Downstroke

CAMP out
The pot hunters are in the skies again. Last week, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced the kick-off of this year’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting eradication program, or CAMP. CAMP is composed of local, state and federal agencies that work together to find and yank out marijuana plantings. Last year, Lockyer said in a press release, agents seized an estimated $4.5 billion worth of marijuana plants, a record haul.

Increasingly, large-scale pot gardens on public lands are the work of major drug cartels, and workers often are armed. Reports from the street suggest that marijuana is as available as ever, just more expensive, which may be why people grow it in the first place.

School impact fees to go up
The trustees of the Chico Unified School District voted June 21 to hike school impact fees on new development from the current rate of $2.24 per square foot to $2.63 per square foot effective Aug. 20, meaning the school fee for a new 2,000-square-foot house will be $5,360. The rate will also apply to remodels larger than 500 square feet.

The new fee is the maximum the State Allocation Board will allow the district to charge but, according to the district’s “Developer Fee Justification Study,” less than the actual cost of new schools needed as a result of growth, which is $2.93 per square foot. Voting in favor of the increase were trustees Rick Rees, Jann Reed, Scott Huber and Rick Anderson. Trustee Anthony Watts was absent.

Trash talk
Got a load to dump? Do it quickly if you want to save a buck, because starting July 1, fees at the Neal Road Landfill will increase from the current $9 minimum for a pickup’s worth of stuff to $10, and a $2.65 increase will make the per-ton rate for general trash rise to $30.

Butte County Solid Waste Manager Bill Mannel said the fee hikes are a result of increased costs at the landfill. In addition, state-mandated capital improvements have added to expenses.

Fee increases—or, during times of miracles, decreases—occur annually after the county landfill budget has been reviewed.

Mildewed oaks
If you’ve been hiking in the foothills recently and noticed that some of the blue oak trees looked more like “silver oaks” and are coated with a white-to-gray fuzz, don’t worry about them. They’ve got powdery mildew, and even if they lose their leaves, they’ll probably survive, Doug McCreary, of the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program at UC Berkeley, stated in a press release.

“The trees are still very much alive,” he continued. “Losing their foliage is just the oak’s way of dealing with this unwanted pest. By this time next year they should again be leafed out without that silver coating….” That’s good to know.