While the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce is reviewing its goals and objectives, the group is preparing for the 2012 fire season, which may be longer and drier than recent years. The members began revising the organization’s objectives at its November meeting. The current set was developed in 2003 in response to the bark beetle infestation….

After only about a month, the number of confirmed oaks infested with goldspotted oak borers has surged 20 percent, to 48 from the 40 identified at July’s Mountain Area Safety Taskforce, according to Division Chief Gregg Bratcher, Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department forester. Just as alarming as the rapid spread of the pest…

Carbon plant doing its job The July water samples from Fern Valley Water District’s granulated activated carbon (GAC) plant yielded unexpected and strange results, General Manager Victor Jimenez told the directors at the Aug. 23 board meeting. “There must have been a bottle mix up at the lab,” he began. The GAC filters remove the…