Last week the Mono Lake Committee submitted a grant request to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to complete a Specfic Plan and Environmental Impact Report for an outdoor education center at the Cain Ranch. The site is located near Highway 158N and Highway 395, on property leased from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. The Cain Ranch has been serving students from Los Angeles and California since 1995, connecting youth to their city’s watershed through education and stewardship work. Thousands of Los Angeles and Eastern Sierra youth have participated in restoration work on Mono Lake’s tributary streams, helping to heal the damage from past decades of excessive water diversions. The program has enjoyed years of steady growth and success, but the site does not support a high-quality experience for the number of student groups that stay overnight in the Mono Basin. There is exciting potential to improve infrastructure, demonstrate water and energy conservation, while allowing for a diversity of education and stewardship programs in the region. To learn more please contact Bartshe Miller at (760) 647-6595.