Lake County supervisors direct staff to draft Clear Lake co-management agreement

The Lake County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed county staff to develop a draft co-management agreement for Clear Lake and to consider creation of a work group to help craft the terms, giving that direction by consensus.

Supervisors said the agreement would be a nonbinding mutual pledge among the county, local tribal governments and state agencies and would not, at this stage, cede county authority over the lake. Supervisor Brad (first name only in transcript) told colleagues the draft would help “have a pledge and a written agreement on how we're gonna work together to manage the resource that is Clear Lake and the other ... the whole watershed of Clear Lake.”

The request follows state-level moves under AB 1284 encouraging co-management arrangements between state agencies and tribal governments for natural resources. Terry Logsdon, Lake County’s Chief Climate Resiliency Officer and Tribal Liaison, read comments from Geneva E. B. Thompson, Deputy Secretary for Tribal Affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), who said CNRA “warmly welcome[s] the opportunity to closely partner with the county in these conversations” and sees “a lot of value in developing meaningful and durable co management…