Eric Ford, Lee Vining High School senior,
talked bugs at the Committee’s 1997
Fall Forum on stream restoration. Eric
and others at the high school are working
with science teacher Jeff Putman under
the direction of longtime Mono Lake
researcher Dr. Dave "Bug"
Herbst to monitor aquatic life in the
Mono Basin’s recovering streams.
Donning hip-waders, the students
periodically net invertebrates from the
stream beds, which they later
painstakingly identify and count under
microscopes in the lab. The work, paid
for by a USFS grant, will contribute to
the overall picture of Mono Basin health.
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Creek flows will
be the primary restoration "activity."
According to Trush, every element of the flow
"regime"—occasional winter floods,
annual peak flows at peak snowmelt, the rising
and falling flows on either side of the peak, the
low flows of late summer—offers benefits to
the stream environment, from distributing
cottonwood seeds during peak runoff to carving
pools during unusually high flood flows to
drawing down the roots of streamside vegetation. Monitoring
will help us understand which specific element of
the flow regime is responsible for accomplishing
what restoration. This information will not only
be used to guide future flow regimes, but will
add significantly to the body of knowledge in the
emerging field of restoration.
Other panelists at the forum included Peter
Kavounas, Mono Basin restoration manager for DWP;
Virginia Cahill, an attorney who has represented
the Department of Fish & Game; Alan Pickard,
senior biologist with Fish & Game; Eric
Dinger, assistant to Dr. Dave Herbst; and Eric
Ford, high school senior at Lee Vining High
School.
The audience turnout was great,
though—disappointingly—few Lee Vining
residents participated.
Heidi Hopkins, the
Committee’s Eastern Sierra Policy Director,
is a budding Internet surfer.
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