flexing your mental awareness, because you noticed your mind wandered. You also improve your capacity to shift attention, a valuable anti-rumination skill, and your nonjudgment, an antidote to self-criticism.
These practices work. Studies show that brain activity during meditation results in less self-judgment, depression and anxiety and results in less rumination.
Mindfulness also occurs when you tune into present-moment sensations, such as tasting your food or washing the dishes.
An ongoing routine of formal and informal practice can transform your thinking. And again, doing it once in a while won’t help as much. It’s like situps: A single situp isn’t likely to strengthen your abdominal muscles, but doing several sets each day will.
Meditation reduces self-criticism
Studies show that mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation reduce self-criticism, which leads to better mental health, including lower levels of depression, anxiety and PTSD. After an eight-week mindfulness program, participants experienced less self-judgment. These changes were linked with decreases in depression and anxiety.
One final point: Beginning meditators may find that self-criticism gets worse before it gets better.
After years or decades of habitual self-judgment, people often judge themselves harshly about losing focus during meditation. But once students get through the first few weeks of practice, the self-judgment begins to abate, both about meditation and about oneself in general.
As one of my students recently said after several weeks of mindfulness meditation: “I am more stable, more able to detach from unhelpful thoughts and can do all of this while being a little more compassionate and loving toward myself.”
Rachel Goldsmith Turow, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Population Health Science and Policy, Seattle University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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- Written by: Preston Dyches
What's up for May? Planets strike a pose with the Moon, we reach "peak Venus," and what's different about the skies of the Southern Hemisphere.
On the morning of May 13, find the planet Saturn rising together with a third-quarter (or half-full) moon. Find them together in the southeast in the couple of hours before sunrise.
Then on May 17, a slim crescent moon rises about an hour before the Sun, and from much of the U.S. and Canada, the planet Jupiter will appear very close to the Moon.
But from some southern U.S. states, you'll be able to observe Jupiter passing behind the Moon as the pair rise in morning twilight. And from the western states, Jupiter will actually be behind the Moon, in occultation, as the pair rise. Jupiter will start to emerge from behind the Moon as the Sun comes up.
Now, this will be quite low in the sky, so you'll need a clear view of the horizon to observe it, and a pair of binoculars will be a big help as the sky begins to brighten.
Next, following sunset on May 22 through the 24, the Moon, Venus and Mars form a close grouping in the west. The Moon sits between the two planets on May 23.
Venus has been rising higher in the sky each evening for the past few months. That begins to change in May, as the brilliant planet reaches its highest point in the western sky, and starts trending lower as we move into June. It'll disappear from evening skies by late July, reappearing in the eastern sky about a month later as a morning object.
There are some key differences between the night sky in the Southern Hemisphere, compared to the North. To start with, there's no counterpart to the North Star for the Southern Hemisphere. The celestial poles shift over time, so eventually there will be a "South Star," but not at the moment.
Next, from Orion to the Teapot to the Gemini twins, the seasonal star patterns northern observers are most familiar with appear flipped upside down when viewed in southern skies. The Moon also appears the other way around, and its phases fill up from left to right, instead of right to left as they do in the north.
Stars near the north celestial pole, including Ursa Major and Cassiopeia are below the horizon for much of the Southern Hemisphere. But there are lots of dazzling constellations easily visible only from the Southern Hemisphere, like Crux, Carina, Tucana (the toucan) and Centaurus (the centaur)!
Next, while observers in both hemispheres are well-acquainted with the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, Southern Hemisphere skywatchers get to enjoy the second and third brightest stars, as well.
The second-brightest star, Canopus, appears about half as bright as Sirius, but that's still quite bright. And the two stars are often seen together in southern skies. The third brightest star in our skies here on Earth is also the closest star system to our own — Alpha Centauri. It's too far south in the sky to be visible for most of the Northern Hemisphere. But it's quite well-known to skywatchers to the south.
Finally, there are two entire galaxies easily observed in the southern sky with the unaided eye. These are the Magellanic Clouds, which are dwarf galaxies that orbit our galaxy the Milky Way. They make for a stunning sight in night sky photos from Southern latitudes.
And that's a really short list of some of the ways the skies above the Southern Hemisphere are unique. Our view of the cosmos may be different from one part of the planet to the other, but the insights we gain from looking up and exploring are something we all can share.
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.