CLEARLAKE— Will Evans, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, was this week’s guest speaker at the Thursday Morning Judge’s Breakfast in Clearlake. Evans gave an overview of the organization’s ongoing efforts focusing on their recent accomplishments and ongoing community wide projects.
Prior to co-founding CLERC, Evans worked for the County of Lake for eight years. Jumping from department to department, he found his calling in the creation of the organization.
CLERC is a 501 c(3) nonprofit established in 2014 and according to Evans intends to “Serve as a steward for environmental and economic sustainability of Clear Lake, its neighboring lands and waters, local communities and beyond.” Beginning as a research group with a focus on unlocking the secrets of Clear Lake, the CLERC created Lake County’s first accredited water analysis lab. Prior to the opening of this lab, water samples would have to be sent via courier to the closest lab, located in Ukiah. As these samples must be tested within four hours, this distance posed various issues. Evans shared, “Results were less reliable… All of our water utility rate payer money was going to Ukiah.” Discussing the issue with his co-founder Carolyn Ruttan, they formed the analysis lab in 2020 and have taken on all of the county’s testing needs.
Since 2019 CLERC has secured over 30 million dollars in grant funding, which Evans explained is owed to the collaborative approach they take to grant writing. Instead of helping each community apply for their own grants, they group several areas together on one grant, which has proven to increase the award rate. “It’s the too big to fail model” stated Evans.
As CLERC grew, it responded to the needs of the community and after the Valley Fire spurred an entire slew of devastating wildfires, CLERC adapted, expanding their focuses onto mitigating wildfire and charting a course for enhanced wildfire resilience.
The awarded grant funds have been utilized over many different community wide projects, including fire mitigation and fuel reduction through the Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaborative. Currently over 3500 acres of fuel recursion work has been completed with another 2000 acres planned. Evans noted “Over 1000 hazardous trees have been removed.” The group has also been able to start a county wide wood chipping service available through their website theclerc.org, as well as contract a firm, Falk Family Forestry located in Sonoma, for the use of a Tigercat 6050 bio char machine as part of their Bio Char Pilot Project. This project turned cut lumber or raw lumber into bio char, an activated component that can be applied in agricultural and filtration industries. Evans shared, “The end goal with this is to turn it into a commodity that has value and can be sold and that money can be put back into our management project.” He continued that the minimum raw material necessary for the rental of the Tigercat 6050 is 2,000 tons so each usage is eradicating a large amount of raw material.
District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier asked “What is the end life of bio char?” Evans responded “It will probably end up in a landfill or in the ground somewhere but that still sequesters its carbon so it prevents it from decomposing for years. There’s still value in just throwing it away.” Current bio char project sites are located in the Mendocino national Forest and Middletown Wastewater Treatment Plant.
CLERC is constantly adapting to address the needs of the community, and have grown organically through that process, leaving open positions in their department. For more information visit their website.
The Judges Breakfast is held every Thursday morning at 7 a.m. in the Masonic Lodge in Clearlake. Next week’s speaker is Autumn Lancaster, Fire Marshall for the Lake County Fire Protection District.
