News

Details

Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 16 June 2012

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – With temperatures heating up, fire danger in the Mendocino National Forest is starting to increase with the approach of summer.

As forest firefighters wrap up preparedness activities, visitors are asked to be careful with campfires, grills and anything that can throw a spark and start a wildfire.

The forecast for the weekend includes hot temperatures, as well as a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service through 9 p.m. Saturday that affects the eastern side of the Mendocino National Forest.

In addition to rapidly drying out fuels, high winds can also carry wildfires quickly.

“We had a drier than normal winter and our fuels are drying out quickly,” said Forest Fire Management Officer Marc Nelson. “However, this is pretty close to normal for the Mendocino National Forest.”

As the summer recreation season starts, more visitors are traveling to the forest to enjoy camping, fishing, backpacking and other favorite activities. This frequently includes having a campfire, using a portable stove or charcoal grill, or operating recreational equipment.

“We would like to ask visitors to be careful when they are using anything with a flame or that can throw a spark,” Nelson said. “The forest has been very fortunate in not having a large wildfire since 2008. While we can’t prevent fires starting from lightning, visitors can make a difference by helping us prevent human-caused fires.”

Preventing wildfires can be done by making sure campfires are contained within a fire ring in an area that has been cleared of any fuels. Campfires should also be put completely out and be cold to the touch before leaving the site. Stoves should be on a stable surface and not left unattended.

Mechanical equipment, including off-highway vehicles and chainsaws, should be equipped with approved spark arresters.

The forest has not entered into fire restrictions yet, but as fuels continue to dry out and the threat of wildfire increases, the firefighters on the forest are prepared for the season.

A little more than half of the employees on the Mendocino National Forest during the summer are wildland firefighters.

Currently there are 11 engines staffed on the forest, with eight engines working seven days a week and three engines on a five-day schedule. Six of the 11 engines cover the western half of the forest, with five providing coverage for the eastern half of the Mendocino.

There are four water-tenders and four fire prevention technicians. The forest also staffs two fire lookouts, one at Anthony Peak, the other at High Glade.

The Mendocino National Forest has two 20-person handcrews – the Mendocino Hotshots, based out of Stonyford, and the Elk Mountain Hotshots based out of Upper Lake. Each of these crews has already had assignments this year in Arizona and New Mexico.

In addition to these resources, the forest hosts and provides support to nine organized crews, which are available on an as-needed basis. These crews can be activated when fire danger increases, when local resources are unavailable, or when there is a need nationally. Last season the organized crews worked on fires in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Minnesota.

Each crew has 20 people staffing it. The forest hosts four crews out of Willits, five crews out of Davis, and also provides support and issues firefighting gear to the Guam, Samoa and Saipan Islander Organized Crews.

In partnership with the California Conservation Corps (CCCs), the Forest provides wildland firefighter training and support for a crew out of Ukiah.

“The Organized Crew Program is a huge asset for the Mendocino National Forest. Many of our permanent firefighters have come to the Forest Service as a result of their experience with the program,” Nelson said. “It’s a great opportunity for individuals to see if a career in wildland firefighting is something they want to pursue and, if they do want to continue, it provides them quality experience they can reflect when applying for jobs.”

Over the past few weeks, the forest has completed seasonal preparedness activities. This included firefighter training for the CCCs in Ukiah, fire readiness reviews and meetings with fire staff.

For more information, please contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316, or visit www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino .

Details

Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 16 June 2012

NICE, Calif. – The service of a search warrant by the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force Wednesday morning has resulted in five arrests and the seizure of 475 marijuana plants.

Sgt. Steve Brooks said officials arrested Aviel Islas Hernandez, 42, a transient; 22-year-old Fidel Avellaned Hernandez, a transient; 20-year-old Marco Antonio Martinez of Santa Rosa; William “Billy” Walls, 60, of Ukiah; and Telesforo Montejano Cornejo, 47, of Santa Rosa.  

On Tuesday narcotics detectives secured a search warrant for several properties located on Harding Drive in Nice, Brooks said.

On Wednesday at approximately 8 a.m. narcotics detectives served the search warrant on the properties.  Brooks said they located three male adults – Fidel Hernandez, Avellaned Hernandez and Martinez – inside a complex of marijuana grows, according to Brooks. All three subjects were detained without incident.  

During the course of the investigation, narcotics detectives located and eradicated 475 marijuana plants located in several different plots, which were all connected together by a trail system, Brooks said.

Evidence collected at the scene revealed that the marijuana growing at the scene was not in compliance with Proposition 215. Brooks said the investigation also revealed that the suspects were killing birds they claimed were damaging their marijuana plants and dumping human waste in seasonal creek beds.

Detectives arrested Martinez, Fidel Hernandez and Aviel Hernandez for cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sales, Brooks said.

He said one of the subjects arrested provided information that “Billy” was responsible for the marijuana grow sites but was unable to provide any additional information regarding “Billy.”

While narcotic detectives were on scene, two additional subjects arrived at the location – Walls and Cornejo. Brooks said both subjects were detained without incident.  

The investigation revealed that both Walls and Cornejo were part of the illegal marijuana growing operation. Brooks said Walls admitted that some of the plants at the grow site were his. He also admitted to selling marijuana to dispensaries.

Detectives arrested Walls and Cornejo for cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sales, Brooks said. All five suspects were transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and Booked.

The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be contacted through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.

Details

Written by: Patrick Barry and Dr. Tony Phillips

Published: 16 June 2012

Somewhere in the Milky Way, a massive old star is about to die a spectacular death. As its nuclear fuel runs out, the star begins to collapse under its own tremendous weight. Crushing pressure triggers new nuclear reactions, setting the stage for a terrifying blast. And then ... nothing happens.

At least that's what supercomputers have been telling astrophysicists for decades. Many of the best computer models of supernovas fail to produce an explosion. At the end of the simulation, gravity wins the day and the star simply collapses.

"We don't fully understand how supernovas of massive stars work yet," said Fiona Harrison, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology.

To figure out what’s going on, Harrison and colleagues would like to examine the inside of a real supernova while it's exploding. That's not possible, so they're doing the next best thing.

Using a telescope named "NuSTAR" – short for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array – they'll be scanning the debris from supernovas as soon as possible after the blast.

Launched over the Pacific Ocean on June 13 by a Pegasus XL rocket, NuSTAR is the first space telescope that can focus very high-energy X-rays, producing images roughly 100 times sharper than those possible with previous high-energy X-ray telescopes.

When NuSTAR finishes its check-out and becomes fully operational, scientists will use it to scan supernovas for clues etched into the pattern of elements spread throughout the explosion's debris.

"The distribution of the material in a supernova remnant tells you a lot about the original explosion,” says Harrison.

An element of particular interest is titanium-44. Creating this isotope of titanium through nuclear fusion requires a certain combination of energy, pressure, and raw materials.

Inside the collapsing star, that combination occurs at a depth that's very special. Everything below that depth succumbs to gravity and collapses inward to form a black hole.

Everything above that depth will be blown outward in the explosion. Titanium-44 is created right at the cusp.

So the pattern of how titanium-44 is spread throughout a supernova remnant can reveal a lot about what happened at that crucial threshold during the explosion. And with that information, scientists might be able to figure out what's wrong with their computer simulations.

Some scientists believe the computer models are too symmetrical. Until recently, even with powerful supercomputers, scientists have only been able to simulate a one-dimensional sliver of the star. Scientists just assume that the rest of the star behaves similarly, making the simulated implosion the same in all radial directions.

But what if that assumption is wrong?

"Asymmetries could be the key," Harrison said. In an asymmetrical collapse, outward forces could break through in some places even if the crush of gravity is overpowering in others. Indeed, more recent, two-dimensional simulations suggest that asymmetries could help solve the mystery of the "non-exploding supernova."

If NuSTAR finds that titanium-44 is spread unevenly, it would be evidence that the explosions themselves were also asymmetrical, Harrison explains.

To detect titanium-44, NuSTAR needs to be able to focus very high energy X-rays. Titanium-44 is radioactive, and when it decays it releases photons with an energy of 68 thousand electron volts. Existing X-ray space telescopes, such as NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, can focus X-rays only up to about 15 thousand electron volts.

Normal lenses can't focus X-rays at all. Glass bends X-rays only a minuscule amount – not enough to form an image.

X-ray telescopes use an entirely different kind of "lens" consisting of many concentric shells. They look a bit like the layers of a cylindrical onion.

Incoming X-rays pass between these layers, which guide the X-rays to the focal surface. It's not a lens, strictly speaking, because the X-rays reflect off the surfaces of the shells instead of passing through them, but the end result is the same.

The NuSTAR team has spent years perfecting delicate manufacturing techniques required to make high-precision X-ray optics for NuSTAR that work at energies as high as 79 thousand electron volts.

Their efforts could end up answering the question, "Why won't the supernova explode?"

Patrick Barry and Dr. Tony Phillips work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.