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LAKE COUNTY – It can be unnerving to see a mountain lion, but a local game warden says that as long as county residents are careful they can live side by side with the big cats.
Clearlake Riviera residents reported to Lake County News on Saturday that a large mountain lion was spotted in the brush near their home that afternoon.
Lynette Shimek, one of Lake County's Department of Fish and Game wardens, emphasized the low threat level that mountain lions actually pose with regard to humans, but also suggested caution in order to allow humans and animals to live together.
Shimek said the county is home to many mountain lions, and Fish and Game receives numerous reports of the animals from all over Lake County.
One older animal – dubbed the “Buckingham Lion” – often is seen while crossing the road to the lake, said Shimek, who added that the big cat has never hurt anybody.
She estimated that the most calls reporting sightings come from the Clearlake Riviera and Hidden Valley Lake. That's because those areas have high concentrations of both people – who see the mountain lions – and deer, a mountain lion food source.
The coming together of deer and people causes another issue, said Shimek: people tend to feed the deer, which over time lose their ability to forage and feed on their own.
Feeding deer is illegal, said Shimek. It also brings deer close to people, and where there are deer there will be mountain lions.
Shimek said Fish and Game is constantly trying to educate the public about the realities of sharing their environment with mountain lions.
The risk to humans, said Shimek, is normally very low.
However, there are warning signs that people should watch for, Shimek added.
Mountain lions are very secretive. If they're spotted close to a home during the day, don't run away when they see a human or show aggressive signs when a human is near – such as flattening their ears, flattening their body to the ground or lashing their tail – then Shimek said Fish and Game wants to know about it.
“Very few people ever see a mountain lion,” said Shimek.
However, when they do, it's likeliest to happen early in the morning or at night, said Shimek.
The time between dusk and dawn is when people should keep pets and children close to home or indoors to be safe, she said.
Only in cases of livestock predation or where a risk is posed to public safety does Fish and Game actually trap or – in some cases – kill mountain lions, said Shimek.
The emphasis, she said, is on learning to take precautions and live with wildlife.
When seeing a mountain lion in the wild that isn't posing any threat, rather than being worried people should instead count their blessings, said Shimek, because it's a sign the animals are still a part of the environment.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Lake County’s December 2007 unemployment rate was 9.0 percent, up 0.8 percent from last month and 1.8 percent above the year-ago, December 2006 rate, reported Dennis Mullins of the Employment Development Department's Labor Market Information Division for the North Coast Region.
According to previous Employment Development Department reports, Lake County's 2007 unemployment numbers were consistently higher than those in 2006.
Mullins reported that Lake County's rate compares to a seasonally unadjusted rate of 5.9 percent for California and 4.8 percent for the U.S.
The county's December 9.0 percent unemployment rate tied it with Lassen County for 38th place statewide, according to Employment Development Department statistics.
Some surrounding county rates included 6.5 percent for Mendocino, and 4.7 percent for Sonoma, Mullins reported.
Marin had the lowest rate in the State with 3.9 percent, according to Mullins, while Colusa and Imperial Counties had the highest at 17.9 percent.
Lake County's civilian workforce reached 26,950 in December, up 10 from November and 820 more than December 2006, state statistics showed.
Total industry employment increased 560 jobs (3.9 percent) between December 2006 and December 2007, ending the year-over period with 14,970.
Year-over job growth occurred in farm; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; information; private educational and health services; and government, Mullins reported.
Mullins added that year-over job losses occurred in natural resources, mining, and construction; financial activities; professional and business services; and other services. Leisure and hospitality had no change over the year.
The farm sector led industry gainers adding 390 jobs over the year, Mullins reported. Government was up 140; private educational and health services, and trade, transportation and utilities gained 70 and 50 respectively. Manufacturing and information were up 10 jobs each.
Natural resources, mining and construction led decliners dropping 60 jobs, according to Mullins. Financial activities was down 30; professional and business services, and other services were down 10 jobs each for the period.
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After a high of 69 degrees on Saturday in Lakeport according to a personal weather station on the Weather Underground Web site, the National Weather Service in Sacramento is forecasting that a weather system from the Gulf of Alaska will move over the county Sunday night, lowering temperatures and bringing a chance of rain and snow.
Beginning tonight and into early next week, the National Weather Service expects this cold weather system will bring below normal temperatures and precipitation, with snow levels around 1,500 feet by Monday morning with the possibility of dropping below 1,000 feet by Tuesday morning.
Daytime highs today are expected to reach the upper 40s, the National Weather Service reported, with lows around 30 degrees and a chance of rain mixed with snow.
The forecast for Monday is for daytime highs near 45 with a 30-percent chance of precipitation and a low of 28, according to the National Weather Service.
The sun should return on Tuesday, the weather service reported, with highs near 48 and lows in the mid 20s.
The National Weather Service reminds Lake County motorists to expect winter driving conditions and cold temperatures until Tuesday.
E-mail Terre Logsdon at
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The Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Program reported Friday that Harpo Productions filmed a segment on location at Brassfield Estate in High Valley earlier this month.
The one-day shoot included a sweeping aerial shot with panoramic views of hillsides, according to Debra Sommerfield, the county’s deputy administrative officer for Economic Development.
Dozens of children from East Lake Elementary School in Clearlake Oaks participated in the production, as well as children from three schools in the Sacramento area: Michael J. Castori Elementary School, Northwood Elementary School and Hagginwood Elementary School, Sommerfield reported.
The segment is scheduled to be part of a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., slated to air on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday, Jan. 21, on stations KCRA-3 Sacramento at 4 p.m. and KGO-7 San Francisco at 4 p.m.
“We are extremely honored that Harpo Productions chose a location in Lake County to film a segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show,” said Kelly Cox, Lake County's chief administrative officer. “We have been working diligently to make something like this happen here.”
Sommerfield said it was an exciting project that generated a tremendous amount of community support.
“The team at Brassfield Estate has been so gracious and so willing to work to make this happen,” she said. “The principal, teachers and staff at East Lake School, the school district and the Lake County Office of Education all have been extremely supportive, even working through the holidays to coordinate many of the logistics.”
Members of the Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Program worked with a location scout and the production team at Harpo Productions to suggest potential locations in Lake County for the segment, Sommerfield reported.
As part of its ongoing economic development efforts, the Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Program has been reaching out to the motion picture and television industry to attract film and TV production to the area as a means of showcasing the beauty of Lake County and to foster the economic vitality that often comes with movie and television production.
“It is so rewarding to see a community pull together and to see the community pride that comes from being part of a project like this,” Sommerfield said.
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The outage began at 12:04 p.m., said Susan Simon, a spokesperson for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
Initially, 13,000 customers in Lakeport and Kelseyville were affected, said Simon.
The power outage appeared to reach as far as Cobb, where a resident reported to Lake County News that the power also was out at his home Friday afternoon.
Within about an hour, according to Simon, all but 3,000 customers had their power restored.
By 5:30 p.m., there still remained 1,300 customers without power, said Simon, with the last part of the outage centered around Kelseyville.
Somewhere between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. the last of the customers had the power go back on in their homes, Simon said.
The cause, said Simon, was a squirrel.
“A squirrel came in contact with a piece of equipment and as a result of that we lost power to three separate substations,” said Simon.
Simon did not have specifics on where it was precisely that the fatal meeting between squirrel and power equipment took place.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Jesse Raymond Heilig, 25, was arrested on two felony warrants for violations of probation on Thursday morning, according to a report from Lt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
A Mendocino County Sheriff's sergeant – assigned to the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team (also known as SAFE) – arrested Heilig at an East Stanley Street address, Smallcomb reported.
Heilig was transported to the county jail, said Smallcomb, where bail was set at a no-bail status.
Heilig is a registered sex offender, and is listed on the Megan's Law Web site because of his conviction for rape of a drugged victim.
The SAFE Program is funded by a grant and allows local sheriff's offices to spend more time investigating sex offenders that may be out of compliance with the 290 PC (sexual offenders registration law) requirements, Smallcomb reported.
Lake County also participates in the SAFE Program, as Lake County News has reported.
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