Roll out restoration!

In the final two weeks of 1998, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) released its Mono Basin Implementation Plan. The plan pulls the Water Board’s various restoration directives since 1994 into a single administrative document—a DWP workplan for restoration. The plan also will serve as a guiding document for the Committee and others who are tracking or assisting with restoration.

Assembling all of the information in a single document was no small feat. Three Water Board orders and at least as many supporting documents developed since 1994 contained directives about restoration.

While the actions described by the implementation plan contained nothing substantively new (the Water Board orders govern restoration actions), DWP voluntarily added certain procedures that signal a welcome change from the past. Most importantly, DWP is offering to hold semiannual meetings, in the spring and in the fall, at which interested parties can discuss the upcoming season’s activities and the end-of-season reports.

At the first such meeting this spring—sometime in April—the Committee expects to seek clarification of certain elements of the Water Board orders that were left undefined. These include:

• what data and information will be posted on the DWP web site that is under development;

• refinement of protocol for operating diversion facilities, particularly how the Rush Creek augmentation will be achieved (augmentation is a procedure for diverting a portion of Lee Vining Creek’s flow to increase the peak flow on Rush Creek--see footnote);

• timing and protocol for the various aerial work to be done (aerial photography of habitat as well as aerial waterfowl counts).

Back in the Mono Basin, the Committee is preparing for its role in restoration this year. Activities include planning a day to plant more Jeffrey pines along Lee Vining Creek, training staff to monitor groundwater levels, spending time on the streams during the hard-to-predict peak flow period, and developing a photopoint program to visually track restoration.

Here’s to another season of painted rocks—the scientists’ colorful means of measuring bedload movement—rolling on down the streams!

Note: Augmentation of Rush Creek using Lee Vining Creek water is a means of achieving restoration flows on Rush Creek in the absence of a facility for managing releases from Grant Lake dam.

Restoration and monitoring activities for 1999

• Rush Creek channel reopenings

• Posting of real-time stream data on the Internet

• Design for sediment bypass on Walker, Parker, and Lee Vining creeks

Jeffrey pine plantings on Lee Vining Creek below County Road
Placement of spawning gravel in Lee Vining Creek
Stream monitoring by scientists

• Spring survey

• Aerial photography of stream morphology and vegetation

• Aerial monitoring of waterfowl habitat areas around Mono Lake

• Aerial and ground surveys of waterfowl

this marker means Committee and volunteers will assist with these activities

Long-term timeline

2004

• Tree planting moratorium ends (excluding select areas scheduled for replanting in 1999-2000) and evaluation of natural revegetation commences.

• Five-year monitoring cycle ends (an extreme wet year prior to this date will "reset the clock" and trigger initiation of a new five-year monitoring cycle). Monitoring triggered at five-year intervals:

• aerial documentation of stream morphology

• vegetation transects in waterfowl habitat areas

• spring surveys
2007

• Grazing moratorium along streams to be reassessed for 2008 and beyond.

2009

• Deadline for assessing efficacy of Rush Creek augmentation1

• Second five-year point for monitoring purposes (unless an extreme wet year has reset the clock).
2014

• If Mono Lake has not reached its target of 6391, the Water Board will hold a hearing on Mono Lake.

• Third five-year point for monitoring (unless an extreme wet year has reset the clock).

Heidi Hopkins is the Eastern Sierra Policy Director. She's already got a backpacking trip planned for the fall.

Last Updated January 07, 2007