Given that many aspen did not leaf out until June this year, the peak color season is running late in some parts of the Mono Basin and Eastern Sierra. Lee Vining Canyon and Lundy Canyon are anywhere from 5-10 days from peak display depending on elevation. The June Lake Loop is just beginning to hit full color. Aspen are showing well up-canyon in most locations. This will be a slow, late-blazing October. The best is yet to come in the Mono Basin!

Tioga Pass (Highway 120) reopened this morning (as of 10:30 am) on our first sunny morning of the week. Columbus Day weekend visitors will be happy to know that the drive from Yosemite to the Mono Basin does not require the longer wintertime route to the north over Carson Pass (Highway 88). (more…)

Rain delays the Mars rover's Mono Lake excursion.

On Sunday, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA brought a prototype Mars rover to Mono Lake, staging it under tents at the Scenic Area Visitor Center while they prepared it to go down to the lake. The plan was to test the rover’s sampling equipment and procedures in an environment that, while unlike Mars, would provide some Mars-like challenges. In the search for evidence of past life on Mars, scientists think that areas on Mars that had terminal lakes like Mono Lake might have sustained life, and preserved evidence of it.

This isn’t the first time NASA has tested its methods at Mono Lake. In August 1995, NASA used (more…)

October 1, 2010 was the first day of the 2011 Water Year—Happy New Year! A Water Year in the Mono Basin runs from October 1 to September 30th. This lumps the winter’s precipitation into the same year as the following summer’s runoff, as well as the next year’s growing season.

The 2010 Water Year (October 1, 2009 — September 30, 2010) was near-normal (more…)

Here at the Committee office we’re very excited to see nine wonderful solar panels covering the roof of our “ice house” office building! It’s a group project with big thank yous going out to Committee members for financial support for the project and to Jim, TJ, and Isabel at Sierra Solar (760-937-0307) for donating their installation labor. The Sierra Solar team was fast and efficient as you can see from this time-lapse video!

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Tioga (Highway 120) and Sonora (Highway 108) passes closed this morning due to inclement weather. Rockslides and snow were reportedly responsible. With up to a foot of snow possible at Tioga Pass through tomorrow night, expect these passes to reopen no earlier than Wednesday. Check road conditions for the latest updates. (more…)

The Mono Lake Committee’s first new solar panel is locked into place by our friends from Sierra Solar—with more on the way … thank you Jim, TJ, and Isabel!

Our first solar panel is secured on the Mono Lake Committee office roof.

On Sunday, I climbed Mt. Andrea Lawrence. That is not an official name for the peak … yet. Last week the House of Representatives passed HR 5194, the “Mt. Andrea Lawrence Designation Act of 2010.” People are already referring to the peak by this name, and (more…)

Sierra Solar lays the groundwork for the solar panels to be installed.

Jim, TJ, and Isabel from Sierra Solar arrived yesterday to begin installing our long-awaited solar panels for the Mono Lake Committee’s “icehouse” office building. The panels will generate more than enough power for the building, and the extra power generated will offset a portion of the Information Center & Bookstore usage.  The Committee is glad to be the second business in town to install solar panels on it’s rooftops—the Shell gas station across the street was the first. We’ll post more details soon and are very excited at this step that helps reduce our ecological footprint!

On July 28th, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power submitted to the State Water Resources Control Board a feasibility report in response to the stream scientists’ Synthesis of Instream Flow Recommendations. The feasibility report primarily focuses on meeting the flow recommendations using the existing aqueduct infrastructure and defers additional analysis to the future.

Not surprisingly, an aqueduct system that was built 70 years ago for the purpose of maximizing water diversions presents some challenges in delivering precise flows to the creeks. The feasibility of retooling this infrastructure to meet today’s needs is a central question as this process moves forward.

To consider public comments on these matters, the State Water Board will hold an informal public workshop on Tuesday October 12, 2010, at 10:00 am at the Community Presbyterian Church at the corner of Mono Lake Avenue and Third Street in Lee Vining.

Click here to return to the Streamflow Center.