Head out on Clear Lake one day and there’s a decent chance of encountering a scientist on the water or maybe along the shoreline, taking samples or measurements of some kind.
The oldest lake in North America has seen its share of change and challenging conditions in the estimated half million years it has existed, and researchers of all sorts have been at work over the years trying to understand the impacts and work out solutions.
There are harmful algal blooms, impacts from an old mercury mine, drastic declines in native fish, shoreline habitat loss and invasive plants and animals, to name a few.
Now, for the first time in 25 years, experts will be sharing their research with each other and with the public during a two-day symposium Aug. 15 and 16 at the Robinson Rancheria Conference Center in Upper Lake.
The free event, organized by the Lake County Watershed Protection District in partnership with area tribes, government agencies and research groups, is intended to help break down silos that have developed over the years and improve opportunities for collaboration, said Angela De Palma-Dow, invasive species coordinator for the watershed protection district.
It’s also a chance for civilians to learn more about the lake and the complex science behind it.
But “it’s not going to be dumbed down,” De Palma-Dow said. “This is a technical symposium. There’s going to be research topics in there, but that’s the way that we can best communicate the things that we’re doing and the problems that we need to solve.”
De Palma-Dow said the idea for the symposium emerged during meetings back a year or two about how to aid recovery of the native population of Clear Lake hitch. A large minnow found only in Clear Lake, its numbers have plummeted close to extinction, drawing intervention from state and federal wildlife agencies, among many others.
Stakeholders were trying to figure out “what do we know, and what do we not know, and what do we need to know, and it became apparent that there is science that is disjointed and disconnected in the watershed,” De Palma-Dow said.
“We wanted to be able to have an opportunity to have the information that’s been collected by researchers, agency manager, tribes, nongovernmental organizations and also researchers at the state university level have a space where they can share all that.”
Organizers also want to work toward a system where all the findings and work of various researchers are recorded and digitally available to others on into the future, she said.
Where many lakes or reservoirs are operated or overseen by a single entity, “Clear Lake, unlike any other water body really in the state, has so many multiagency, multi-partner ownerships or stakes,” De Palma-Dow said.
That makes it hard for all the parties to be aware of all that’s going on, she said.
“We feel like we have an obligation to keep that available in digital binders to the public,” she said.
Those who want to attend must preregister.
More information is available at Clear Lake Integrated Science Symposium 2024 | Lake County, CA (lakecountyca.gov)
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.
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Publish date : 2024-08-05 16:55:00
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