Juliana Vidich
Lake Group Chair

Next Lake Group General Meeting

The next Lake Group meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 2, 7 pm, at the Kelseyville High School Library. We are shifting our bi-monthly meetings from the third Wednesday to the first Tuesday of the month, in order to allow more time between our meetings and the Redbud Audubon Society meetings. Watch for our newsletter for more details.

Snow's Lake Vineyard Tour

On Sunday, Dec. 28th, a very cold and overcast day, a few of us from the Lake Group took a tour of the Snow's Lake Vineyard (SLV) to see how they were implementing the settlement of the lawsuit that Lake County brought against them about two years ago for illegal grading.

They proudly showed us the 243 acre wildlife corridor that they had created around the one perennial stream on the property, and the stream and vernal pool restoration work that they have done. We could see that they hadn't completely stripped all of the native vegetation from the 800 acres of vineyard - they left islands of trees and shrubs here and there. They plan to restore a couple of currently cleared hills by replanting oak trees and native grasses. They asserted that they use minimal pesticides and herbicides, and no fertilizer, on the grapes. For erosion control, they currently have 60% of the vineyard planted with cover crops, and have created beds of rock and settling ponds to slow down and catch runoff.

The ranch has 2300 acres total, of which only about 1000 acres are developed. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they put the undeveloped 1000+ acres into a Conservation or Open Space Easement and created hiking and equestrian trails on it? We'd also like to see them plant thousands of oak trees, become a model of sustainable agriculture, perhaps using organic or biodynamic growing methods, and reconcile with their neighbors.

Lake County Planning Commission Approves Geothermal Setback!

On Jan. 8, the Lake County Planning Commission approved a modified "viewshed overlay" geothermal setback around Clear Lake, that is about one mile wide, with extensions for the Middle Creek restoration area and for the area between Hwy. 29 and the lake, which includes Mt. Konocti and Big Valley. The credit for this accomplishment goes mainly to Chuck Lamb and Holly Harris, who organized the citizen's action group in Clearlake Oaks. We commend planning commissioners Swetnum, Camotta, and Butler for voting in favor of the setback, Chuck and Holly for their leadership, and the hundreds of other people who have supported the setback. Now, the issue will go back to the Supervisors for another vote.

Geothermal Advisory Committee Meeting