The alkali fly emerging from its pupa case in the Mono Lake Committee's brine shrimp tank. Photo by Rose Catron.

Last Saturday a bit of excitement stirred up an otherwise uneventful afternoon at the Mono Lake Committee’s Information Center & Bookstore. I came out of the back office to find Rose, our store manager, standing riveted before the brine shrimp tank. “You have to see this!” she said. I peered into the tank. An alkali fly, its body glowing silver under the artificial light, was just emerging from a pupa case attached to a rock at the bottom of the tank. We watched transfixed as the fully-formed fly peddled its legs against the water, trying to find some purchase that would allow it to detach itself completely from the sticky case. (more…)

All over California our beautiful State Parks have felt the pinch of budget cuts during the last two years. In November, we have a chance to change that. A “yes” vote on Proposition 21 will keep your favorite park open and funded, gain you free admission to all State Parks in California, and ensure that the Governor will not be able to raid the parks’ funding pool.

For more reasons to vote “yes” on Prop 21, click over to the California State Parks Initiative website and enjoy the twenty-four 30-second videos submitted by folks who love their parks.

Virga and rainbows at South Tufa. Photo courtesy of Bristlecone Media.

Have you seen the latest promo yet? As we near the end of our year-long creative effort to tell the Mono Lake story on film, the guys at Bristlecone Media have put together another great promo video. So pop over to the film page, press play, and bask in five minutes of Mono Lake on your screen. It’s worth it, we promise.

The sign said “closed.” We were at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, and the bulletin board showed that the trail I was on seven years ago—the only place I have seen a California Condor—was closed. We were headed towards Limekiln State Park, but the bulletin board informed us that parts of that park were still closed due to a fire—a fire that burned over two years ago.

The dismal condition of California’s State Parks couldn’t have been clearer. They literally have become a joke—a sad joke that was repeated often on our September trip. It seemed like the parks were expensive to enjoy, closed, and trashed. (more…)

Anyone taking a look at the water from County Park or the Old Marina boardwalk could tell you that there are a lot of birds on Mono Lake. Gulls, phalaropes, avocets, killdeer—the list goes on and on. But the exact numbers of these birds is not so easy to determine. In the case of the Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), an accurate count requires a small airplane, a digital camera, a calm day, and a lot of white plastic trash compactor bags. (more…)

“What we are asking, what Mono Lake is asking all of us is ‘where are we going to draw the line?’ If we don’t share some water with Mono Lake what will be next? Will it be Lake Tahoe, will it be the Eel River, the Yukon? Will it be on and on until the last of our singing rivers and beautiful lakes are gone—because we’ve taken every last drop, we’ve watched the last waterfowl, and the last salmon, follow the California State emblem, the California Grizzly, into oblivion? It is a battleground in that sense: it’s asking us: ‘how much are we going to share with the earth?’”

—David Gaines, co-founder of the Mono Lake Committee

You hear it all the time: there isn’t enough water. We are running out of water. But it isn’t true—there is no problem with water supply, in most cases. The problem is almost always too much demand. We are overextending ourselves. Poor decisions about (more…)

Gleeful snowflakes melt
Dripping, chuckling, in the sun
Tumbling into spring.

At the cool blue sea
Visitors from far away
Celebrate new life.

Misty quiet lake
Circled by a band of gold
Waits for ice to form.

Evening clouds pile high
Sunrise shows what darkness hid
Sparkling new white snow.

Did you know? October 15 is Blog Action Day, an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action. This year that issue is our favorite here at Mono Lake: water.

We think about water every day here at the Mono Lake Committee. We watch how much water is flowing toward Los Angeles, and how much is flowing into Mono Lake. We talk about how to adjust those flows to benefit the recovering creeks. We visit the lakeshore to measure the water level of Mono Lake. (more…)

Last month the Lee Vining High School principal and teachers invited me to participate in a three-day outing to Yosemite National Park with the whole school. I felt very happy with the offer since I’ve wanted to do such a trip with the local high school for a long time. For many years I have worked with Lee Vining Elementary School doing environmental education outings, but never with the high school students. The field trip was divided into day-long outings and we went to places like Olmsted Point, Pothole Dome, Yosemite Valley, and Lembert Dome.

Lee Vining High School at the top of Lembert Dome in Yosemite.

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