planting native tules on floating islands, and a tule revegetation class.
The second natural building project on public land in Lake County will soon be under way at Clarks Island with the construction of a hand-sculpted entryway that will include an information kiosk, signage, and bench, all constructed with materials acquired locally.
A “floating island,” made of recycled plastic and planted with native tules also will be installed in the coming weeks in the waters off of Clarks Island. A floating dock made of the same material to be used as a kayak launch also will be installed.
A clean-up day and a tule revegetation project, where participants will learn the proper way to harvest and plant tule rhizomes, has been scheduled. The Clean-up Day at Clarks Island will be held Oct. 9 and the tule re-vegetation class will be held Oct. 23. Announcements will be made when the floating islands arrive.
Ideal for school and community groups, volunteers for all projects on Clarks Island are being sought. Volunteers can register online at www.1-800-Volunteer.org (search for Clearlake Oaks in the search menu) or contact Lore Schneider in the County of Lake Administrative office at 707-263-2580. For more information on these projects, visit www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island and
http://www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island/tule-revegetation.
Background on Clarks Island
As a community-identified priority, the Lake County Redevelopment Agency purchased Clarks Island in downtown Clearlake Oaks in 2008. The island is located between the Tower Mart and the Clearlake Oaks Boat Launch, near Island Drive on East Highway 20.
Since the purchase, the redevelopment agency has relocated the dozen mobile home residents, removed debris and rezoned Clarks Island as open space.
Since January 2010, a group of community volunteers have been meeting under the direction of District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing to develop a concept plan for Clarks Island that aligns with the Clarks Island Feasibility Study approved by the Board of Supervisors in April of 2009.
The focus of the plan is on the environment and sustainability, with aspects of natural earth building, native and Native American plantings, a kayak stopping spot, a demonstration trail, tule revegetation and interpretive signage.
The Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative, led by community volunteers, received the go-ahead from the Lake County Board of Supervisors sitting as the Board of Directors of the Lake County Redevelopment Agency to purchase and install floating islands, as well as begin the natural building project at the entryway to Clarks Island.
The Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative has raised over $7,000 in donations from the community for these efforts.
Nationally-renowned natural building designer and instructor, Massey Burke, will once again be engaging the community to participate in a natural building project while at the same time imparting natural building techniques and skills that are accessible, low-cost, and use locally-available materials residents can use on their own properties.
Burke, who leads natural building classes worldwide including teaching at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, was the designer and instructor at Lucerne Creek County Park where over 60 community volunteers worked together to construct a decorative wall and bench with adobe bricks, cob, and reclaimed materials.
That project was awarded a Green California Leadership Award in 2009. Using locally-acquired clay soil, Burke also re-plastered the existing wine tasting bar that is constructed of straw bales at the Lake County Wine Studio in Upper Lake.
What is “natural building” and “cob”?
"Natural building" is an umbrella term than connotes any sort of building that is accomplished with the use of natural materials primarily, as opposed to the use of man-made or industrial materials. Natural building minimizes the use of products that require considerable embodied energy for their manufacture or transportation. The objective is to build with simple techniques that do not further pollute the environment, consume more fossil fuel, or unnecessarily extract the resources. (www.greenhomebuilding.com, September, 2010)
The word “cob” comes from an old English root meaning a lump or rounded mass. Cob building uses hands and feet to form lumps of earth mixed with sand and straw, a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to sculpting with clay. Cob is easy to learn and inexpensive to build.
Because there are no forms, ramming, cement, or rectilinear bricks, cob lends itself to organic shapes: curved walls, arches, and niches. Earth homes are cool in summer, warm in winter. Cob's resistance to rain and cold makes it ideally suited to cold climates like the Pacific Northwest, and to desert conditions.
Cob has been used for millennia even in the harsh climates of coastal Britain. Thousands of comfortable and picturesque cob homes in England have been continuously occupied for many centuries and now command very high market values. With recent rises in the price of lumber and increasing interest in natural and environmentally safe building practices, cob is enjoying a renaissance. (www.cobcottage.com, September, 2010)
Cob is one of the simplest and least expensive building techniques available. Although it is typically labor-intensive, everyone – children, seniors, disabled – can participate in some aspect of the construction process using cob, allowing for a fun, engaging and positive community-building experience.
Other advantages to using cob in construction include seismic safety, impervious to fire (although roofs constructed of wood can still burn, of course), versatility, and can easily be shaped and molded. Cob-like mixes are also used as plaster or filler in several other methods of natural building, such as adobe, earth bags, timber frames, cordwood, and straw bale.
What is a “floating island”?
According to Floating Islands International, a BioHaven Floating Island is made of 100 percent recycled PET plastic, which is made from recycled drinking bottles and certified non-toxic. After the plastic undergoes a recycling and spinning process, it is then turned into a “matrix” of fibers composed of layers of a durable synthetic mesh. The matrix design resembles a pot-scrub or loofah, which is important as it serves as a water filtration design.
During production of the BioHaven Floating Islands, the plastic matrix is cut to shape and bonded together with buoyant adhesive foam. In his April 6, 2010 presentation to the Lake County Board of Supervisors, Sean Dempsey of Floating Islands West shared how the BioHaven matrix material can be planted or used alone as a floating dock.
He explained that BioHaven floating islands can remove pollutants from a waterway, provide critical riparian edge habitat (new land mass for use by all kinds of creatures, from microbes to humans), mine nutrient loads from any waterway and reduce algae blooms, sequester carbon and other greenhouse gases, and provide wave mitigation and erosion control while beautifying a waterscape with floating gardens.
The purpose of the floating islands near Clarks Island is to test their impact on nutrient uptake and algae remediation. To test their effectiveness and get baseline readings, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake have offered to pay for the first year of testing, estimated at $5,000. Lake County Vector Control also will provide training to staff in the Water Resources and Environmental Health Departments on phytoplankton sampling.
When can I volunteer and what can I bring?
Natural Building:
Wednesday – Sunday, beginning Friday, Oct. 8 – Sunday, Oct. 24, starting each day at 9 a.m.
Monday – Wednesday, Nov. 1-3, 9 a.m.
Tasks to include laying the foundation, making adobe bricks, building walls, roofing and final details. Please let us know which you would like to be involved with, as tasks and number of volunteers needed change daily. Wear clothing that can get muddy. Please dress accordingly and bring plenty of water. Call 707-263-2580 for schedule.
Clarks Island Cleanup:
Saturday, Oct. 9, 9 a.m.
Needed for the day: Gas-powered string trimmers, eye/ear protection, tarps, brush-whackers, shovels, gloves, etc. Will be clearing grasses, thistle, and some brush. Removing invasive Trees of Heaven and water primrose (on land) but feet may still get wet. Please dress accordingly and bring plenty of water.
Tule harvesting, propagation, and planting demonstration:
Saturday, Oct. 23, 9 a.m.
Needed for the day: Flat, squared-tipped spades, gloves, Styrofoam or plastic containers, shade cloth, and buckets. Please dress accordingly and bring plenty of water.
Ideal for school and community groups, families, and individuals of all abilities, volunteers for all projects on Clarks Island are being sought.
Volunteers can register online at www.1-800-Volunteer.org (search for Clearlake Oaks in the search menu) or contact Lore Schneider in the County of Lake Administrative office at 707-263-2580.
For more information on these projects, visit www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island
and http://www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island/tule-revegetation.
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