A Western Bluebird parent feeds its young at a nest box at the Lake County Land Trust's Rodman Preserve. Photo by Brad Barnwell.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The upcoming meeting for the Redbud Audubon Society, to be held at the Lower Lake School House Museum on Jan. 19, starting at 7 p.m. will focus on creating Bluebird habitat.

Speaker Georgette Howington of the California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP) will give a PowerPoint presentation about these cavity nesting birds and how to monitor nest boxes. She will give a brief history of the program, which was originally started in 1976.

Howington will talk about why the program is such a successful conservation effort, and how monitoring next boxes can be a wonderful, satisfying and relaxing hobby.

She has been a nest box monitor for the California Bluebird Recovery Program for 10 years and is the Contra Costa/Alameda County coordinator.

Lake County has a bluebird trail program that was started over 15 years ago by Jeannette Knight of Redbud Audubon who not only constructs bluebird boxes but has installed them at both Anderson Marsh State Historic Park and the Rodman Preserve, owned and operated by the Lake County Land Trust.

Anyone can have a “bluebird trail,” on their property, but it is important to install the boxes properly with predator protection a top priority and to clean the boxes on a regular basis. Monitoring of the boxes and reporting the information to the CPRB takes this effort one step farther.

CRPB encourages nestbox construction, creation of bluebird trails and annual monitoring of bluebird nesting outcomes.

By 2010 CBRP had created 265 bluebird trails across California and had 174 trail monitors. A total of 20 County Coordinators manage the program on a local level.

The public is cordially invited to this free program. The Redbud Audubon Society has started to vary its meeting locations to both north and south county locations.

From January through April the meetings will be held at the Lower Lake Historical School House Museum on the east end of the town of Lower Lake.

For more information about the Redbud Audubon Society, go to www.redbudaudubon.org.

The Rodeo Kickoff Dance on Saturday, February 25, 2012, will support the annual Lake County Rodeo. Photo by Debbie Jones of Kelseyville, Calif.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The second annual Lakeport Rodeo Kickoff Dance will take place in Fritch Hall at the Lake County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Feb. 25.

The dinner and dance is produced by the directors of the Lake County Rodeo Association as a

fundraiser to support the 83rd annual Lake County Rodeo which takes place on Friday, July 13, and Saturday, July 14, at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.

Rodeo Kickoff Dance co-chairs are Directors Angel Purdy and Lou Riccardi, following their successful production of the 2011 event last May.

Purdy has contracted with a new band for 2012, J.D. Bauman and The Boot Band (www.jdandthebootband.us).

Following the opening of the “dance hall” at 5:30 p.m., a delicious barbecue tri tip and chicken dinner, prepared by Rodeo President Adam Peters and friends, will be served from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. with dancing beginning at 8 p.m.

During the evening there will be a door prize drawing, silent auction of more than 30 prizes and a live auction for a one week stay in a vacation resort at either Lake Tahoe or Sparks, Nev.

Tickets for the dinner and dance are $25 per person and can be purchased at the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, 875 Lakeport Blvd., at Vista Point or Rainbow Ag, 1975 Argonaut Road in Lakeport.

A limited number of sponsor tables for eight people are available at a cost of $300, which includes two

bottles of wine or a bucket of beer.

“Without the support of Lake County residents and businesses, there could not be a rode,” said President Adam Peters. “This Lake County tradition continues because of them and because we have 17 dedicated volunteers who serve as directors to bring the rodeo to town every year.”

Peters added, “This will be a fun night of entertainment, good food and dancing and will help our rodeo association bring the 83rd annual Lake County Rodeo to the fairgrounds again.”

Applications for the 2012 Lake County Rodeo Queen and Princess Competition will be available during the evening, along with applications for the very popular Mutton Bustin’ and Cutest Cowpoke & Cowgirl competition.

For more information about tickets, contact Angel Purdy at 707-228-6322 or Juan Dominguez at 707-279-9166.

Information on the Rodeo Kickoff Dance and the 83rd annual Lake County Rodeo can be found at www.lakecountyrodeo.com.

This free public program is presented in conjunction with the museum exhibit “A Passion for Plants & Place: Carl Purdy of Mendocino County” on view through March 18.

Coastal Redwoods, native to the Pacific Coast from Big Sur to Southern Oregon, were named “Sequoia Sempervirens” meaning “forever green” or “everlasting.”

Although these grand trees – the world’s tallest – can live up to 1,800 years, only 5 percent of old growth remains. The 368-foot specimen at Montgomery Woods stands as one of the tallest survivors.

According to Giusti, Mendocino’s forests still support a number of 1,000-year-old redwoods.

Giusti, a forest and wildlands ecologist, will address the history of Coastal Redwoods and how past practices have effected the forest we have today.

He also will discuss some of the plants and wildlife that are part of redwood habitat. In addition, he’ll survey changes in the region’s forest ownership over the past decade.

“There has been a tectonic shift in who controls our forests and for what purpose. The number of acres now under conservation management is nothing short of astounding,” he said.

The museum, located at 400 E. Commercial St. in Willits, is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For information, contact the museum at 707-459-2736 or visit www.MendocinoMuseum.org.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Public Services Director Caroline Chavez announced that the Parks Division will be recruiting lifeguards for the Middletown Pool this coming spring for the summer season.

Special requirements for this position are possession of a current lifeguard certificate, community cardiopulmonary resuscitation certificate (eight hours), standard first aid certificate (eight hours), and emergency medical service authority certificate (eight hours) or acquire EMSA certificate prior to June, 2012.

Lifeguard applicants must be at least 15 years of age or older.

Special requirements for the lead lifeguard applicants are to be at least 17 years of age or older

and possession of a Water Safety Instructor Certification is preferred.

Lifeguarding classes will be held through Santa Rosa Community College beginning Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 5:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. and going through May.

Please call Santa Rosa Community College at 707-527-4011 for further information. No other local colleges are offering this program.

Chavez encourages all applicants interested in becoming a lifeguard for the Middletown Pool this coming summer season, to call and enroll at Santa Rosa Community College for their lifeguard training.

For more information contact the Public Services Department at 707-262-1618.

The commemoration of Elias' life will begin at 2 p.m. at the Soper-Reese Community Theater, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.

The program will include a musical tribute and will recall Elias' life and exceptional humanitarian accomplishments.

For those who wish, flowers will be gratefully received at the theater Saturday morning. For those wishing to make charitable donations to organizations in Elias' memory, a basket will be in the lobby.

An account will be set up for donations to a charitable cause through www.paypal.com via the e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For more information contact Lake County Community Radio, KPFZ 88.1 at 707-263-3640.

The draft requests comments on actions the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies on the National Ocean Council will take to improve the health of the ocean, coasts and Great Lakes, which support tens of millions of jobs, contribute trillions of dollars annually to the national economy, and are essential to public health and national security.

"How we treat our lands has a direct impact on the health of our oceans," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "The National Ocean Policy action plan will further USDA's collaborative partnerships to improve water quality through voluntary conservation efforts on private lands."

The draft action plan will ensure the federal government targets its resources to more effectively and efficiently deliver results for Americans, including greater predictability for ocean users and better access to the latest science and information related to ocean health.

The actions reflect ideas and input from industry, conservation groups, local officials, the public and other stakeholders who provided critical feedback to the National Ocean Council through two public comment periods and 12 regional listening sessions.

Ocean and coastal resources are under pressure from growing and often competing uses, such as national security, recreation, shipping, energy production and commercial fishing, as well as from pollution, resource extraction and climate change.

The draft implementation plan focuses on public-private partnerships, promoting efficiency and collaboration across sectors, managing resources with an integrated approach, and making available and using the best science and information on ocean health.

The draft plan outlines key milestones, identifies responsible federal agencies and indicates the expected timeframe for completion of actions.

Under the plan, USDA will:

• Establish integrated interagency modeling, monitoring and assessment partnerships in priority watersheds to better evaluate the effectiveness of land treatment practices, including the Mississippi River Basin Initiative led by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service;

• Collaborate with other federal departments, through the Interagency Working Group on Aquaculture chaired by the USDA National Institute on Food and Agriculture, to identify and pursue aquaculture permitting regulatory efficiencies; and

• Initiate a showcase project between the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency linking healthy watershed protection to estuary protection, and evaluating the success in protecting and conserving high quality coastal waters.

The plan also makes it a priority to:

• Provide scientific information to support emerging sustainable uses of resources including fisheries, renewable energy, aquaculture and biotechnology;

• Provide open access to data and information across the federal government for state and local decision-makers, ocean users, stakeholders and the public;

• Identify and make available grant and partnership opportunities to support regional priorities;

• Develop methods and standards for assessing the resilience of natural resources, cultural resources, coastal communities and infrastructure in a changing climate; and

• Identify and conserve habitat for priority fish species.

To read the draft Implementation Plan and submit comments, please visit www.whitehouse.gov/oceans.