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June 2021 July 2020 June 2016 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 July 2013 June 2013 March 2013 February 2013 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 November 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 October 2010 September 2010 February 2010 January 2010 | Rural County Representatives of California Maintains Opposition to Unfair Fire Fees Second Round of Bills Mailed to Rural Homeowners SACRAMENTO, CA - July 23, 2013 - The Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) announced today their continued opposition to the state imposed State Responsibility Area (SRA) fees as the second round of bills are slated to hit rural homeowners' mailboxes. The SRA fees, also known as fire prevention fees, are imposed by the state, and aim to backfill a void created in the CAL FIRE budget in 2011. "RCRC remains opposed to this fee. It is bad public policy, and unfair to rural homeowners," said Kevin Cann, RCRC Board Chair and Mariposa County Supervisor. "We will continue our efforts to repeal this fee, and relieve rural homeowners of this duplicative tax." The SRA fee is the result of budget bill AB 29X, approved by Governor Brown in 2011. This legislation was passed into law with little opportunity for public input, and was vehemently opposed by counties, fire districts, and associations representing firefighters. The first round of bills were mailed to rural homeowners in 2012, following a costly, and inefficient implementation period, where the state spent an estimated $15 million in up-front costs to launch the program. RCRC has ongoing concerns with several aspects of the fee. First, according to CAL FIRE's own data, their most expensive activities are for fire suppression in highly urbanized areas, not rural areas. Second, most landowners in the SRA have already agreed to a fire protection and prevention tax at the local level, making the SRA fee duplicative. Finally, SRA fees weaken the state's mutual aid system, and by taking a greater role, place the state in a position of long-term liability over local firefighting and prevention efforts, leaving them vulnerable to legitimate litigation claims. Bills for the 2012-13 fiscal year will begin hitting rural homeowners' mailboxes this week, mailed in alphabetical order by county. A detailed schedule is available on the BOE website at: http://www.boe.ca.gov/sptaxprog/fire_prev_fee.htm. Published: 07/23/13 SIERRA COUNTY ARF Sierra County Animal Relief Fund (ARF) is currently seeking members to join our Board of Directors, and is also seeking general members. Position openings are President, Secretary, and Treasurer. We are also looking for volunteers to help in the following areas: Community Outreach - helping at events and talking at schools and local organizations Grants - researching and submitting Event Coordinator - finding and developing events for fundraising/outreach programs, booths, bakers for events, set-up, staffing, break-down, etc. Storage - we need storage for both our organization supplies and/or controlled storage for pet food distribution. Having a storage place for food is our biggest need, and will cut down on pet food costs by allowing us to take food donations from the public. Travel - distributing food, transport of animals to vet appointments, and transport of injured animals (we have been used by emergency services when an animal has been involved in an accident, and contacted by the public regarding hurt or distressed animals) Volunteer Coordinator Food Donations - purchase pet food on a case-by-case basis Recycle Program - people to accept recyclables and take them down to a paying recycle center We are always looking for people to become members, and help come up with ideas to allow ARF to grow and help even more animals and their families. To find out more about ARF and its mission visit www.animalrelieffund.net. For further information please contact Rachel Guffin at 289-2720 or e-mail sccaarf@gmail.com. Published: 07/23/13 The Real Endangered Species: The Sierra Nevada Hard Working Family Mr. Speaker: I rise today to warn of the latest episode in a saga that can best be described as "Greens Gone Wild." It involves the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to declare two million acres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains as "critical habitat" for the Sierra Nevada Yellow Legged Frog and the Yosemite Toad under the Endangered Species Act. That is essentially the footprint of the Sierra Nevada mountains from Lassen County north of Tahoe to Kern County just outside of Los Angeles. This designation would add Draconian new restrictions to those that have already severely reduced productive uses such as grazing, timber harvesting, mining, recreation and tourism and fire suppression efforts. And for what? Even the Fish and Wildlife Service admits that the two biggest factors in the decline of these amphibian populations are not human activity at all, but rather non-native trout predators and the Bd fungus that has stricken amphibian populations across the western United States - neither of which will be relieved by this drastic expansion of federal regulations. The species that will be most affected by this action is the human population, and that result will be tragic, severe, and entirely preventable. For example, timber harvesting that once removed the overgrowth from our forests and put it to productive use - assuring us both healthier forests and a thriving economy -- is down more than 80 percent since 1980 in the Sierras - all because of government restrictions. The result is more frequent and intense forest fires, closed mills, unemployed families and a devastated economy throughout the region. Existing regulations already effectively put hundreds of thousands of acres of forest off limits to human activity by such laws as the Wilderness Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, not to mention a crushing array of California state regulations. This proposal by the fish and wildlife service would vastly expand these restrictions. This is part of a much bigger picture. In Yosemite National Park, the Department of Interior is proposing to expel long-standing tourist amenities from the Valley and lock in a plan that would result in 27 percent fewer campsites than in 1997 and 31 percent less lodging. Throughout the Sierra Nevada, the U.S. Forest Service is closing access roads, imposing cost-prohibitive fees and conditions on cabin rentals, grazing rights, mining, and of course, timber harvesting, and obstructing long-standing community events on which many of these towns rely for tourism. The one common denominator in these actions is an obvious desire to force the public off the public's land. Gifford Pinchot, the legendary founder of the U.S. Forest Service always said the purpose of the public lands was the "greatest good for the greatest number in the long run." John Muir, the legendary conservationist responsible for preserving Yosemite Valley did so in the words of the legislation he inspired, for the express purpose of "public use, resort and recreation." These visions of the sound management of our public lands by the pioneers of our parks and forest systems are quickly being replaced by elitist and exclusionary policies that can best be described as "look, but don't touch; visit, but don't enjoy." No one values the natural resources of the Sierra Nevada more than the people who live there and who have entrusted me to speak for them in Congress. These communities have jealously safeguarded the beauty of the region and the sustainability of the lands for generations. Their prosperity - and their posterity -- depends on sustained and responsible stewardship of these lands. Now, Federal authorities are replacing these balanced and responsible policies with vastly different ones that amount to a policy of exclusion and benign neglect. We have a sacred obligation to future generations to preserve and protect our public lands. But protecting our public lands for future generations doesn't mean we must close them to the current generation. Published: 07/18/13 "Our Loyalton Library" OUR LOYALTON LIBRARY Hello again, from the volunteer staff at the Loyalton Library. We are slowly expanding our shelf space so we can better organize our "Friends of the Library" donated books. They are being arranged alphabetically by author and genre. This should make it easier to find what you are looking for. Mysteries, westerns, and adventure novels are very popular with patrons and we maintain a good stock of these books, mostly in paperback. We also have new arrivals in our large collection of children, juvenile, and young adult books. We plan to offer them on a "read and return" plan so that more people can take advantage of them. In addition, free childrens' books are available from our cart in front of the library. In the near future, we will feature our new books and other media arrivals on a separate display shelf for our patrons. New titles arrive all the time, thanks to generous donations from members of the community. A couple of weeks ago, I talked with Lee Dummel, a member of Trails West, Inc., a group dedicated to researching and locating the early emigrant trails in our area. I had previously read about Jim Beckwourth, a mountain man, who blazed an alternate route to the gold fields from Sparks, Nevada through the Sierra Valley to Marysville, California. The group published an excellent driving guide for the Beckwourth route in 2012 and Lee kindly sent me copy. The trail is marked by fifty monuments and the guide describes the location of each one. I hope to obtain a copy of the guide for the library in the future along with a definitive biography of Jim Beckwourth by Elinor Wilson (entitled "Jim Beckwourth;" University of Oklahoma Press, Norman; Copyright 1972). Information about past native cultures in Sierra Valley is difficult to locate, but we have available "The Circle of Stones," privately published by Richard Schwartz (copyright 1995), which describes his research of a curious stone circle in the Stampede Valley (now Stampede Reservoir). The circle was successfully moved to a park in Truckee, but its origin remains a mystery. Another volume, presently on loan to a Cal-Davis stu-dent, is "The History of the Maidu" which is the seminal work on the most recent native culture in our region. We hope to have this volume returned soon for the use of our library researchers. We strive to obtain quality research materials which encompass local subject matter in the areas of history, pre-history and physical sciences. Stop in and let us know what you would like to see on the shelves and we will try to find it. We are open Wednesday through Friday from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Thanks for your support. Jon Schumacher Published: 07/17/13 FRIENDS OF INDEPENDENCE LAKE ASK SIERRA COUNTY TO CLAIM ROAD FRIENDS OF INDEPENDENCE LAKE (FOIL) came in good numbers to the Sierra County Board of Supervisors meeting in Loyalton on Tuesday, July 16th to show new information about the road to Independence Lake. Spokesperson Kenny Osburn addressed the Board and talked about some misconceptions like, Independence Lake is NOT private; violating private property rights is NOT FOIL's intent; quiet recreation isn't for everyone; maintained road mileage is accurate; and new road alignment mileage is accurate. Osburn introduced GIS (Geographic Information Systems) expert, Kyle Felker of Kyle Felker Consulting who was hired by FOIL to accurately map the Independence Lake Road based on Sierra County's documents. The project was used with a resource grade GPS (Global Positioning System) which is a mapping grade. GIS uses the GPS data and makes an analysis with it. The road is 4.6 miles long, with the Tahoe National Forest Boundary the only fixed point to go on which was made clear once Felker and Osburn found the USGS survey monuments and blaze marks where the bark had been shaved off of trees in the 1800's to mark the boundary. According to Osburn and Felker, using these tools and the county's documents, show the road ends 18 inches west of the dam. The gate should be right on the dam. In 1973 the County lost .05 of a mile on the road and no document shows where or why it was taken out. Osburn said he wanted to meet with Planning Director Tim Beals to go over the new data, and hoped to come to the meeting "holding hands" in agreement. But unfortunately that didn't happen and said it was frustrating Beals won't meet with him. Osburn stated FOIL does care about the fish and AIS. Multiple members have been doing the inspections and received training. Osburn felt he had brought a pile of information and hoped the board would make a decision on this matter. Board member, Jim Beard didn't want to continue to keep the road locked if the road ends past the gate and was willing to make a motion to this effect. Board member, Lee Adams argued the County has no idea if this is accurate, adding the Board needed time to look at the information and confirm its accuracy. Chris Fichtel from the Nature Conservancy found the presentation "very interesting information." He stated, this information requires time for everybody and the gate is there due to County research, adding they haven't had the time to review the information. Beals said he has had no time to process the information and compare it to what was presented two years ago. He said to take a motion today or a staff opinion is troubling. Beals had a number of questions including the progressive maintained mileage over time. He said a lot needs to be explained. Beals continued stating maintained mileage started in the 40's and 50's and all changes make a difference. Beals stated if this is a priority he'll have to put other things on hold as he doesn't have a "twin brother" and needs to have the resources or the time to look at this new information. County Counsel Jim Curtis added whatever is going to happen we need to get it right, stating the next step in this is likely to be litigation and the County does not have a deed to this road. Curtis further stated they are ascertaining this by historical use, but this is not the sole fact in the evidence. He stated two outcomes: It is criminal to block a public road, but we also may have civil litigation. Curtis asked the Board its priorities in the county and is it worth the investment? Adams echoed County Counsel's sentiments calling it a complicated issue where neither side is right and neither side is wrong. He added some things can't be open all the time to be protected and Independence Lake may not be a priority to the majority of Sierra County when there are more pressing items to take precedence, like Sierra Brooks' water system. Adams concluded by stating he was getting to not like this lake, calling it "trouble," and "their middle east." Supervisor Peter Huebner made the motion to have the issue go to the Public Works, Roads, and Solid Waste Committee which was approved unanimously. Published: 07/17/13 |