Get serious
If the BOS is serious about mitigating the amount of nutrient loading in Clear Lake, another consideration should be to declare the hills in Nice, Lucerne, Clearlake Oaks and Cow Mountain as legally protected watersheds. The Middle Creek, Robinson Lake restoration project is not the only area that needs mitigation from sediment and nutrient loading.
For years the hills in Nice, Lucerne and Clearlake Oaks have suffered serious soil erosion from unabated environmentally disrespectful dirt bike riders. It seems that everyone in Lake County deems it necessary to own a dirt bike with the attitude that its their god given right to scar up the land and destroy the environment or private property.
The county’s response to this problem has always been that its private property and its the owners responsibility to fence and post no trespassing signs to get law enforcement involved. Most of the hills in these areas are paper subdivisions and the owners are absentee, so that’s unlikely to happen.
However, there are some responsible owners that do try to protect their property, but fencing is continually cut down and no trespassing signs are ignored and it’s becoming an ongoing battle.
It’s logical to me that the county should have the authority to declare these hills a legally protected water shed while still leaving them in private hands. Many other counties in California do have protected watersheds.
Some additional concerns for the county should be the prevention in dry summer months of serious grass fires taking place in these hills from a dirt bike with no spark arrestor or the hot muffler of a dropped dirt bike. If this county experiences any wildfires from negligent dirt bike riders county officials need be held accountable for letting these hazardous fire conditions to continue unabated.
The LCSO now has street legal dirt bikes that could effectively enforce such an ordinance when visible violations or complaints are reported. Some occasional patrols in the hills during the weekends could discourage these violations. Most of the dirt bike riders at Pyle road in Nice are staged and unloaded at the base of the hills. That should make it easy for the enforcement officers to cite violators in that area.
This mentality that anything goes in Lake County especially with dirt bike riders needs to stop and Lake County needs the legal tools to address this degradation of our environment.
Thomas Nickel, Lakeport
It’s simple
Guff, when Hillary texts her daughter and others saying Benghazi was a terrorists attack and then says it was a video film. What do you call that? Richard Nixon was on TV wagging his finger and saying “I am not a crook.” Which I call a lie, what say you?
Bill Clinton did the same thing, “I did not have sex with that woman,” a lie? I have always worked on the “kiss” principle because I am a simple man not a scholar, so I went to the dictionary; lie: “a false statement deliberately presented as being true, something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.” I don’t use pretty words or euphemisms, i.e. affected elegance of language, I call a spade a spade! So what other word should I use except lie, what say you? And while you are at it, Bill Clinton should probably be a registered sex offender, but he is the darling of the Democrat Party, explain that? You always have words of wisdom I do take to heart and I sincerely mean that. My uncle once told me during a job conflict, “never burn your bridges behind you.” I have heeded that advice just like yours. Finally explain to me the last (food fight) Republican debate? And do you know where President Obama was when they were calling for reinforcements during the Benghazi debacle.
And by the way, Mitch McConnell, pull a page out of Harry Reid’s play book, i.e. The Supreme Court Nomination, and do the same thing the Dems would do to you. After all Harry Reid has been running the Rep Party for the last 7 years. Get a spine Mitch or get out!
And now it turns out President Obama will not attend Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s funeral. This only shows he is a total ideologue, i.e. my way or the highway. Which sets a moment in history that only an extreme left wing liberal could set. He had better not have a golf game on Saturday! Or better yet, go play golf and show your true colors! The eyes of America will be trained on you.
Mac McKay, Lakeport
