One of the frequent emailers to the Flyer just sent this in and signed it as “the pest.” Actually, I enjoy that people are sending in posts but please don’t forget you can use the comment option below each post on the Flyer. Thanks for spreading the word.

“Posted on KBHR
Grants for Landowners (9/14/06) A fuels reduction grant will soon be available to private property owners in Big Bear. The ‘Forest Care’ program can help landowners clear the required 100 feet of defensible space and also manage their forested property. Starting tomorrow, it will be available to residents of Big Bear Valley, Barton Flats, Angelus Oaks, Forest Falls and Mountain Home Village. Call 1-888-883-THIN for details”

In other news, I announced my canadate status on Channel 6 this AM. (Yes, I mentioned Wayne and Gene, too.) Catch the segment on my animal training past and book projects this Saturday when is airs again. Not sure when it is scheduled but imagine it is the same time slot from 7am-8am. I was on about 7:20 or so.

Our lovely neighbor with the bark beetle problem made a ton of calls and found out that the County of Public Works (909)867-1240 (CPW) will do Bark Beetle tree removal for free. She said,

“Apparently they have recently received a large Grant, for this specific service, and it is available for anyone in the Big Bear Valley area. Its been hard for them to get the word out to the public, so many folks arent aware this Grant even exists.

If ANYONE in Fawnskin has a sick, dying, or dead tree, that stemmed from the Bark Beetle, they need to contact the Public Works as soon as possible, have them come out to tag it, and then they will remove it down to a stump when they can. (usually within a few months)

It will then be the property owners choice to have a tree company come out to stump grind it if you so desire. The CPW wants to remove as many trees in our community as possible, at one time, to save their costs a bit–understandable of course.

So please let our neighbors know of this free service, and have them contact the CPW if they have a Bark Beetle infested pine.

We are breathing a huge sigh of relief, as the previous quotes for tree
removal were in the thousands. ouch.”

Habitat for Humanity
For those of you interested in the Big Bear Valley’s Habitat for Humanity click here.

This was emailed to me today. I have heard that there have been attempted break-ins throughout the valley and wrote about the problem shortly after the street lights were turned off. This particular incident occurred on Mohawk:

“We had an attempted break-in at our cabin. Please inform neighbors that there are some bad people cruising the neighborhood, trying to get into homes. “

I noticed that the big pine across the street from the post office was infested with Bark Beetles. The same resident said,

“…two of our lovely pines are infested with Bark Beetles, and must come down. Please let the neighborhood know how important it is to have their trees checked and sprayed early, or they too could become victims of the Bark Beetle (nasty nasty bug). We immediately brought an Arborist and he informed us of the sad news. We will do the right thing to help our community fight this problem, by removing our infected trees immediately.”

Tree removal is expensive but I did hear that there are some programs to help. If you have any information on this, please send it in so I can post it.

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