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Written by: Lake County News Reports

Published: 14 May 2012

KELSEYVILLE – Touring & Tasting readers are going to see and learn about the allure of Lake County’s “vinotourism” as information about the wineries and winemakers grace the cover and inside pages of this summer’s edition of the magazine.

Through the partnership work of the Lake County Winegrape Commission, the County of Lake, the Lake County Winery Association and area wineries, Touring & Tasting magazine’s summer/fall 2012 issue will feature Lake County in a four-page article package and front cover photo with a prominent cover line, according to commission President Shannon Gunier.

The magazine edition will be available June 12.

Gunier received word Friday that Touring & Tasting selected the Lake County cover for national distribution of 50,000 copies, which will be distributed to all subscribers, wine club members, bookstores, retail establishments and more than 150 four- and five-star hotels from Temecula, Calif., to Walla Walla, Wash.

A major portion will go into hotels in San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma.

More than 5,000 copies will be distributed to Lake County outlets including hotels, wineries, visitor centers, trade shows and industry partners.

Another 3,000 copies of the feature edition will be distributed to consumers and wine industry attendees at key trade shows.

Touring & Tasting photographer Rudy Meyers spent time capturing Lake County vineyard shots earlier this week.

Pear growers Pat and Michelle Scully served as models for the photo shoot, and use of the vehicle in the photo was made possible by Tim Wynacht of Kathy Fowler Chevrolet, said Gunier.

Representatives of the project’s collaborative entities are thrilled about the possibility of attracting more people to Lake County via the marketing campaign.

"Touring & Tasting is a well-respected media outlet that reaches many of those consumers we want to target: people who are passionate about wine, have an adventurous spirit, and love to travel," said Debra Sommerfield, deputy chief administrative officer for the County of Lake’s Economic Development. "Lake County's high-quality wines, rural character, scenic beauty, and charming small towns make it an appealing travel destination for the magazine’s readers."

Sommerfield said the County is pleased to be working with the Lake County Winegrape Commission and Lake County Winery Association on the project. "It is this innate alignment of wine and travel that makes this project a natural one for collaboration,” said Sommerfield. “We hope that by working together to reach this targeted audience, we will generate even more awareness of Lake County as a destination wine region for the adventurous."

The partnership is the result of efforts aligned with the County’s Economic Development Plan, which identifies the wine industry as one of two key elements in attracting tourists; Clear Lake is the second.

The Tourism Advisory Board, a group of volunteers representing several factions, has been looking at a number of marketing vehicles and related tasks and activities to grow tourism as outlined in the Economic Development Plan.

The Lake County Winery Association is actively involved in the Tourism Advisory Board’s work and is happy to be part of the collaborative project, said Association Executive Director Monica Rosenthal. Winery Association Chair Clay Shannon is also chair of the Tourism Advisory Board, she added.

“The (magazine promotion) allows for a huge Lake County splash in a respected wine industry tourism magazine with an extended shelf life, both print and online advertising features, and good distribution channels to consumers who like wine, food and travel,” said Rosenthal.

The feature stories and advertising that will appear in Touring & Tasting’s summer edition is expected to give the county’s tourism and economy a much-needed boost.

"Over the past decade, we've seen significant growth in the wine industry here in Lake County, and it's become an important driver in our local economy," said Sommerfield. "We're all working together to build the region and attract visitors, which directly impacts tourism-based businesses like hotels and restaurants and indirectly impacts many other types of local businesses, like gas stations and grocery stores."

For information about the Lake County Winegrape Commission, visit the Web site at www.lakecountywinegrape.org or call 707-995-3421. For Lake County Winery Association information, visit its Web site at www.wineryassociation.com ,

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 13 May 2012

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – State Senator Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) and Assemblymember Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) will host a live electronic town hall on the California foreclosure crisis on Wednesday, May 16.

The town hall will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Questions for the hosts can be submitted prior or during the town hall at http://sd02.senate.ca.gov/townhall .

California, as well as the nation, is in the midst of one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression.

As unemployment rises above 11 percent within the state, more and more homeowners are having difficulty making their mortgage payments. That difficulty is compounded by certain mortgage products that, based on their design, result in a substantial increase in payment after several years.

As a result of those and other factors, many homeowners now face payments beyond the level of what they can afford.

The above issues are compounded by a significant decline in property values, which has left many California homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Regardless of the initial cause of the default on a loan, the resulting foreclosure has significant impacts upon the surrounding home values, community, and for those with a financial interest in the loan itself.

In February 2012 a historic $18 billion multistate settlement was secured for Californians by Attorney General Kamala Harris that will provide substantial relief for California homeowners.

Seeking to ensure protections for the hundreds-of thousands of Californians still in the foreclosure process, the California State Legislature's leadership convened a bipartisan conference committee to create permanent and locally enforceable actions that will protect homeowners and hold banks accountable to their California commitments.

The Legislative Conference Committee on the California Foreclosure Crisis, co-chaired by Evans and Eng will review and propose a comprehensive legislative solution, including the Homeowners Bill of Rights package, to protect homeowners in the mortgage market and help to keep credit-worthy families in their homes and revive the state's economy.

For more information call 916-651-4002.

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Written by: Ed Oswalt

Published: 13 May 2012

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Four elementary schools sent a total of 160 fourth graders to a natural setting by Putah Creek last Tuesday, May 8, for an “In the Creek Day” to learn about the environment and how to take care of it.  

Coyote Valley Elementary sent three classes to the event, and Lake County International Charter School,  Cobb and Minnie Cannon each sent one.

What these four schools have in common is that they all lie in the Upper Putah Creek watershed, which, as these children learned, is all the land from which water drains into Upper Putah Creek.  

That’s the land that has been looked after by the Upper Putah Creek Stewardship (UPCS) since the nonprofit organization was formed in 1996.

Almost every year since then, it has organized In the Creek Day – a springtime event which gives children demonstrations of various aspects of the environment and how to be good stewards.  

Organizers of the event in its early days included by Helen Whitney, Bill Reed, Chris Simon and Dwight Holford. After a one-year hiatus, Holford saw to it that the tradition was reinstituted this year.

Educators were Jeff Tunnell of the Bureau of Land Management, who taught about fire safety; Kake O’Donnell and volunteer Joe Evans from the Natural Resources Conservation Service Lakeport office, who gave demonstrations related to soils; Larry Ray, president of the  UPCS, who covered botany; Dean Enderlin, formerly chief geologist at the McLaughlin Mine, who led a creek side look at rocks; and Carrieann Lopez, an environmental scientist in the North Coast district of the State of  California Water Board, who offered insights into sources of water pollution.

Nelsy, Trinity and Lucas of Coyote Valley Elementary all liked the creekside geology with Dean Enderlin best.

“You got to look at different types, and look at crystals inside it,” said Trinity about the rocks she found along the creek.

“I liked when we got to find rocks and he helped us identify them,” said Lucas, adding that he also learned about “fire safety and pollution.”  

Nelsy liked that she could “find our own rocks.”

She learned that “there are three types of different rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic” and that important things to take care of in the environment are “water, soil, air.”

The event took place along Putah Creek, just behind Middletown High’s football field on property generously offered for the event by Michael Browning.