Riverside County’s Planning Department has proposed major changes to Ordinance 927, “Regulating Short Term Rentals” (STRs). The draft is available for public comment. (See the March 10 edition of the Town Crier for details on the proposed changes.) The existing ordinance was approved six years ago when STRs were raising hackles mostly in the county’s…

For the final Idyllwild Conversation of the 2013-14 season, UC Riverside Professor of Fire Ecology Richard Minnich will talk about forest conditions that exacerbate wildfire risk. Showing photos of the Idyllwild area’s old-growth forests from 130 years ago, as well as from Baja Mexico’s mountains where fire suppression was not practiced until very recently, Minnich…