CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A clean up day and planting party was held at Clarks Island in Clearlake Oaks on Sunday.
The island has been the scene of a variety of cleanup and restoration efforts over the last several years, after the county of Lake purchased it.
The Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative, a group of community members and leaders, has led the effort to revitalize the area, which is a highly visible spot along Highway 20.
Supervisor Denise Rushing and a group of others worked on and around the island on Sunday, and checked on a floating island installed there.
Rushing said otters ate the cattail tubers off the living – apparently cattail root is an otter delicacy, she said. The otters swam underneath and munched from below.
The living dock itself wasn't damaged, and Rushing said otters apparently don't like the other vegetation in the island, including horsetail, iris and sedge.
She said they are planning to replant the island with vegetation that is not as tasty to otters, such as water irises.
For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clarks-Island-Sustainability-Initiative/131571996892818 .
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