Posts published in “Local News”

If you’re still getting paper statements, how should you dispose of them? Or if you have printouts of things like tax returns or confidential documents, how to get rid of them safely?

If you’re like me, you have a shredder. Shredded paper should be put in a clear plastic bag and put in the recycling bin. A clear bag is required so that they can be separated from other recyclables — the shredded paper can gum up recycling machines.

Another option is to drop old papers off at local business centers like The UPS Store for shredding — there’s a fee, but they’re bonded and you can be sure that the paper won’t end up with identity thieves.

The new park on Fallbrook St at Morro is coming along nicely. Lots of construction underway.

Fallbrook isn’t a good town to ride a regular bicycle because of its hills and because many of our streets are narrow and have bad sightlines. However e-bikes are better at keeping up with traffic than regular bicycles and they power up hills.

E-bikes are a lot more expensive than regular bikes, so they’re slow to be adopted. Rebate programs are coming that will make e-bikes more affordable. From Cal-Bike:

On May 1, 2024, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held what we hope is the last work group meeting before a launch date is announced and the first application window opens. Here’s what you need to know.

• Incentive amounts: CARB proposes a $1,750 base incentive for all kinds of bikes and $2,000 for priority applicants. The money can be used for safety and security gear if any is left over after purchasing the bike.
• Timing: CARB plans to announce the first application window in May and that window should open in June.
• Application process: The first application window will cut off after the first 2,500 applications are submitted. CARB is planning six application windows to distribute the first 15,000 vouchers, extending through mid-2025.
• Battery safety: All bikes purchased through the statewide incentive program must have UL or EN certified batteries.

Click here to read more

If I happen to be running errands in the afternoon, I encounter crossing guards all along Mission. They are always cheerful and helpful, making sure kids cross intersections safely.

It was good to see the latest county report showing that our incidence of COVID is below last summer and all the coughing/sniffling stuff (flu, RSV) is also back to last summer’s levels. However, somewhat worrisome is the wastewater surveillance data that shows COVID in wastewater tripling from mid-April to the start of May.

In 2022, we had a mid-year surge of COVID in July/August. Then in 2023 we saw a surge in fall (September onward). The data looks like we might have another summer surge this year.

The fruit and berry plants have been blooming for the last month in Fallbrook and all those plants need to be pollinated. In the last five years, I’ve had to deal with three separate occasions where honeybees made their home in my yard and I was always really reluctant to evict them. But it turns out that local honeybees are European imports and they have been Africanized so they are more aggressive (yep, I’ve gotten stung, more than once!).

The New York Times had a story recently about a woman who got honeybees in her house and her saga to reclaim her home. From the NY Times:

Over the past two decades, fears of a collapsing honeybee population have inspired elegiac journalism and 30 state laws aiming to protect pollinators. … I considered buying a can of Raid, but I felt too guilty. I had a vague sense that honeybees needed saving. … There was little else to do but wait and see…

What I wish I had known then: Honeybees do not need saving.

Just last month, new federal data showed that the number of honeybee colonies has increased by 31 percent since 2007. A vast majority of those insects are used in commercial farming, carted from state to state to pollinate crops.

“Honeybees are not endangered nor at risk of extinction,” noted a 2023 report from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “The fact that honeybees are domesticated and managed negates the possibility of being endangered.”

Honeybees are an invasive species that were brought to the United States from Europe. Saving one of their colonies can actually hurt native bees, many of which are endangered. A recent study in Montreal found that when the number of honeybee hives rose in part of the city, the number of native bees declined.

“You are not helping a wild species” when you save a honeybee swarm, said Rich Hatfield, a senior conservation biologist at Xerces. “You are introducing 10,000 to 50,000 mouths to feed to an environment that may not have enough resources.”

Click here to read the whole story in the New York Times

Click here to get FREE access to the New York Times through the library

The Washington Post had a similar story:

Mace Vaughan leads pollinator and agricultural biodiversity at Xerces, an insect-conservation outfit that has grown from five to nearly 80 employees during his 24 years there. Vaughan says it’s not a zero-sum game: For native pollinators to win, honeybees don’t have to lose. If we focus not on tax breaks, but on limiting the use of insecticide and promoting habitats such as meadows, hedgerows and wetlands, all pollinators can come out ahead. The way you support both honeybees and beekeepers — and the way you save native pollinators — is to go out there and create beautiful flower-rich habitat on your farm or your garden.

Click here to read (paywall)

When I dropped by the Spring Flower Faire Extraordinaire sponsored by the Garden Club, it was rockin’! Cars were going in and out of the Historical Society parking lot. There was a great selection of indoor plants and people had carts of outdoor plants (including lots of drought-tolerant succulents) destined for Fallbrook’s gardens. Funds raised went to a good cause — the Garden Club sponsors regular talks to help local gardeners.

In 1891, the first Fallbrook Irrigation District seized the 4,500-acre Palomares Ranch for non-payment of the assessment. The Palomares Ranch had not paid the Fallbrook water bill because it had plenty of water and refused to pay for what it didn’t need.  Many creeks cross the old Rancho Monserate heading for the San Luis Rey River.  The water table is high. 

Fortunately, Maria Lugardo de Jesus Alvarado Palomares had a smart lawyer, Henry Avila, who was also her son-in-law. Avila took it to the U.S. Supreme Court and won.  Dona Palomares had her ranch back, but she wasn’t interested in ranching.  With savvy advice from Los Angeles, she divided her land into tracts to sell.

The developers began digging a reservoir and laying pipes for the Winterwarm development.  Farm tracts and homes needed a steady source of water, without a windmill on every lot and they had no reason to trust the yet-to-be-incorporated Fallbrook district. To that end, Winterwarm Irrigation was formed before or about the same time as FPUD.  Winterwarm Irrigation was independent from the start and was eventually absorbed by something called the Metropolitan Water District.  It is part of FPUD now.