The word was out—it’s time to ice skate! Watching the skies (and the local “Dweeb Weather Report”) for snow was no use—clear and cold. Because it doesn’t happen every year, you almost forget, but then suddenly someone walks in the back door with an ice report … three inches, solid, smooth, clear ice on Lundy … Trumbull … Silver Lake.

If you choose to move to Lee Vining and work for the Mono Lake Committee, you need to be ready to answer a lot of questions. There are the regulars: How deep is the lake? Where’s South Tufa? And then there are the more personal questions which can be summarized as: why? Why do you live in Lee Vining? Why do you work for a nonprofit group? Why do you care about the lake? Why does the Mono Lake Committee do what it does?

What are people really asking with these questions? Part of it is curiosity about living in a small, rural town. Part of it is curiosity about working for an advocacy organization. And a lot of it is curiosity about what motivates a person and an organization to follow a certain path.

The Mono Lake Committee was founded on values that inspire staff, members, friends, and the organization today, and that motivate and guide our actions. So when it came time to do strategic planning last year, we began with a series of conversations about values. We asked ourselves the why question: why work for Mono Lake? Why have a Mono Lake Committee? Why do we care?

Now is the time to act on five key opportunities for Mono Lake

Environmentally friendly leadership from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the LA City Council, and the Department of Water & Power (DWP) Commission is ushering in a new era of improved relationships between the city and the Eastern Sierra. If acted upon, opportunities exist to establish forward-looking plans and partnerships that will move far beyond the historical disputes over water.

With the publication of the following words in the Federal Register, Mono Lake supporters scored a major political victory: “With regard to primary standards for particles generally less than or equal to 10μm in diameter (PM10), EPA is retaining the 24-hour PM10 … standard.” To translate, last fall the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) abandoned its plan to eliminate the Mono Lake clean air health standards!

Cunningham attempts to exercise buy back option
Caltrans’ guardrail maintenance project completed
Inyo National Forest staff changes
Wilderness Land Trust hard at work in the Mono Basin
The Mono Inn at Mono Lake
Mono Lake Committee staff travels the conference circuit

Thank you to all of you who send contributions in memory of your friends and loved ones—we appreciate these gifts that help us carry on the work that will keep Mono Lake a special place for many generations.

A big thank you to the many members who gave above and beyond your year end gift to help us pay for putting a new roof on our offices and the bookstore.

The 2006 annual Tioga Pass Run was another success. The Committee received a generous donation from the proceeds of the run from organizers Kathie & Kyla Kortering of Benton and Skip Harvey of Base Camp Café in Mammoth Lakes. Thank you! We also send our thanks to Coach Margie Beaver (and Wayne and Brad too!) and the Lee Vining Lady Tigers Volleyball team who came out in full force to help staff aid stations and cheer on the runners—thank you!

The Mono Lake Committee, 15,000 members strong, is supported by individuals each defining their own way to contribute to Mono Lake. With each member and volunteer comes a different background, a different set of skills, and an individual love for Mono Lake that propels him or her into action. While the Committee strives to provide volunteer opportunities for a variety of interests there are some volunteers who find unique ways to balance the Committee’s needs with their own interests.

As Mono Lake’s palette of colors moved from late summer to late fall and the visitor season slowed to just a few hardy souls, the Committee bade farewell to several more seasonal staff members.

On November 7th 22, 2006 Californians voted on a number of propositions that have far-reaching implications across the state. Two measures were particularly important for Mono Lake—a yes vote on 84 and a no vote on 90. The results are all in: Proposition 84 passed and Proposition 90 failed! Read on for a summary of the results.

Mono Lake is inextricably linked to Los Angeles by the 350-mile long LA Aqueduct, a fact the Committee has known well for decades. What happens in LA matters for Mono Lake, and so it is critical for Mono Lake to have a strong presence in downtown LA. With that, and my newly expanded Executive Director duties in mind, last November I packed my suit and a box of Mono Lake Calendars and headed down Highway 395 for the big city.

The Mono Lake Committee works with field leaders who have received high ratings from past seminar participants. We emphasize a spirit of learning and camaraderie in a magnificent outdoor setting for a reasonable cost. Proceeds from Mono Lake Committee Field Seminars benefit research and education in the Mono Basin.

The Committee’s Board of Directors is an experienced group of individuals brought together from different disciplines—bringing a diversity of expertise to the organization. The Board provides everything from big-picture visioning down to on-the-ground assistance with programs. Here we introduce four of the eight members of the Board: Sally, Tom, Martha, and Doug. What do they value about Mono Lake so much that it motivates them to put time and energy into the Mono Lake Committee? Find out below, and look to hear from the other half of the Board in the spring issue!

What began as a small collection of like-minded nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has become a full-fledged and highly professional organization championing lake protection around the world. As one of the founding members of the Living Lakes Network, Mono Lake has been a partner since the Network’s inception in 1998. Far from its modest beginning, today the Network is comprised of 45 lakes, and as it approaches its 10-year anniversary, it is working effectively towards its goal of “the conservation and protection of natural resources, chiefly the drinking water reservoirs of the earth.”

No longer will the observations of birders languish in dusty notebooks or on the crashed hard drives of home computers! eBird, an online collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon captures this data via the Internet, and makes it available to amateur birders, experts, scientists, and conservation biologists.

On October 10th, UCSB Researcher Dr. Robert Jellison was sampling the lake’s limnology with a third grade class, and he found the brine shrimp gone already! He also found a tremendous bloom of the rotifer B. plicatilis. Rotifers are microscopic animals that, along with brine shrimp, alkali flies, and a nematode, are the only multicellular complexcelled creatures in Mono Lake. This rotifer has not been seen in Mono Lake in four years—and four years ago, October shrimp numbers were also low.

It was a crisp morning, the sun was strong, and there wasn’t a breath of wind as our canoes and kayaks slipped past Eared Grebes diving for the last brine shrimp of the season. A distinguished group of environmental leaders from throughout the Sierra was visiting and I wanted to be sure they saw Mono Lake up close, with paddles and binoculars in hand.

On December 6th, 62 miles of the Lower Owens River were rewatered for the first time in almost a century. It is a great start, and it will take years for water dependent wildlife habitat to develop.

Jim, we have a situation here.” I had just settled into the couch after my first dinner at home after a summer backpacking trip. Ranger Rourke was on the phone from South Tufa, calling to explain the plight of an Osprey fledgling.

Every year about this time—mostly in an effort to dream of sunny summer days, bountiful bird songs, and the familiar faces of our Chautauqua friends—the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua partners begin the exciting task of organizing new and returning presenters for the upcoming event. Each year we try to out-do the previous year’s offerings, which keeps the planning process challenging. But with John Muir as our confirmed evening presenter for Friday night, the bar has been set high!