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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The agenda can be found here.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to
On Tuesday, the council will hold a public hearing and introduce the ordinance amending Chapter 8.16 of the Lakeport Municipal Code establishing regulations related to the establishment of an edible food recovery program and calendar a second reading of the ordinance.
Compliance Officer Andrew Britton’s report to the council explains that in September 2016 the state adopted SB 1383, which established methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in various economic sectors.
“SB 1383 establishes aggressive targets to achieve by year 2025, including a 75 percent reduction in the level of the statewide disposal of organic waste from the 2014 level; and establishes an additional target that not less than 20 percent of currently disposed edible food is recovered for human consumption by 2025,” Britton wrote.
Britton said edible food recovery is an important component of the SB 1383 legislation. Although the city and other Lake County jurisdictions received rural jurisdiction waivers from CalRecycle for certain components of the SB 1383 regulations through the end of 2026, edible food recovery is not an exempted program.
Under council business, Assistant City Manager Nick Walker will ask the council to consider options for funding and include the South Main Street Paving Project in the spending plan for Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery funds and include the cost of the project in the 2022-23 budget.
Also on Tuesday, new Community Development Department employee Victor Fernandez and new Public Works employee Ky Ramsey will be introduced, the Youth Governance Council will make a presentation and the Lakeport Police Department will offer a citizen commendation to Connor Disney for aiding a police officer in a rescue on Clear Lake.
On the consent agenda — items usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the regular council meeting on April 5; adoption of a resolution authorizing continued remote teleconference meetings of the Lakeport City Council and its legislative bodies pursuant to Government Code section 54953(e); approval of event application 2022-014, with staff recommendations, for the 2022 Walk for Life; approval of event application 2022-015, with staff recommendations, for the Tuesday Farmers’ Market in Library Park; adoption of the ordinance amending chapter 3.04 of the Lakeport Municipal Code.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Female Siamese
This 5-year-old female Siamese cat has a short white coat with gray markings.
She is in cat room kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-3238.
Female domestic medium hair
This 1-year-old female domestic medium hair cat has a gray tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 84, ID No. LCAC-A-3237.
‘Delilah’
“Delilah” is a 2-year-old female domestic longhair cat with a gray coat with white markings.
She is in cat room kennel No. 103, ID No. LCAC-A-3070.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Judith Lamare
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — When will the first Swainson's hawk return to our region from its annual migration south?
Certainly by the second week of March, we will see the early returnees circling above their nesting trees throughout the Central Valley of California and foraging in nearby agricultural fields.
Sacramento, Yolo, Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties have the highest concentrations of nesting sites.
Swainson's hawks leave our region in September to fly thousands of miles south. A recent study showed that hawks who nest in the same community, spend the winter in different areas, as far apart as Sinaloa, Mexico, Meta, Colombia and Salta, Argentina.
When a hawk returns to our region, it returns to the site where it nested the previous season, and meets up with its mate there.
Swainson's hawks are found in various colors, but these field marks remain constant. Some Swainson's hawks look purely black and white, and are called "light morphs," while others may have feathers of dark browns, so the field marks aren't readily apparent. They are called "dark morphs." Many others are "intermediate" between light and dark.
The way to tell a Swainson's hawk from a red tailed hawk is by looking at the underside of the wing. The red tailed hawk will have a dark leading edge of the wing while the Swainson's hawk wing will be lighter at the leading edge.
The red tailed hawk will have a "belly band" of color next to a white chest, while the Swainson's hawk will have a lighter belly than their chest color.
In 1983, the state of California declared the Swainson's hawk to be threatened according to the criteria set by the California Endangered Species Act.
Since then the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, has confirmed the need for special government protection for this species.
By the end of March in California, about 2,000 thousand Swainson's hawk pairs will be preparing nests to take care of eggs.
If you witness harassment of hawks, please contact the CDFW hotline at 888-334-CALTIP (888 334-2258), 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Or you may submit anonymous tips to CDFW using tip411.
By April, Swainson's Hawk pairs are in nest building, or rebuilding, mode. They will build at the site of their last nest, or in a suitable tree nearby.
Nests are usually in tall, older trees, near the top of the tree. To locate one, watch for hawks flying in and out of a tree with sticks in their beaks.
This is a very exciting time for hawk nest watchers. Our nesting hawk pairs need nearby foraging areas to feed a new generation of our most endangered raptor in California.
The best foraging is alfalfa fields and irrigated pasture because this is where the highest value prey are found in large numbers for the longest period of time. The favorite prey for feeding the young are small field mice, squirrels, rabbits, and voles.
The biggest threat to the breeding success of the Swainson's hawk is the loss of foraging grounds, largely as a result of urbanization of agricultural land.
Preservation of agricultural land and urban limit lines is critical to protecting foraging habitat
Judith Lamare is co-founder of Friends of the Swainson's Hawk, a citizen advocacy group based in Sacramento California. All the photos in this article were contributed by avid bird watchers and hawk advocates. Find Friends of the Swainson's Hawk on Facebook and at www.swainsonhawk.org.
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- Written by: NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
March continued the planet’s exceedingly warm start to 2022, ranking as the fifth-warmest March in 143 years.
The year so far ranks as the fifth-warmest globally since 1880, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Below are more highlights from NOAA’s latest monthly global climate report:
Climate by the numbers
March 2022
The average global land and ocean-surface temperature for March was 1.71 degrees F (0.95 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average of 54.9 degrees (12.7 degrees C), ranking as the fifth-warmest March in the global climate record.
March 2022 also was the 46th consecutive March and the 447th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average.
Looking regionally, Oceania had its fourth-warmest March on record while Asia had its ninth-warmest. North America, South America, Europe and Africa all had above-average March temperatures, but none of the continents saw a top-15 warm March.
Year to date | January through March
For 2022 so far, the global land and ocean surface temperature averaged 1.58 degrees F (0.88 of a degree C), making it the fifth-warmest year to date on record.
Asia also had its fifth warmest year-to-date temperature on record, while South America, Europe, the Caribbean region and Oceania each saw a January-through-March temperature ranked among the nine warmest on record. Africa and North America also were warmer than average, but saw their coolest year to date since 2012 and 2014, respectively.
A map of the world plotted with some of the most significant climate events that occurred during March 2022.
Other notable climate events in the March report:
• Sea ice was scant at the poles: Antarctic sea ice coverage (extent) was just 1.09 million square miles, the second-smallest extent for March in the 44-year record. Only March of 2017 had a smaller sea ice extent. Across the Arctic, sea ice extent averaged 5.63 million square miles — the ninth-smallest for March since records began in 1979.
• A busy month for the tropics: Nine tropical storms formed globally in March, tying as the second-highest number of tropical storms in March — behind March of 1994 which had a total of 10. Only three of the nine tropical storms reached cyclone (hurricane) strength, which is below normal for the month.