1.You

It’s all about people caring for Mono Lake–and that means you. As Committee founder David Gaines once wrote, “So come visit Mono. The old lake needs new friends, and will not begrudge some more human footprints along its shores, provided we walk lightly.”

People celebrated and honored Mono Lake this year spectacularly. In the media, Mono Lake was featured in a Public Radio radio piece called Saving the Sierra, an LA Times feature article and accompanying online video, and a return visit by Huell Howser of California’s Gold! This public prominence is critical to continuing to share the lessons learned at Mono Lake and the exciting things happening at Mono Lake today. Each of these produced calls, emails, and even letters from old–and new–friends of Mono Lake.

We received another reminder of the importance of people in November when the Mono Lake Committee was honored with the Andrea Mead Lawrence Award for Passionate Engagement in Community for 30 years of on-the-ground work to protect, restore, and educate about Mono Lake. Committee co-founder Sally Gaines accepted the award, telling stories of when she and her late husband David Gaines began the Mono Lake Committee and had to begin by making people realize that it even existed in California. At the ceremony she held a copy of a current California 4^th grade science textbook with a whole chapter on Mono Lake in her hands as proof of the fact that their efforts paid off. The award from our friends at the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers was a wonderful way to celebrate 30 years of people coming together for Mono Lake.

And so, because you are online right now reading about Mono Lake, we give the number one spot on the Mono Lake Top Ten for 2008 to you, the interested, concerned, and dedicated friends of Mono Lake and members of the Mono Lake Committee. Thank you, and here’s to new and great things for Mono Lake in 2009!

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

The Mono Lake Top Ten from 2008

1. You
2. Restoration stream studies on Rush Creek
3. The launch of the new Mono Lake Website
4. The Los Angeles Water Plan
5. The ecosystem marches on
6. Mono Lake Committee members paid the entire mortgage on the Committee’s Mono Basin Field Station and Annex properties
7. The Mono Lake Trail and David Gaines Boardwalk project
8. The Committee’s Outdoor Experiences Program turns 15
9. Mono Lake travels across the country with the American Museum of Natural History’s exhibit: H₂0 = Life.
10. The Mono Lake Committee turns 30

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Community, Member News, Mono Lake Committee News, News, Staff Musings. You can view No Responses on this post or leave your own response if you log in.