CLERC, Lakeport, CA (2026)

09/04/2026

🚨 INVASIVE SPECIES ALERT: Tree of Heaven

This one might look like it belongs here, but it absolutely does not.

Tree of Heaven was brought to California by Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush and quickly became a popular shade tree. Today it is on California's State Noxious Weeds List and rated a Moderate invasive threat by Cal-IPC. It grows just about anywhere, including through cracks in pavement. A single mature tree drops up to 325,000 seeds per year and sends up new shoots from its roots as far as 50 feet away. On top of that, it releases toxins into the soil that kill the plants around it. Along streams and other disturbed areas, it forms dense stands that crowd out native vegetation.

How to tell it apart from Northern California Black Walnut: This is the mix-up that matters most locally. Both trees have long compound leaves with pointed leaflets, and both tend to grow near creeks and disturbed ground. But look closer. Black walnut leaflets are toothed along the entire edge. Tree of Heaven leaflets are smooth with just one or two bumps near the base. Black walnut bark is dark and deeply furrowed. Tree of Heaven bark stays smooth and pale gray, almost like concrete. And the easiest test of all: crush a leaf. Black walnut smells earthy and sharp, like the nut. Tree of Heaven smells skunky, like rancid peanut butter. If it smells bad, it is the bad tree. Northern California Black Walnut (Juglans hindsii) is native, supports wildlife, and belongs here. Tree of Heaven does not.

It can also be confused with sumac or ash at first glance, but those have fully toothed leaf edges throughout.

If you just cut Tree of Heaven down, it fights back. Cutting triggers a flush of new sprouts, sometimes dozens of them. For small seedlings, pull them out by hand when the ground is wet, before the roots have a chance to spread. For saplings, a w**d wrench works well if you get the entire root out. Bigger trees take more patience. Cut in early spring and again around June or July to stop it from going to seed, then keep cutting new growth for three to four years to wear the root system out. Planting shade-tolerant natives nearby helps too, since thick shade keeps new seedlings from getting established.

One more thing to know: the sap and leaves can cause skin rashes in some people, so wear gloves if you are handling it.

Tree of Heaven is also the preferred host plant for spotted lanternfly, a destructive pest that has not yet established in California. Keeping these trees in check helps make sure our area stays less inviting if that pest arrives. CDFW suggests big leaf maple as a solid native replacement if you remove one.

Seen one around Clear Lake or anywhere in Lake County? Let us know! Send us a DM or drop a comment with the location.

🌿

08/28/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Common Yarrow
Achillea millefolium

If you only learn one wildflower in Lake County, make it yarrow. It grows in practically every habitat we have, from grasslands and oak woodlands to chaparral edges and serpentine slopes, and it blooms from spring well into fall. Flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers sit on top of sturdy stems with soft, finely divided leaves that look almost feathery, like fern fronds. The species name "millefolium" means "thousand leaf," and once you see how many times each leaf is divided, it makes sense.

Those flower clusters are a landing pad for pollinators. Native bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and beneficial predatory insects all visit yarrow heavily. At the same time, the plant's strong aromatic compounds repel aphids and other pests, which is why companion gardeners plant it alongside vegetables.

The genus name Achillea comes from the Greek hero Achilles, who according to myth carried yarrow with his army to treat battle wounds. That reputation followed the plant through history. Civil War soldiers called it "soldier's woundwort." The medicinal use was not just European legend. The Pomo and Kashaya used mashed yarrow leaf juice as a salve on sores. The Miwok used dried or green leaves for pain relief and during influenza outbreaks. The Ohlone brewed yarrow tea for stomach ailments and skin washes.

Yarrow spreads aggressively by both rhizomes and seed, making it an excellent groundcover and slope stabilizer. It tolerates clay, sand, serpentine, foot traffic, and drought. In Lake County, you will find it along just about any trail you walk between March and August.

Have you spotted Common Yarrow on your hikes? Share your sightings in the comments below! 👇

08/21/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Chamise
Adenostoma fasciculatum

Chamise is the single most dominant chaparral plant in California, present in over 70% of chaparral stands statewide, and Lake County's dry slopes and ridgelines are full of it. It grows as a wiry, densely branched evergreen shrub with tiny needle-like leaves, grayish bark, and clusters of small white flowers at the branch tips in spring.

Where chamise gets truly interesting is its relationship with fire. Its oily, resinous leaves are so flammable that firefighters gave it the nickname "greasewood." During summer drought, it sheds branches and bark to conserve moisture, and that dropped material builds up as fuel on the ground beneath it.

But chamise is built to survive exactly the fires it helps fuel. Underground, it develops a lignotuber, a thick woody burl that stores energy and sprouting buds, insulated from heat by the soil. After a fire, chamise resprouts from that burl and outgrows most competitors. Dormant seeds accumulate in the soil for years, and fire triggers over 90% of them to germinate in the first season after a burn. Most chaparral shrubs rely on resprouting or reseeding. Chamise does both. It also releases chemical compounds into the soil that suppress the germination of neighboring plants, giving it an even bigger head start.

That aggressive recovery is impressive, but it also means chamise can crowd out other native species trying to reestablish after a fire. Without careful post-fire management, it can take over a recovering landscape and reduce the plant diversity that makes chaparral ecosystems healthy and resilient. Thinning dense chamise stands also reduces the fuel load on hillsides, which lowers fire intensity when fire does move through. For communities in Lake County, managing chamise around homes and along ridgelines is an important part of keeping both the landscape and the people living in it safer.

Have you hiked through chamise chaparral in Lake County? Share your sightings in the comments below! 👇

08/19/2026

Wildlife Wednesday: Garter Snakes

You may have walked past dozens of garter snakes without realizing it. They're among Lake County's most common reptiles, quietly patrolling our creeks, wetlands, and backyards in search of frogs, fish, slugs, and rodents. Despite their modest size, these striped snakes possess some remarkable adaptations—including one that allows the Sierra Garter Snake to hunt prey armed with one of nature's most powerful neurotoxins.

Lake County is home to at least two species: the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans) and the Sierra Garter Snake (Thamnophis couchii), both found around Clear Lake, Anderson Marsh, and waterways throughout the county.

Although they look similar, the two species lead different lives. The Western Terrestrial Garter Snake is a habitat generalist, found in grasslands, oak woodlands, wetlands, and even suburban neighborhoods. It feeds on everything from earthworms and slugs to frogs, fish, rodents, and occasionally small birds. Remarkably, it is the only garter snake known to constrict larger prey before swallowing it.

The Sierra Garter Snake is much more closely tied to water, hunting fish, tadpoles, frogs, and other aquatic prey along streams and lake edges. It also possesses an extraordinary adaptation: resistance to tetrodotoxin, the powerful neurotoxin produced by Pacific newts. More than 1,000 times more potent than cyanide, this toxin would quickly incapacitate most predators. Evolutionary changes to the snake's nerve cells allow it to tolerate doses that few other animals can survive, making it one of nature's most fascinating predator-prey relationships.

Unlike most snakes, garter snakes give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. Females produce anywhere from four to more than thirty fully formed offspring, and within minutes the tiny snakes are hunting on their own.

Despite their reputation, garter snakes are harmless to people and play an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems by helping control rodents, slugs, amphibians, and other small animals. If you spot one on a hike or around your property, consider yourself lucky—it's one of Lake County's most effective and underappreciated native predators.

🔬 Thamnophis elegans & Thamnophis couchii
📍 Lake County, CA

08/14/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Lake County Dwarf-Flax
Hesperolinon didymocarpum

Lake County has its own species of dwarf-flax, and every known population is right here. This is not a subspecies or local variety of something more widespread. It is its own full species, first described by botanist Helen Sharsmith in 1961, with distinct structural features that set it apart from its relatives in neighboring counties.

It belongs to Hesperolinon, a genus of 13 dwarf-flax species found almost exclusively in California. Most are tied to serpentine soils, and several counties have their own named species. Serpentine habitat is naturally patchy, so the plants that depend on it tend to have small, isolated ranges. Lake County Dwarf-Flax is one of the most range-restricted in the group, known from fewer than ten populations concentrated in the Big Canyon Creek drainage.

It is not a showy plant. It stands 4 to 12 inches tall with threadlike leaves and tiny white to pink flowers that bloom from May into June, growing in open serpentine grassland and under scattered gray pines near chaparral edges. You could easily walk right past it.

The serpentine soils it depends on are harsh for most plants but perfect for the few species adapted to them. When that habitat is disturbed or developed, these specialists have very limited options. Lake County Dwarf-Flax is a quiet reminder that some of this county's rarest natural heritage is growing right underfoot.

Have you spotted wildflowers on Lake County's serpentine soils? Share your sightings in the comments below! 👇

08/12/2026

Wildlife Wednesday: Black-crowned Night-Heron

If you've ever heard a loud, raspy "KWOK" echoing across Clear Lake at dusk, you've been introduced to the Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). Stocky, red-eyed, and perpetually hunched, these compact herons look nothing like their tall, graceful Great Blue Heron cousins, and they operate on a completely different schedule.

Black-crowned Night-Herons are primarily nocturnal. While the Great Blue Herons and egrets own the daytime, night-herons wait until dusk to fly out to their foraging grounds, standing motionless at the water's edge before striking at fish, frogs, crayfish, and just about anything else that comes within range. Some researchers believe this nightshift lifestyle evolved because night-herons are outcompeted by larger herons during daylight hours.

During the day, you might spot one roosting in a tree near the water with its neck pulled tight into its shoulders, looking more like a grumpy stump than a heron. That hunched posture is characteristic of the species. But look closely and you'll notice the striking adult plumage: a glossy black cap and back, clean gray wings, white underparts, and vivid red eyes. During breeding season, two long white plumes trail from the back of the head.

One thing that throws a lot of birders off is the juveniles. Young night-herons are brown, heavily streaked and spotted, with yellow-orange eyes. They look nothing like the adults and are regularly mistaken for American Bitterns. It takes a full two to three years for them to transition into adult plumage.

Black-crowned Night-Herons can be spotted around Clear Lake and at Anderson Marsh. Next time you're out near the water around sunset, listen for that unmistakable bark. The night shift is clocking in.

🔬 Nycticorax nycticorax
📍 Clear Lake, Lake County, CA

08/10/2026

🔍 MYTHBUSTER MONDAY

MYTH: You can tell a rattlesnake's age by counting its rattles.

❌ BUSTED!

This one sounds like it should be true, but nope. Rattlesnakes add a new rattle segment every time they shed their skin, and they shed multiple times a year. A young snake in a good year with plenty of food can shed three or four times. So a snake with eight rattles might only be two years old.

On top of that, the segments break off. Rattlesnakes are out there dragging themselves over rocks and through brush all day. Older snakes almost always have pieces missing.

So that big rattlesnake with twelve rattles? Could be four years old. Could be eight. Could be twelve. There's really no way to know.

Here's what actually matters if you see one out on a trail: give it space. Rattlesnakes aren't aggressive. They rattle to warn you, which is honestly pretty polite for a venomous animal. Most bites happen when people try to mess with them or don't watch where they step.

🐍 Quick trail tips:
Watch where you put your feet and hands, especially around rocks and logs
Give them at least six feet of space
If you hear a rattle, stop, figure out where it's coming from, and back away

They're a natural and important part of the Lake County ecosystem. They eat rodents, they keep things in balance, and they'd really prefer to never meet you.

Got a nature myth you want us to bust? Drop it in the comments! 👇

08/07/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

California Everlasting
Pseudognaphalium californicum

If you have ever been hiking a Lake County trail in summer and suddenly smelled maple syrup with nobody in sight making pancakes, you probably walked past California Everlasting. The sticky, glandular leaves release a sweet scent that has been compared to maple syrup, pineapple, and curry, but maple syrup is what most people land on. As the plant dries out in the summer heat, that scent gets even stronger, perfuming the surrounding trail.

California Everlasting is easy to overlook when it is not in bloom. It grows as a fuzzy, upright plant with bright green, lance-shaped leaves that are noticeably sticky to the touch. From spring into early summer, clusters of small flower heads appear at the branch tips. What look like white petals are actually papery structures called phyllaries that surround tiny yellow disk flowers. Those papery heads hold their shape long after the plant dries, which is where the "everlasting" name comes from. They make excellent dried flower arrangements.

This plant is a pioneer species, one of the first to move into disturbed or burned ground. It stabilizes soil and helps prepare a site for longer-lived plants to establish behind it. It also serves as a larval food source for the American Painted Lady butterfly. It tolerates serpentine soils, clay, and poor drainage, making it well suited to Lake County's varied terrain.

Also called Ladies' To***co and California Rabbit To***co, this is one of those plants that rewards a closer look and a good sniff. Once you know the maple syrup trick, you will never walk past it again.

Have you caught a whiff of California Everlasting on a hike? Share your sightings in the comments below! 👇

CLERC

09/04/2026

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08/19/2026

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