Mono Lake, it's for the birds ...
The following paragraphs outline the protection, restoration, and education activities that the Mono Lake Committee is involved in having to do with birds. With over 325 bird species that either breed here or migrate through, birds play a significant role in restoration, research, and recreation in the basin.
North Shore Ponds
This past fall and winter, the USFS continued its efforts to add water-saving infrastructure at the DeChambeau Ranch/County Ponds complex. Crews installed a pipeline between
DeChambeau Ponds and County Ponds and sealed East County Pond with bentonite. The goal is to maximize the beneficial uses of the water—and minimize waste—at this series of artificial ponds on Mono’s arid north shore. The ponds are maintained primarily by artesian water, but are supplemented with water from the north Mono Basin’s Mill Creek.
While the Committee has supported efforts to provide freshwater habitat at the ponds, we are growing increasingly concerned that the USFS is paying more attention to installing new infrastructure than to scientifically assessing whether work done to date has in fact benefited waterfowl. In tandem with improving water efficiences, the USFS should be systematically tracking vegetation response and waterfowl use of the ponds to assess whether the costs—scarce water, USFS staff time, and taxpayers’ dollars devoted to ongoing maintenance—will be justified by habitat gains.
The artificial pond complex was partially restored in the mid-1990s to benefit migratory ducks. In 1998, funds were made available to continue restoration work at the ponds under the State Water Resources Control Board’s decision on restoration at Mono Lake. The State Water Board required the L.A. Department of Water and Power to pay up to $250,000 for improvements to surface water diversion and distribution facilities in the County Ponds area. DWP funds will likely be used to install a pipeline between Wilson Creek (which carries Mill Creek water) and the ranch sometime this spring.
www.monobasinresearch.org
The Mono Basin Information Clearinghouse is taking flight. This web-based project will be a comprehensive information source for Mono Basin scientific studies and reports. Once up and running, Mono Basin researchers will have a great place to start a search for Mono Basin studies, ultimately improving resource management and access to scientific information.
Advance preparation such as researching document scanning technology, evaluating methods of searching various document formats, and coming up with a plan for adding server space are challenges we are dealing with before we launch the first substantive version of the website found at www.monobasinresearch.org. Historical interviews and the Mono Basin EIR, thanks to Jones & Stokes Associates, will be accessible by the end of May. The cornerstone of the project will be a comprehensive database of Mono Basin studies––to see a preliminary version visit the Members’ section of the Mono Lake Website. Other useful scientific information and studies will be added throughout the summer and fall, such as the results from various bird and bird habitat monitoring programs.
Eastern Sierra Riparian Songbird Conservation Project
Started in 1998 this collaborative study spearheaded by the Point Reyes Bird Observatory uses songbirds as a tool to assess the health of the Mono Basin riparian systems. See a complete description of the study on pages 4–5.
Channel openings and road closures
The best way to open channels on Rush Creek, called for in the 1998 Mono Basin Restoration Plans, is being discussed in light of changing
conditions. Reopening channels that have been cut off increases channel length, raises the water table, and promotes growth of the former multi-storied cottonwood-willow riparian forest. These areas will also have habitat benefits for ducks in addition to benefits for breeding riparian songbirds. Especially in the bottomlands downstream of the confluence of Rush and Walker creeks, re-opening channels is expected to help restore the rare and valuable wooded wetlands that used to exist adjacent to most Great Basin terminal lakes prior to water diversion-caused degradation. Three channels upstream of Highway 395 were reopened last fall, and we are expecting several downstream of the highway to be reopened this year.
The restoration plans also call for closing side roads in the floodplains along the creeks. The roads allow vehicle damage to riparian vegetation and illegal collection of river rock—which could potentially alter the sediment balance in the streams. A few roads have already been closed, and additional closures will take place once projects such as channel openings are finished in the vicinity of each road.
Birds and people
With over 325 species recorded from the Sierra Crest to the lakeshore, bird watching is a significant recreational pursuit in the Mono Basin. Large numbers of birds at the lake are
best observed in summer and fall. Unfortunately the birds do not always appear at the most-visited day-use sites. Balancing the need for undisturbed habitat and good observation sites is a task the Committee will investigate in cooperation with the Tufa State Reserve and USFS. A new, elevated, low-impact boardwalk is in the discussion stages for the Tufa State Reserve, below County Park.
Field Seminars
Each year the Mono Lake Committee hosts birding seminars in the Mono Basin and surrounding area. Members and non-members alike have the opportunity to join experts in the field locating and identifying birds. California Gull research is also a part of the field seminar program, allowing for volunteer opportunities with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory research efforts. See the seminar listings on pages 18-21.
Important Bird Area (IBA) Designation
The Mono Lake Committee is seeking Important Bird Area status for Mono Lake. The process has just begun to apply for Important Bird Area (IBA) status from National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy. IBA does not add any additional regulations for Mono Lake, but it does grant further recognition of Mono Lake as providing essential habitat for birds in California.
Waterfowl monitoring
As required by the State Water Board-approved restoration plans for the Mono Basin, DWP has initiated annual waterfowl monitoring. Monitoring includes regular waterfowl counts conducted by boat throughout the peak fall migratory period; two separate aerial surveys that include Crowley Lake and Bridgeport Reservoir along with Mono Lake; and analysis of vegetation transects at sites around the lake. The annual data will help provide a picture of how Mono is changing as it rises and some idea of how birds are responding to these changes. Monitoring is expected to continue until 2014, the year set by the Water Board to assess restoration progress at Mono Lake.
Prescribed burn program
The Mono Basin Restoration Plans call for a prescribed burn program to enhance lake-fringing marsh and seasonal wet meadow habitats, to mimic natural fire ecology, and to restore waterfowl habitat by maintaining open water sites and increasing the vigor and health of surrounding wetland vegetation.
The Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve has spent several years in a pilot burn program at Simons Springs, learning both how to do the burns and what results are achieved. DWP is developing baseline data at Warm Springs on both vegetation and wildlife in advance of initiating a burn program at Warm Springs. Ultimately, if these burn programs are deemed to be effective, they will likely develop an ongoing, interagency burn program.
A Yale University student report on the historic role of fire in the Great Basin was written last year. It puts into perspective fire’s role in the Mono Basin, and offers a vision of what one integral part of the Mono Lake Committee’s mission, “restoration of the Mono Basin ecosystem,” really means when it comes to fire and grazing.
Gull research
In 2000, the Committee will again sponsor gull research at Mono Lake. Mono Lake supports the second largest breeding population of California Gulls in the world, and studies of this bird population played a central role in the resolution of the environmental controversy at Mono Lake. Much of the data that informed the Water Board’s decision on Mono Lake came from a long and uninterrupted series of investigations on the nesting gulls. Now, the huge influx of fresh water into Mono Lake has resulted in a condition at Mono Lake where the fresher and lighter surface water floats over a deeper layer of very heavy and saline water, potentially keeping large amounts of nutrients in the lower, saline part of the lake. This condition is termed “meromixis,” and the lake has been meromictic sporadically throughout its long history.
Adaptive management of the Mono Lake ecosystem requires this type of monitoring and scientific investigation as conditions change. Gull productivity and foraging research will provide valuable management guidance. For an update on last year’s research see page 16.
Shorebird counts
Bird migration is at best a risky business. Today, migration conditions are aggravated not only by the significant loss of historic wetlands during the last century, but also by contamination and impoverishment of prey populations at the wetlands that remain. Mono Lake is one of the western Great Basin lakes that provide critical food and shelter along the Pacific Flyway. Mono Lake has risen 10 feet since 1994, resulting in dynamic changes along some sections of shoreline and relicted land. Understanding these local changes in habitat and birds’ response may help monitor the success of restoring Mono Lake. In the spring and fall volunteers participate in shorebird counts along the entire lakeshore, which help to monitor shorebird and waterfowl populations. For more information see page 17.
Sage Grouse
Sage grouse populations have been declining in the west, and annual lek populations of Sage Grouse in the Eastern Sierra have as well. There are Sage Grouse in the Mono Basin, though there is little information on their distribution and numbers. The nearest known lek, or strutting ground, is in the Bodie Hills.
The U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) expects conservationists to file a petition to list Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act in the coming months. The Wildlife Service in January 2000 received a petition to list the Gunnison Sage Grouse in Colorado and Utah—recognized by USFWS as a separate species. An endangered listing status has the potential to change grazing, mining, and other public land-use practices throughout the bird’s entire range, including the Mono Basin.
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