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California Department of Fish and Wildlife finalizes State Wildlife Action Plan 2025
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, has announced the State Wildlife Action Plan 2025 update is complete.
It can be found at the CDFW State Wildlife Action Plan, or SWAP, web page.
California’s SWAP, which is mandated by Congress and updated at least every 10 years, provides a comprehensive wildlife conservation strategy that is achieved through various conservation projects executed statewide.
Public and tribal input significantly shaped the plan. In March 2025, the SWAP Team held two public webinars, four conservation partner meetings, and two inter-tribal listening sessions.
In conjunction with these meetings, a public draft review generated over 160 comments from nearly 20 organizations, tribes, and the public.
Since 2005, CDFW and partners have implemented SWAP conservation strategies with funding support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s State Wildlife Grant, or SWG, program, which has awarded CDFW with nearly $71 million since 2000. This year marks the SWG program’s 25th anniversary.
CDFW uses SWG funds to develop and implement its SWAP and to support wildlife conservation projects across the state.
Funded projects must support strategies outlined under SWAP, whether it’s to benefit a species or to implement a SWAP goal or conservation strategy.
This funding is critical to species that aren’t protected and non-game species that often lack adequate funding sources.
Conservation efforts benefitting from SWAP and SWG funding include the White-Nose Syndrome Response Project, established to monitor California’s bat population for the deadly disease that could wipe out entire colonies of these small mammals; bats play a critical role in protecting agricultural lands from pests.
Another SWG funded project has successfully established a new population of Unarmored Threespine Stickleback fish in Southern California; this unique species’ range has been significantly reduced due to human development. These and other conservation highlights can be found on CDFW’s SWAP web page.
At its heart, SWAP is a non-regulatory blueprint to conserve California’s fish and wildlife, and their habitats. It combines the latest science and conservation priorities with recommended actions and tools.
SWAP 2025 includes updated information on the current health of California’s fish, wildlife and plant resources.
Explore SWAP 2025 to learn about CDFW’s conservation tools, as well as habitat and wildlife monitoring efforts.
Questions about SWAP can be directed to the CDFW SWAP Team at
Estate Planning: Inherited assets and estate planning by married people
Assets that are inherited by a married person are separate property (i.e., owned and controlled by the inheriting spouse alone) unless it is commingled (e.g., money deposited into a joint account) or re-titled (e.g., real property) to include the married person’s spouse.
If so, the other spouse can acquire a community property or separate property interest in the inherited separate property asset. Such inherited assets may be a difficult issue when a married couple does estate planning.
Most married people do a single joint living trust into which they transfer their real property and non retirement investment accounts, especially the assets that they acquired together from marital earnings. Often that means the surviving spouse inherits all, or almost all, the deceased spouse’s share of the trust estate.
However, a married person’s inherited assets may require an exception, especially when the asset is co-owned with siblings (or other family) or when the married person has their own children from a prior marriage.
Inherited assets co-owned by siblings may be excluded by the siblings when doing their joint estate planning with their spouses. That is, the siblings themselves may either expect or agree to keep their own undivided share in co-owned inherited property exclusively within the family bloodline (i.e., excluding their spouses and any step children).
Consider siblings who inherit co-ownership in a family real estate or a family business. Such assets are regarded by the siblings as special assets for personal or economic reasons. The siblings may agree that such assets stay in their family bloodline. Perhaps each sibling does the necessary estate planning to ensure the outcome. Alternatively one or more siblings may be undecided and do nothing. Indecision can lead to unintended outcomes.
Consider the sibling who keeps an undivided fractional ownership interest in real property outside of their joint husband and wife living trust. The sibling’s accompanying will may likely leave everything outside the trust (excluding any retirement and bank accounts that pass automatically to death beneficiaries) to the couple’s joint trust. If so, the surviving spouse may have to probate the deceased spouse’s will to claim the real property interest, thus partly defeating the benefit of their probate avoidance joint living trust.
Moreover, the deceased sibling’s share may now perhaps, depending on the trust’s provisions, go to their surviving spouse who may then co-own the special assets with in-laws; thus also undoing the siblings’ agreement. Alternatively, a sibling may do no estate planning at all, in which case their surviving spouse and children jointly inherit their separate property assets, perhaps by probate.
If a married person has separate children whom they did not raise as minors, they often want their own children (and not step children) to inherit separate property, including inheritances, that they did not purchase with their spouse. That may entail the married person establishing a separate property trust to exclude their spouse from inheriting or controlling such assets. The separate property trust may provide possible lifetime benefits to the surviving spouse and either immediate or eventual distribution to the children, as drafted.
Alternatively, the assets may be included within the joint trust as the contributing spouse’s separate property assets. Such assets may pass at the contributing spouse’s death to that spouse’s own children (bypassing the surviving spouse), may be distributed to the children (of the contributing spouse) subject to a life estate for the surviving spouse, or else may be held in further trust for the lifetime benefit of the surviving spouse, with distribution to the children at her death.
What outcome is attained depends on whether or not appropriate estate planning and proper administration of the estate planning occur. The estate planning must be drafted in contemplation of what its eventual administration will require and mean at that time for those concerned.
The foregoing discussion is not legal advice.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at
Space News: ‘Baby’ planet photographed in a ring around a star for the first time
Researchers have discovered a young protoplanet called WISPIT 2b embedded in a ring-shaped gap in a disk encircling a young star.
While theorists have thought that planets likely exist in these gaps (and possibly even create them), this is the first time that it has actually been observed.
Researchers have directly detected — essentially photographed — a new planet called WISPIT 2b, labeled a protoplanet because it is an astronomical object that is accumulating material and growing into a fully-realized planet.
However, even in its "proto" state, WISPIT 2b is a gas giant about 5 times as massive as Jupiter. This massive protoplanet is just about 5 million years old, or almost 1,000 times younger than the Earth, and about 437 light-years from Earth.
Being a giant and still-growing baby planet, WISPIT 2b is interesting to study on its own, but its location in this protoplanetary disk gap is even more fascinating. Protoplanetary disks are made of gas and dust that surround young stars and function as the birthplace for new planets.
Within these disks, gaps or clearings in the dust and gas can form, appearing as empty rings. Scientists have long suggested that these growing planets are likely responsible for clearing the material in these gaps, pushing and scattering dusty disk material outwards and greeting the ring gaps in the first place.
Our own solar system was once just a protoplanetary disk, and it's possible that Jupiter and Saturn may have cleared ring gaps like this in that disk many, many years ago.
But despite continued observation of stars with these kinds of disks, there was never any direct evidence of a growing planet found in one of these ring gaps. That is, until now. As reported in this paper, WISPIT 2b was directly observed in one of the ring gaps around its star, WISPIT 2.
Another interesting aspect of this discovery is that WISPIT 2b appears to have formed where it was found, it didn't form elsewhere and move into the gap somehow.
The star WISPIT 2 was first observed using VLT-SPHERE (Very Large Telescope - Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch), a ground-based telescope in northern Chile operated by the European Southern Observatory. In these observations, the rings and gap around this star were first seen.
Following these observations of the system, researchers looked at WISPIT 2, and spotted the planet WISPIT 2b for the first time, using the University of Arizona's MagAO-X extreme adaptive optics system, a high-contrast exoplanet imager at the Magellan 2 (Clay) Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.
This technology adds another unique layer to this discovery. The MagAO-X instrument captures direct images, so it didn't just detect WISPIT 2b, it essentially captured a photograph of the protoplanet.
The team used this technology to study the WISPIT 2 system in what is called H-alpha, or Hydrogen-alpha, light. This is a type of visible light that is emitted when hydrogen gas falls from a protoplanetary disk onto young, growing planets. This could look like a ring of super heated plasma circling the planet. This plasma emits the H-alpha light that MagAO-X is specially designed to detect (even if it is a very faint signal compared to the bright star nearby).
When looking at the system in H-alpha light, the team spotted a clear dot in one of the dark ring gaps in the disk around WISPIT 2. This dot? The planet WISPIT 2b.
In addition to observing the protoplanet's H-alpha emission using MagAO-X, the team also studied the protoplanet in other wavelengths of infrared light using the LMIRcam detector as part of the The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer instrument on the University of Arizona's Large Binocular Telescope.
Fun facts
In addition to discovering WISPIT 2b, this team spotted a second dot in one of the other dark ring gaps even closer to the star WISPIT 2.
This second dot has been identified as another candidate planet that will likely be investigated in future studies of the system.
The discoverers
WISPIT-2b was discovered by a team led by University of Arizona astronomer Laird Close and Richelle van Capelleveen, an astronomy graduate student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. This followed the recent discovery of the WISPIT 2 disk and ring system using the VLT, which was led by van Capelleveen.
This discovery was detailed in the paper "Wide Separation Planets in Time (WISPIT): Discovery of a Gap Hα Protoplanet WISPIT 2b with MagAO-X," published August 26, 2025 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. A second paper led by van Capelleveen and the University of Galway published on the same day in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
This research was partially supported by a grant from the NASA eXoplanet Research Program. MagAO-X was developed in part by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation with support from the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Chelsea Gohd writes for NASA.
Supervisors, city councils hold joint discussion on community power option
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors and the city councils of Lakeport and Clearlake met Tuesday to discuss the option of joining Sonoma Clean Power, a community-owned energy provider that could offer Lake County residents cheaper and greener electricity.
Earlier this year, the county and its two cities formally asked Sonoma Clean Power, or SCP, to explore extending service into Lake County.
SCP is a community-owned organization that provides what’s known as community choice aggregation, or CCA, which allows local governments to buy power on behalf of their residents and businesses while Pacific Gas and Electric continues to handle transmission and billing.
Reportedly the SCP generates more renewable energy and charges lower rates.
Since its launch in 2014, SCP has replaced PG&E’s power sources for most customers in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. According to a Lakeport City Council staff report, it now serves 87% of electric customers in those two counties.
The three local governments are now considering whether it’s right for Lake County.
At Tuesday’s meeting, SCP representatives highlighted the benefits of local control, economic benefits, potential savings, and opportunities such as the Geothermal Opportunity Zone, or Geo Zone initiative if Lake County joins. If approved, Lake County would hold two seats on SCP’s governing board, representing about a 15% voting share.
SCP Chief Executive Officer Geof Syphers said this is the third time Lake County has explored joining SCP. In 2015, the agency was not ready to expand, and in 2019 it could not provide competitive rates.
This year, an updated feasibility study suggests potential bill savings of 4.2% to 12.9%.
“We found the conditions were much more favorable,” Syphers said, also noting that rates for Lake County are expected to be slightly lower than in Sonoma and Mendocino counties because of lower PG&E’s fee.
He also noted that joining the program is not just choosing cleaner power, but also gives the community a financial tool — SCP has already issued $775 million in municipal bonds, all used to prepay supply contracts, and locked in a deal that will save customers $47 million over the next eight years.
“All residents and businesses will automatically be enrolled in May of 2027 unless they proactively opt out of service,” said SCP Managing Director Erica Torgerson of the enrollment process if Lake County decides to join this year.
The workshop was informational and no decisions were made. The Board of Supervisors and Lakeport City Council are expected to vote on action on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at their respective meetings, and the Clearlake City Council on Thursday, Oct. 2.
Local concerns
Alongside the potential benefits, local officials raised concerns about governance and long-term commitments, among them the number of board seats offered.
Lake County would receive two seats on SCP’s 13-member board, representing its 68,000 residents. Supervisor Bruno Sabatier argued that was inequitable, pointing out that four Sonoma County cities with fewer residents collectively hold four seats.
“So I feel like the branch that's being offered is not a partnership. It's kind of a tag-along, and I would love to see a rework of what does that equity actually look like if Lake County does join,” he said.
Syphers admitted it may not feel equitable, but stressed that changing it would require approval from small cities on the board that may not want to lose their seats.
Local officials are also concerned about the potential option of withdrawal from the program.
Supervisor Helen Owen questioned the 20 years of commitment if Lake County wants to quit. “It’s still the elephant in the room for me,” she said.
Syphers clarified that any customer could opt out at any time, but complete withdrawal as a county would trigger the 20-year timeline.
“I want to distinguish opt out from forcing everyone else to leave,” he said. “So if you want to force everyone in the county to leave our program, that's when the timeline starts.”
The lack of tribal engagement was also a major concern.
“Those are their own jurisdiction, their own sovereign land. If we all say yes, are they automatically opted in, or are they completely separated out because they have their own jurisdictions and need to go through the same process?” Sabatier asked.
Syphers explained that it was because the state law forming the CCA program did not consider tribes and decisions were made based on votes of the counties and cities involved. “They didn’t mention tribes,” he said.
“That feels very disrespectful,” said Lakeport Councilmember Kim Costa.
At the end of the meeting, Syphers said he is committed to meeting with tribes throughout 2026 and “providing them with the respect for their governance by letting them know they can make the decision about whether to proactively opt out and leave or stay.”
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
