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- Written by: Karen Sullivan, Kim Riley, and Terre Logsdon
Name: Mimulus douglasii
Family: Mimulus (Monkeyflower)
Common Names: Purple mouse-ears
Colors: Pale pink to deep fuschia and purple
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The diminutive flower that packs a colorful punch and is often found on serpentine soils, mimulus douglasii (purple mouse-ears) is a species of monkeyflower known by the common names brownies and purple mouse-ears and is native to Lake County and the mountains and foothills of California and Oregon.
Purple mouse-ears attracts native bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and is a lovely addition to border areas of your garden or farm if you have heavy clay soils; it can survive in dry (serpentine) soils as well as near wetlands or irrigation as long as the soils are nutrient-deficient.
While the flower itself has five petals, it is called purple mouse-ears for the 2 prominent upper lobes, much like a field mouse.
It’s preferred habitat is in soils composed primarily of serpentine, the slick-green rock found in many areas of Lake County. Although not as well known as the state flower California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), serpentine is actually the official California state rock.
In next week’s column, we’ll discuss serpentine-laden soils and the unique plant species found on them, but for this week, if you have the chance to explore right now and find small 1- to 2-inch plants with stunning colors and ears, chances are you’re looking at purple mouse-ears! They will typically be in bloom for a few more weeks.
Nurseries where you can purchase seeds: Unknown at this time.
Terre Logsdon is an environmentalist, composter, and advocate for agroecology solutions to farming. An avid fan and protector of California wildflowers, plants, natural resources, and the environment, she seeks collaborative solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Kim Riley is retired, an avid hiker at Highland Springs, and has lived in Lake County since 1985. After 15 years of trail recovery and maintenance on the Highland Springs trails, she is now focused on native plants, including a native plant and pollinator garden on her property as well as promoting and preserving the beauty of the Highland Springs Recreation Area. Karen Sullivan has operated two nurseries to propagate and cultivate native plants and wildflowers, has lived in Kelseyville for the past 30 years, rides horses far and wide to see as many flowers as possible, and offers native plants and wildflowers for sale to the public. They are collaborating on a book, Highland Springs Recreation Area: A Field Guide, which will be published in the future. In the meanwhile, please visit https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsNaturalists and https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsRecreationArea.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Akita, boxer, Miniature Pinscher, husky, shepherd and pit bull.
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 (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
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.
‘Sophie’
“Sophie” is a female boxer-pit bull mix with a short red coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14356.
Female Miniature Pinscher
This young female Miniature Pinscher has a short red coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 14446.
‘Apollo’
“Apollo” is a male Akita mix with a short black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 23, ID No. 14445.
Husky-pit bull terrier
This young male husky-pit bull terrier mix has a short blue and white coat.
He’s in kennel No. 24, ID No. 14437.
‘Husk’
“Husk” is a male shepherd mix with a short black and brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14429.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
NASA is targeting no earlier than April 8 for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to make the first attempt at powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.
Before the 4-pound rotorcraft can attempt its first flight, however, both it and its team must meet a series of daunting milestones.
Ingenuity remains attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover, which touched down on Mars Feb. 18.
On March 21, the rover deployed the guitar case-shaped graphite composite debris shield that protected Ingenuity during landing. The rover currently is in transit to the “airfield” where Ingenuity will attempt to fly. Once deployed, Ingenuity will have 30 Martian days, or sols, (31 Earth days) to conduct its test flight campaign.
“When NASA’s Sojourner rover landed on Mars in 1997, it proved that roving the Red Planet was possible and completely redefined our approach to how we explore Mars. Similarly, we want to learn about the potential Ingenuity has for the future of science research,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. “Aptly named, Ingenuity is a technology demonstration that aims to be the first powered flight on another world and, if successful, could further expand our horizons and broaden the scope of what is possible with Mars exploration.”
Flying in a controlled manner on Mars is far more difficult than flying on Earth. The Red Planet has significant gravity (about one-third that of Earth’s) but its atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s at the surface.
During Martian daytime, the planet’s surface receives only about half the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth during its daytime, and nighttime temperatures can drop as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius), which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components.
To fit within the available accommodations provided by the Perseverance rover, the Ingenuity helicopter must be small. To fly in the Mars environment, it must be lightweight. To survive the frigid Martian nights, it must have enough energy to power internal heaters.
The system – from the performance of its rotors in rarified air to its solar panels, electrical heaters, and other components – has been tested and retested in the vacuum chambers and test labs of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“Every step we have taken since this journey began six years ago has been uncharted territory in the history of aircraft,” said Bob Balaram, Mars Helicopter chief engineer at JPL. “And while getting deployed to the surface will be a big challenge, surviving that first night on Mars alone, without the rover protecting it and keeping it powered, will be an even bigger one.”
Deploying the helicopter
Before Ingenuity takes its first flight on Mars, it must be squarely in the middle of its airfield – a 33-by-33-foot (10-by-10-meter) patch of Martian real estate chosen for its flatness and lack of obstructions.
Once the helicopter and rover teams confirm that Perseverance is situated exactly where they want it to be inside the airfield, the elaborate process to deploy the helicopter on the surface of Mars begins.
“As with everything with the helicopter, this type of deployment has never been done before,” said Farah Alibay, Mars Helicopter integration lead for the Perseverance rover. “Once we start the deployment there is no turning back. All activities are closely coordinated, irreversible, and dependent on each other. If there is even a hint that something isn’t going as expected, we may decide to hold off for a sol or more until we have a better idea what is going on.”
The helicopter deployment process will take about six sols (six days, four hours on Earth). On the first sol, the team on Earth will activate a bolt-breaking device, releasing a locking mechanism that helped hold the helicopter firmly against the rover’s belly during launch and Mars landing.
The following sol, they will fire a cable-cutting pyrotechnic device, enabling the mechanized arm that holds Ingenuity to begin rotating the helicopter out of its horizontal position. This is also when the rotorcraft will extend two of its four landing legs.
During the third sol of the deployment sequence, a small electric motor will finish rotating Ingenuity until it latches, bringing the helicopter completely vertical. During the fourth sol, the final two landing legs will snap into position. On each of those four sols, the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) imager will take confirmation shots of Ingenuity as it incrementally unfolds into its flight configuration.
In its final position, the helicopter will hang suspended at about 5 inches over the Martian surface. At that point, only a single bolt and a couple dozen tiny electrical contacts will connect the helicopter to Perseverance. On the fifth sol of deployment, the team will use the final opportunity to utilize Perseverance as a power source and charge Ingenuity’s six battery cells.
“Once we cut the cord with Perseverance and drop those final five inches to the surface, we want to have our big friend drive away as quickly as possible so we can get the Sun’s rays on our solar panel and begin recharging our batteries,” said Balaram.
On the sixth and final scheduled sol of this deployment phase, the team will need to confirm three things: that Ingenuity’s four legs are firmly on the surface of Jezero Crater, that the rover did, indeed, drive about 16 feet (about 5 meters) away, and that both helicopter and rover are communicating via their onboard radios. This milestone also initiates the 30-sol clock during which time all preflight checks and flight tests must take place.
“Ingenuity is an experimental engineering flight test – we want to see if we can fly at Mars,” said MiMi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL. “There are no science instruments onboard and no goals to obtain scientific information. We are confident that all the engineering data we want to obtain both on the surface of Mars and aloft can be done within this 30-sol window.”
As with deployment, the helicopter and rover teams will approach the upcoming flight test methodically. If the team misses or has questions about an important preflight milestone, they may take one or more sols to better understand the issue.
If the helicopter survives the first night of the sequence period on the surface of Mars, however, the team will spend the next several sols doing everything possible to ensure a successful flight, including wiggling the rotor blades and verifying the performance of the inertial measurement unit, as well as testing the entire rotor system during a spin-up to 2,537 rpm (while Ingenuity’s landing gear remain firmly on the surface).
Once the team is ready to attempt the first flight, Perseverance will receive and relay to Ingenuity the final flight instructions from JPL mission controllers. Several factors will determine the precise time for the flight, including modeling of local wind patterns plus measurements taken by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) aboard Perseverance. Ingenuity will run its rotors to 2,537 rpm and, if all final self-checks look good, lift off. After climbing at a rate of about 3 feet per second (1 meter per second), the helicopter will hover at 10 feet (3 meters) above the surface for up to 30 seconds. Then, the Mars Helicopter will descend and touch back down on the Martian surface.
Several hours after the first flight has occurred, Perseverance will downlink Ingenuity’s first set of engineering data and, possibly, images and video from the rover’s Navigation Cameras and Mastcam-Z. From the data downlinked that first evening after the flight, the Mars Helicopter team expect to be able to determine if their first attempt to fly at Mars was a success.
On the following sol, all the remaining engineering data collected during the flight, as well as some low-resolution black-and-white imagery from the helicopter’s own Navigation Camera, could be downlinked to JPL. The third sol of this phase, the two images taken by the helicopter’s high-resolution color camera should arrive. The Mars Helicopter team will use all information available to determine when and how to move forward with their next test.
“Mars is hard,” said Aung. “Our plan is to work whatever the Red Planet throws at us the very same way we handled every challenge we’ve faced over the past six years – together, with tenacity and a lot of hard work, and a little Ingenuity.”
A piece of history
While Ingenuity will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, the first powered, controlled flight on Earth took place Dec. 17, 1903, on the windswept dunes of Kill Devil Hill, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville and Wilbur Wright covered 120 feet in 12 seconds during the first flight. The Wright brothers made four flights that day, each longer than the previous.
A small amount of the material that covered one of the wings of the Wright brothers’ aircraft, known as the Flyer, during the first flight is now aboard Ingenuity.
An insulative tape was used to wrap the small swatch of fabric around a cable located underneath the helicopter’s solar panel. The Wrights used the same type of material – an unbleached muslin called “Pride of the West” – to cover their glider and aircraft wings beginning in 1901.
The Apollo 11 crew flew a different piece of the material, along with a small splinter of wood from the Wright Flyer, to the Moon and back during their iconic mission in July 1969.
More about Ingenuity
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the technology demonstration for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance.
At NASA Headquarters, Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. At JPL, MiMi Aung is the project manager and J. (Bob) Balaram is chief engineer.
Bring the excitement of Ingenuity into classrooms and homes through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement toolkit. Educators, students, and families can follow along the mission by building a paper helicopter or coding an Ingenuity video game.
For more information about Ingenuity visit https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter.
More about Perseverance
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance visit www.nasa.gov/perseverance and www.mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Dr. Giovanni Annous, superintendent of Upper Lake Unified School District, was recently honored as the “Superintendent of the Year” for the Association of California School Administrators Region 4.
The Association of California School Administrators, or ACSA, Region 4 represents school administrators from Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, Solano and Marin counties. There are nearly 100 public school districts in the region, educating more than 200,000 students.
“It was a sobering moment when I learned I received the honor of being named Region 4 Superintendent of the Year,” said Annous. “It is a great honor to be placed in such distinguished ranks as those of the past honorees.”
Tenderly Logan, director of Pupil Personnel Services at Upper Lake Unified School District, or ULUSD, submitted the nomination on behalf of the administrative team and governing board members.
“Students first! This is the philosophy that Dr. Annous lives and breathes,” said Logan. “Everything he does in the district and community is all about engaging and uplifting the lives of students.”
Annous has achieved much for ULUSD in his four-year tenure, including facility upgrades, improving school climate, and opening a Wellness Center for ULUSD families.
The Wellness Center provides food, clothes, shower facilities, laundry facilities and a wellness check room. It has become a haven for many ULUSD families, particularly those who need additional support so their children can attend school with clean clothes, clean bodies and a full stomach.
The facility projects include the construction of shade structures, expansion of the solar panel field, and planning of the construction of new facilities at the elementary and high schools.
The increase in positive school climate at ULUSD can be attributed to Annous’s consistent collaboration with his students, teachers, families and the community at large.
“The relationships he cultivates are professional and productive,” said ULUSD Board of Trustees member Diane Plante.
But it is the pandemic that has highlighted Annous’ strength in leadership.
“If I had to choose one significant contribution to education this year, it was making the decision to keep Upper Lake Unified School District open to in-person instruction,” said Annous.
Upper Lake Unified School District successfully opened to hybrid instruction which included in-person and distance learning in August 2020. It remains open utilizing the hybrid model to this day.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the district spent $300,000 upgrading their technology. Each ULUSD student received a computer and students were given internet connectivity based on need to give them the tools to successfully take part in distance learning. Food delivery for ULUSD students continued from the beginning of the shut down through December. The constant search for personal protective equipment began.
“Dr. Annous doesn’t just sit back with his teams and plan, he gets in and gets his hands dirty,” his administrative team wrote in his nomination letter.
This was more than evident this past summer. Annous drove hundreds of miles to pick up scarce building materials. He then spent weekends and evenings building plexiglass separators for all his teachers, students and staff.
“The district became a poster child for how schools should successfully operate in a pandemic and achieve their goals of teaching the students,” Annous said.
Annous regularly shares the credit for the success of ULUSD.
“This decision [to open] was not mine alone,” Annous said. “I commend and praise our leadership team, our amazing staff, and our ULUSD parents for their commitment to our students and the community.”
The ULUSD staff returned the appreciation for their Superintendent in the nomination letter.
“Dr. Annous is the epitome of a supportive, loving, giving, intelligent, visionary leader,” said the ULUSD Administrative Team. “There are only better things on the horizon with Dr. Annous at the helm.”
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