It’s hard to believe summer’s almost over. The air is cooler, the days are shorter, and leaves are beginning to turn brown along the streams of the Mono Basin—but sweet clover and woolly mullein are still flourishing near Mill Creek. This coming Wednesday is your last chance to help make a dent in this season’s population of weeds, and we need all the help we can get.

The fourth and final pulling party of the summer will be held at the Mill Creek culvert on Cemetery Road from 9am to 12pm on Wednesday, September 1st. If you have an hour or two to spare, please drop by to chat, eat snacks, and take down non-native plants.

Over the past two months 56 volunteers have (more…)

The big earthmovers are rolling again at Lee Vining Airport this week, even though the runway is newly flattened and paved and new lighting is nearly complete. Their goal now is to remedy one of the major unexpected consequences of the runway rehabilitation project: an obtrusive 10-acre material stockpile located beyond the north end of the runway.

Material is being relocated to the oversized drainage ditch on the west side of the runway. Photo by Geoff McQuilkin.

The height and size of the stockpile raised substantial concerns from local residents, visitors, and the Mono Lake Committee due to the impacts on (more…)

The Mono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center will remain open while construction crews of various sorts work on everything from fixing the concrete patio and parking lot to installing new energy-efficient windows. The much-needed repairs are made possible by a Recovery Act grant.

Major repairs underway on many parts of the Mono Basin Forest Service Scenic Area Visitor Center.

The reconstruction is expected to last (more…)

Saturday, September 11th is the High Sierra Fall Century, and Sunday, September 12th is the Tioga Pass Run … why do I have this sneaking suspicion we’ll be seeing some Mono Lake enthusiasts out for both events?

What better way to celebrate Mono Lake than to enjoy its beauty while doing what you love? Well, that’s why. (more…)

Weeding is a remarkably therapeutic activity. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm, letting your mind drift along with the current as you tug at clover roots in a shady nook along Mill Creek’s bank. Every now and then you take a break, settling back with some fresh fruit and cookies (courtesy of the Mono Lake Committee) to admire the view of Gilcrest and Dunderberg flanking Lundy Canyon to the west. After a couple of hours your work is done, and you load the weeds into garbage bags and drive back to the Committee for the most exciting part of the morning: (more…)

Photo courtesy of Dana Morton.

There are so many talented artists in the Eastern Sierra and beyond. I love seeing all of the inventive, up-cycled, recycled, and one-of-a-kind work on the internet and at craft fairs. Dana Morton’s pottery is unique, beautiful, and uses linens and other materials that would otherwise be thrown away or forgotten. Here is a bit about Dana, in her own words:

Tell us about yourself.

I moved from Orange County, Southern California to Yosemite the day after I turned 18. It had been my plan ever since I first visited the park as a child with my family. I worked an entire year there and was able to enjoy all four seasons in the park. While living in the park I often visited Lee Vining along with exploring the Mono Basin. (more…)

Researcher Sacha Heath looks for insects on a "control" cottonwood.

Last week, I followed Sacha Heath down the Lee Vining Creek trail (and across the frigid stream, in my sneakers) to help count Lilliputians that live in trees. Sacha directed the Point Reyes Bird Observatory research in the MonoBasin for many years, but this season, for her Master’s thesis at Humboldt State University, she’s studying the impact foraging birds have on populations of herbivorous arthropods—i.e. plant-munching bugs—in cottonwoods. Bugs affect the growth of trees, of course, and Sacha picked the Mono Basin as her research location not only because she has an unparalleled knowledge of its riparian communities, but also because it’s a restoration setting—here, new growth is at a premium. The goal of the study is to assess ‘”the ecological service” birds likely provide. (more…)

Have you ever seen a wild bird that looks like a cross between a chicken and a turkey? A churkey? A ticken? Well, I haven’t either … but I have seen Sage-Grouse! Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is the largest grouse in North America, where it is known as the Greater Sage-Grouse. Sage-Grouse are, in fact, related to chickens and turkeys because they belong to the same taxonomic order of “Galliformes.” They range in length from 31 centimeters (12 inches) to 95 cm (37 in), and tend to weigh from 0.3 kilograms (11 ounces) to 6.5 kg (14 pounds).

Greater Sage-Grouse. Photo courtesy of Joe Fuhrman.

Adults have a long, pointed tail and feathers from their bodies to their toes. Adult males have a yellow patch over the eye, are greyish on top with a white breast, a dark brown throat and a black belly. Adult females are mottled grey-brown with a light brown throat and dark belly. (more…)

The Bodie Hills, just north of Mono Lake, are a spectacular place that are receiving attention as a possible area for National Monument designation. Discussions are quite preliminary, but the Los Angeles Times has a nice article, video, and photo set reviewing the 14 locations up for consideration by the Interior Department—look for the Bodie Hills feature and Lee Vining locals in the video!

LA Times: National monuments? Maybe they will be

After I finished my day’s data collections of stream flows for Mill Creek, I took the time to explore the Mill Creek bottomlands and the Black Point Marsh at the lakeshore. I eagerly hiked down the stream, bushwhacking through sagebrush, stopping to closely observe wildflowers, and frequently crossing the creek to observe curious Killdeer through my borrowed binoculars. Suddenly, completely out of the blue, I stepped onto the pumice sand of the beach and I was in a new world.

Where Mill Creek's water meets Mono Lake.

Not only had I had never seen Mono Lake from this angle, but following the trickle of Mill Creek water into the lake gave my weekly flow measurements and data collections new meaning. I am monitoring (more…)