I've lived in Lake County for over three years and have seen Clear Lake many times, but until today I'd never seen it from the water.  I switched county departments on July 14 from Planning to Water Resources and this afforded me the opportunity to see the Lake up close.  I accompanied the Water Resources Technician on a mission to drop some hazard warning buoys on shallow rocks that had surfaced as a result of the drought.  We took the air boat so we wouldn't run aground anywhere; the boat is great except for having to wear ear protection, especially at high speeds.

I noticed some interesting things out on the Lake.  One thing I saw right off was how expansive the view is compared to from land.  All those trees and buildings everywhere really block the view!  I saw a flock of geese take off and fly for over a mile, then land back in the water.  Something that I've seen from the land before, but they always take off and fly out of view.

I also got to see tons of grebes!  I've noticed the different grebe species around Clear Lake for years, but never have I seen so many nests in one location before; it was impressive. We took the air boat near Rodman Slough, and also between Tule Island and the mainland.  The area is really shallow due to the significant amount  of sediment deposited there from Middle Creek and Scotts Creek.  There were grebe nests as far as the eye could see.  These birds make their nests out of aquatic weeds that float on the water.  I'll have to go back out sometime with my SLR camera and the long zoom lens so I can get shots of these birds up close.

So far, we've made significant progress.  After holding weekly brainstorming sessions in May and June, we held a day-long strategic planning session on July 12 with about 20 people in attendance where we solicited more input and molded the brainstorm in to a more concise vision and direction with goals laid out for the next several years.  A summary of the ideas generated that day can be found here or on the sidebar.  Since then we've also built this website and virtual office, established the initial Board of Directors, secured a location for a booth at the Lake County Fair, and this past weekend we attended the Health in the Park gathering at Clear Lake State Park, celebrating 150 years of the parks system.  It was nice discussing CLERC with members of the local community.  Everyone really seemed to like looking at the different types of cyanobacteria under the microscope and comparing the two buckets of water we brought, one from Library Park in Lakeport and the other from Redbud Park in Clearlake.