 |
| South Tufa is Mono Lake’s most
famous site, and as visitors have become more
aware of Mono Lake, the look and feel of South
Tufa has changed. Where once a person could camp
alone all summer adjacent to the lake, waking on
a daily basis to the glories of sunrise over
tufa, now a kiosk, interpretive displays, roughly
developed trails, and bathrooms offer visitor
support—and camping is no longer allowed.
Still, the essential experience remains. The
visitor still leaves the pavement at Highway 120
and bumps along a desert road, and at that moment
the Mono Basin still speaks to the driver, urging
a slower pace and greater attention to the
natural world. Now the US Forest Service (USFS) is moving ahead with a long-delayed "upgrade" project that will pave the road, expand the parking lot, build shaded picnic structures, improve accessibility to the site for wheelchairs, and more. Implementation is already underway this summer, and will continue through next summer. The Committee is carefully reviewing these changes and the impact they will have on the visitor’s experience of Mono Lake. We oppose parts of the project, support others, and encourage all members and supporters to write in with comments. |
|
The installation of permanent toilets last fall at South Tufa abruptly drew attention to the USFS project, which has been in the conceptual stage for five years. (Most startling, while the original plan called for four toilets, six ultimately were installed.) In recent months, the Committee has spent numerous hours with USFS and Tufa State Reserve staff reviewing the project, pinning down specifics, and looking at alternatives. The project’s goal is to enhance the visitor experience at South Tufa, including making the site fully accessible. There are, of course, different ideas about what counts as enhancement, and ultimately the question is this: when do the upgrades themselves begin to work against that very goal?
At its core, the project proposal embodies the ironic contradictions the Committee has always faced in its work for Mono Lake. If few people know about the lake, will enough people care to save it? If many people know and love Mono Lake, will their presence and activities destroy the very values we have fought so hard to protect?
Where the Committee stands
The Committee supports making South Tufa accessible down to the lake in an environmentally sound manner that is appropriate for the experience at Mono Lake. Touching Mono’s water is an experience that every visitor should have. But seeing Mono Lake as a wild place, off the beaten path, is also an experience we think all visitors should have, and paving the road and parking lot will take away from that experience. It is our position that developments at South Tufa should have only one goal: enhancing the contact the visitor has with Mono Lake, including the wild, remote character of the area. We do not support a paved road or parking lot, as they do not move us toward that goal.
Seeking comments
We want to hear your thoughts on the South Tufa project, and so does the Forest Service. Please write, email, or phone the Committee at the address on page 2. We’d also like to see copies of letters you send to the USFS, which can be directed to:
Roger Porter, Scenic Area Manager
P.O. Box 429
Lee Vining, CA 93541
email: rporter/r5_inyo@fs.fed.us
Project background
The basis of the project is the 1989 Scenic Area Comprehensive Management Plan, which called for the rehabilitation of the South Tufa area to accommodate increased visitor use and improved interpretive facilities. In 1993—right at the height of the Water Board proceeding that would ultimately protect the lake—the USFS completed the Environmental Assessment for the project and issued a project plan. Now, five years later, we are beginning to see changes on the ground. (The Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve works with the USFS at the site but does not hold title to the land or its facilities.)
Funding for the project comes from a capital improvement grant secured by the USFS. The first of the planned upgrades (the permanent toilets) went in last fall. Upgrades planned for this summer include paving South Tufa’s main trail to the lake, installing curbs and sidewalks in the parking area, and adding two new shaded picnic structures. The balance of the project is scheduled for 2000, including realigning a major portion of the access road into the area and paving both the new road and an expanded (more than twice the size) parking lot.
Why change?
Why are the changes proposed at all? Here are the reasons given for the project’s various components:
• The entire interpretive area, including bathrooms and the main trail down to the lake, should be accessible to every visitor.
• Maintenance of the dirt access road costs more than maintenance of a paved one.
• Some visitors and tour buses will not use dirt roads.
• Painting stripes in a parking lot maximizes parking efficiency and can only be done if the parking lot is paved (or "hardened").
• The current configuration of the parking lot is awkward for buses to turn around in.
• A single, well-developed trail down to the lake will encourage visitors to stay on the main trail, minimizing off-trail damage.
Problems with the project
• A part of the Mono Lake experience will be lost when the visitor no longer bumps down a dirt road to South Tufa, but is able to careen into the lot on a engineered, paved road. Is the experience of Mono Lake really enhanced?
• There are already two Mono Lake sites (County Park and Old Marina) where road access is fully paved. Is a third really needed?
• There will be significant visual change associated with the new structures that are proposed and the enlarged parking lot with striping, curbs, and walkways. Do amenities and easy bus parking make up for the detraction?
• The current lot is large enough to hold the current number of visitors on all but a few weekends during the summer. Problems do arise when RVs and buses park in the vegetation along the entrance road instead of using the overflow parking lot. Are the parking problems significant enough to justify the visual and environmental impact of more than doubling the size of the current lot?
• In 1993 the project plan projected a steady increase in visitors over time, and the project was designed to meet a projected 20-year need. Recent years have shown actual visitation to be increasing at only 50% the projected rate.
• Since the project was planned, the USFS has instituted its Recreational Fee Demonstration Program and now charges fees at South Tufa. The impact of this program on visitation at South Tufa has not been analyzed. Will the fees decrease visitor use of the site?
• Since the project was planned, the Water Board has required Mono Lake to be maintained at a level of 6392 feet. The USFS plan assumes a maintenance level of 6384 feet. As a result, the actual size of South Tufa will be smaller than projected in the plan. What does this mean for carrying capacity at the site? Might not the new parking lot dwarf the site while providing parking for more visitors than could appropriately use the site? Will a higher lake draw visitors away from South Tufa to other sites?
Looking for an appropriate project
Most of all, the Committee, Tufa State Reserve, and USFS want to see the best job done at South Tufa to meet real visitor needs while protecting the area’s resources. The debate over the project centers on how to best accomplish this. We believe it is important to have visitors at South Tufa, and equally important to manage visitor impacts. And we think that Mono Lake, and South Tufa, are unique enough to deserve unique treatment, not a cookie-cutter approach to visitor management.
Given the time that has elapsed and the huge change in the status of Mono Lake’s protection since this project was first conceived the Committee believes that every element of the project should be reviewed and components modified appropriately. The USFS staff at Mono Lake has been willing to pore over details of the project with us, and we hope that open communication will continue in order to ensure collaboration.
Above is an aerial photo of the South Tufa parking
lot taken on August 4, 1999. Note the newly paved
sidewalk around 1/2 of the lot, the three restroom
buildings on the left, the paved trail to the lake (top),
and the expanded area of the parking lot on the lower
left that is light brown (instead of gray) in color. Also
note the construction equipment in the right half of the
lot. The area graded for development now appears to be
50-100% larger than it was last summer. Click here to see a detailed status
report.
Return to Summer 1999 Newsletter
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|