The thought of having to demolish their Lake Berryessa vacation spot tears at the heartstrings of Al and Teresa Barns, although they are dealing with their potential loss in nearly opposite ways.

“I’ve been going there since I was 15 — I love the lake,” Teresa Barns said, her hand on her heart and her voice matter-of-fact. “But I’m realistic. Give me my eviction notice, and let’s get it over with.”

Al Barns took a long look at his wife before replying: “I don’t want to believe that.”

So began the couple’s conversation as they dined on chicken marsala and Caesar salad at a recent fundraiser for Berryessa for All — a grassroots campaign rallying against the federal government’s year-old decision to oust 1,300-plus mobile homes from Lake Berryessa’s shores.

The Bureau of Reclamation issued its record of decision in June to remake 12 miles of prime Berryessa shoreline by removing privately owned mobile homes at seven lakeside recreational resorts. The new Lake Berryessa Visitor Services Plan sets new standards for lakeside vacation lodging, barring mobile homes but allowing RV and tent-camping, cabins, motels and hotels, among other permanent structures.

Environmentalists and others have applauded the bureau’s decision, saying the trailers are problematic and limit public access. But at every step of its development, the visitor services plan has sparked hearty opposition.

Throughout the five years of public hearings leading up to the record of decision, 1,500-plus supporters of the lakeside resorts joined Task Force 7 — a group that disbanded shortly after the bureau’s June 2006 decree.

Former Task Force 7 co-chair Pat Monaghan explained that the group basically accepted the record of decision as the death knell of the lakeside trailer community’s mission to save the resorts.

“We lost,” Monaghan said.

Meanwhile, 300-plus supporters of the lakeside resorts are refusing to accept defeat, regardless of the cost.

Berryessa for All organizers say they are aiming to raise about $400,000 to fund a legal quest to overturn the Bureau of Reclamation’s plan so they can preserve life at the lake as they’ve always known it. The group’s most recent fundraiser — a February dinner and auction — sought a $1,000 contribution per family.

Did feds listen?

Organizers like Don Lombardi, a retired gas station and auto repair shop owner from Sunnyvale, emphasize the odds of winning a case in federal court are decidedly against them because they’re going against the federal government.

The group’s San Carlos attorney, Frank Iwama, has centered Berryessa for All’s appeal around the argument Reclamation’s decision was made before it embarked on the required public hearing process.

Iwama pointed out that federal authorities counted an Internet petition with 12,000 signatures from Task Force 7 members as just one comment supporting long-term uses for the resorts. He questioned why bureau officials identified a preferred alternative — one that eliminated the mobile home resorts — before the public hearings began.

“If you wanted Chicago to win in the Super Bowl and you wrote the rules — wouldn’t Chicago be the winner?” Lombardi asked.

Bureau officials have said the decision-making process was fair and followed all federal regulations, and that they even extended the comment period on their plans to allow all voices to be heard.

Berryessa for All has enlisted a legal database service designed to “find inconsistencies” in the 200-plus-page Visitors Services Plan, Iwama said.

Meanwhile, federal officials forge ahead with the plan to remove the lakeside mobile homes. Eviction notices have been issued to mobile home owners renting plots at the Lake Berryessa Marina Resort and the Putah Creek Resort.

Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said the bureau plans to start accepting new proposals for the lakeshore from developers in mid-spring.

Reclamation plans to begin awarding the future recreation contracts sometime next fall. All of the current mobile homes resort contracts expire by mid-2009, and mobile homes must be removed by the end of their respective resort’s contract, according to the visitor services plan.

Monday marks the due date for Reclamation to submit a response to the legal complaint Berryessa for All filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in mid-January.

As one group rises up to battle the bureau’s decision, another — Task Force 7 — is taking the final bureaucratic steps to lay its organization to rest.

Monaghan said though she wishes Berryessa for All the best of luck, she won’t be joining their team.

“Berryessa for All formed out of the ashes of what was Task Force 7,” Monaghan said. “In effect they had more ability to carry the fight forward — in their skills, their background and their desire.

“Honestly we we’re tired. We were exhausted. We had been through many years and did not have the spirit to get revved up again,” she said.

Instead, Monaghan is savoring what may be her family’s final summer at the lake. Plans are in the works for her four grandchildren — ages 11 to 15 — to spend a good chunk of this summer at the Monaghan mobile home at Putah Creek Resort.

“We’re just focusing on having a good time and for everybody to be able to say their goodbyes,” Monaghan said.

Monaghan said she’s delaying thinking about the looming task of disassembling and disposing of her family’s mobile home.

“I’m not up to handling it,” Monaghan said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people and most of us are saying, ‘We’ll think about it later.’”