Dan,

2 to 3 inches in ONE night, that starts tonight and continues into Wednesday morning.  That’s as much rainfall in one day that we would normally get in an average winter month.  Up to 8 inches is forecast for the week = almost as much rain for the entire winter in one week.

This has the potential, if it comes down as much as forecast, to be pretty devastating.  The Mountain towns will likely be hit hardest, especially the cuts from previous fires.  I expect extensive damage to roads and potential mudslides.

Stay safe up on the mountain and on the roads… wear your seatbelt too.

“Winter rainfall in the San Bernardino area varies by elevation, but generally, the wettest months are December, January, and February, with total precipitation often ranging from
10 to over 16 inches annually, with significant portions falling in winter, particularly December (around 3.4 inches) and February (around 2.3 inches), though specific forest-level data would need elevation-specific stations like the San Bernardino Ranger Station.”

This situation , “IS” the reason that I did not rejoin CSS . Some of you may not realize that if the landowner decided to file a lawsuit … (this is important) ; that landowner could go after each and every member of CSS, instead of just the club as a whole. How do I know this (?) ; it happened to my brother  !

Bille

There is no right answer here… Realistically, the land-owner could do whatever they want (try to sue every member of the CSS), but that is very unlikely because there is no way they could prove specific actions by individuals.  That’s one reason why the CSS is organized as 501 c(3), they could bring a suit against the CSS as an organization, but its not realistic to sue members as individuals.

In any case, the Landowner has gone through the ‘official’ eviction process with the Sheriff’s office.  The Squatter has been served an eviction notice as of last week.  He has until mid-December to vacate the premises or he will be arrested.

He can’t move onto CSS property because it’s State property, he would be immediately trespassed and arrested, no long-term eviction process would be required.  Same can be said if he tries to relocate to other privately owned properties that are adjacent to the LZ.

It’s not a happy situation, but the cold hard truth is that the guy has the past 10 years to get on his feet and do something to improve his life situation.  He has been shown a considerable amount of charity from CSS members who just didn’t want to see him starve or die in the elements, but he has chosen to throw that goodwill back into the faces of everyone involved by insisting on living illegally on someone else’s property for free (for life) and continuing to get all his other resources for free – while never having any intention of ever doing anything to realistically change his situation.

No good deed goes unpunished.

So the goal for 2026 is to keep the LZ alive and green through the entire summer like we did this year, but we want to start with the same great baseline that we had in 24.

– Wet winter or not, the irrigation system is working perfectly and will run through the winter so we won’t have dry conditions in the spring.

– We will be renting a spike aerator in December or January to give the a similar treatment to what we did in December of 23.  Aerating the soil just before we over-seed and fertilize gives us a jump start on healthy germination that kicks off in Feb/March.

– The advanced irrigation controller that was donated to the club by Hunter Industries provides amazing tools for us to monitor and control the watering program.  It’s now connected to the internet so we can monitor performance and make adjustments from our home computers.  We also fixed the flow meter in the system so we know exactly how much water we use overall, and even how much in a particular zone.

– We will deploy the pre-emergent weed control once in the winter and again in the spring.  this will keep the weeds from taking control before the grass germinates.  We will treat existing weeds with post-emergent spray with the back-pack sprayer as needed.

– Our Gopher population is at a minimum due to constant attention by professional pest-control.  We plan to continue funding this effort so that they don’t make a come-back.

– We have a steady plan of fertilizer and nutrient supplements that will will be deployed over the winter via the injection system.

So what didn’t go right and what can we do better?

Some of you might remember that in the spring of 2024 we had a super impressive looking LZ,  a very lush, deep green with almost no weeds at all.  It didn’t look quite as good this year because he had a slower start, so here are some of the things that contributed to that;

– I mentioned above that there were some broken (cracked) main lines we had to fix.  Myself, Owen Morse, Brian Richey, and a few others had to do some major digging in two separate areas with the Back-hoe and repair the large 4 inch main water lines.  This took several weekends to accomplish and several hundred dollars worth of repair parts.  As a consequence, we had the irrigation system shut off for most of February and into March.  At the same time that we had everything shut down, we installed the fertilizer injection tank, a filter, and some new shut-off valves.

– We didn’t have as wet of a winter as we did the previous year (23/24).  When we don’t have a wet winter its pretty important to still have the irrigation system running in the early months of the year to give the ground a good soak.  The over-seeding and fertilizer had a much later start to germination in 2025 than it did in the previous year.

– The later start for the new seed gave the weeds a head start on germination before the grass, that’s not good.  Typically you want the grass to germinate and establish dominance before the weeds rob the available moisture and nutrients in the soil.

– We didn’t use the pre-emergent weed treatment over the entire LZ like we did in the winter of 23/24.  Pre-emergent weed killers treat the area so weed don’t get the chance to start growing in the first place, vs. post-emergent weed killers which is what you spray on weeds that are already there.  We will have a better deployment plan for this winter and spring of 26, similar to what we did in 23/24.

Dan,

That’s what the meeting is for.  All members are invited to participate and have the opportunity to ask questions or get clarification.

I’m putting this thread on the forum for transparency, for respectful discussion, but mostly to let you all know how serious this is.  A small, but loud, minority of pilots have a tendency to rant about the BOD, about USHPA, CALFIRE, SB National Forest, well just about every authority, agency, or organization that governs our sport or our public lands.  I don’t know exactly what it will take to get these folks to understand that we are nation of laws, and the majority of us have no problem functioning just fine within the bounds of reasonable jurisprudence.  I think that we, as in the majority of CSS pilots who conduct ourselves with midfullness as fully formed adults, have to reinforce our values as responsible pilots and stewards of the land we are privileged to use for our sport.  We have to make sure that everyone understands that these types of behaviors that put our club and facilities at risk should not, and will not, be tolerated.

– CSS President-

Since Encore University Hills purchased all of this land to the east of our LZ (around 2021), we have had their permission to continue using the Training Hill.  There is now a significant chance we could have that permission rescinded due to the actions of one or more CSS members.

A CSS member, without permission of the landowner or endorsement of the CSS BOD, has been storing personal vehicles, tools, equipment, supplies and other materials at the top of the Training Hill.  This stash of personal affects and equipment was placed there over a period of about the last two years.  An Encore University Hills Site Manager notified the responsible individuals personally, face to face, over a month ago.  Encore followed up with an email to the CSS BOD that was forwarded to those responsible individuals.  In early July, a letter was sent to the CSS Board by Encore Attorneys, notifying the club and the responsible individuals to remove their vehicles and other items from Encore property no later than August 1st.  That deadline has come and gone, no effort has been put forth by the responsible parties to honor the landowner’s requests.