KQED has posted on their website an excellent primer on how water and power use in California are connected. Engaging cartoons convey how Water Needs Power, and how producing Power Needs Water. These short cartoons are the most effective communication tools I’ve ever seen on this subject.

For those who like to consume their information on California water in a more-voluminous, less-artistic, more-policy-oriented way, in December the Pacific Institute released its California Water Footprint report. Full of graphs and detailed information about water use, in this report you can learn things such as: meat and dairy products account for 47% of California’s water footprint, or 93% of California’s water (that is used to produce goods and services) is used to produce agricultural goods and services.

Number 5 on our Top Ten highlights list is the the Trail Chic fashion show fundraiser for the Committee’s Outdoor Experiences program.

Mono Lake Intern Max Henkels walked the runway as the invasive weed, sweet clover. Photo by Lynette Villagomez.

This is really one of those events that you’ve got to see to believe. The Mono Lake Committee pairs up with Barefoot Wine & (more…)

Number 6 on our Top Ten highlights list are all the local kids who explored their Mono Basin backyard with the Committee’s Outdoor Experiences program.

OE Instructor Jessica Francois (in hat) teaches Lee Vining Elementary students about Lee Vining Creek. Photo by Santiago Escruceria.

Between creek walks, watershed studies, watering trees, sketching wildlife, planting saplings at school, and birding, Lee Vining’s students really got out there! Take a look: (more…)

Number 7 on our Top Ten highlights list is the first ever Los Angeles Wild & Scenic Film Festival.

Members mingle with Committee Board and staff at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

Last March, the Mono Lake Committee brought the Wild & Scenic Film Festival to LA—featuring our film, The Mono Lake Story, in its Southern California premiere. The evening brought together local members, the filmmakers and composer, many of our partners in the area, and Committee Board and staff, all celebrating Mono Lake at (more…)

If you’ve been in the Information Center & Bookstore in the past few years you’ve seen the brine shrimp tank in the hallway. Directly on the other side of that tank is the hallway that leads to the room that Geoff McQuilkin and I call our office. In the summer we get used to the din of people checking out the brine shrimp, and in the winter it’s pretty quiet. So, yesterday my ears perked up at the sound of a small herd of snow-boot-wearing kids. It was the Lee Vining Elementary Kindergarten class paying us a visit.

I think I probably don’t need to say much more than, especially right now, it was a really heartwarming moment that I thought Mono Lake Committee members and friends would enjoy too.

The Mono Lake Committee’s 2012 Annual Report is hot off the press and available to view online!

Read about the 2011 projects and activities in our focus areas of protection, stream restoration, education, and scientific research. View the Committee’s financial  (more…)

For science! Students reach the top of Panum Crater on a chilly November day. Photo by Bartshe Miller.

The temperature was maybe 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun, but the wind made it feel much colder. Students, used to much warmer temperatures, shook off the cold and hiked up one of the Mono Basin’s most dramatic classrooms: Panum Crater.

Hosted by the Mono Lake Committee and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), these 12 students came from Los Angeles for a week of programs and activities at the Mono Basin Outdoor Education Center (OEC). After (more…)

Winter at Mono Lake: a lifting morning poconip fog, tufa towers jacketed in snow and reflected in the mirror of the lake’s surface, ice sculpting crystalline filigree along creek and lake banks.

This photography seminar will be based in Lee Vining and will explore locations along the lake to photograph the serenity and beauty that is the Mono Basin in winter. (more…)

In early September I had the privilege of joining PRBO Conservation Science researcher Kristie Nelson and small group of volunteers in an excursion to Mono Lake’s islets for the annual California Gull mortality count (otherwise known as the “Mort Count”).

On the boat out to the Mort Count sites at Mono Lake. Photo by Max Henkels.

This was the third and final trip that the gull researchers made to the islands this summer. In July, Birding Intern Erica Tucker helped out with chick-banding in a trip she chronicled last month on the Mono-logue. My experience on the islands was much different from hers (more…)

Calling all photographers! The call for submission for the 2014 Mono Lake Calendar is here. If you are interested in submitting, click here for the submission information and read on for details. The submission deadline is Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

Since 1986, the magnificent geological and ecological wonders of Mono Lake have been celebrated in the Mono Lake Calendar, published by the Mono Lake Committee. Sales of the calendar help to fund the efforts of our non-profit organization to protect and restore both the lake and the Mono Basin.

The Mono Lake Calendar has been widely acclaimed for its artistic merit, due in large measure to the talent of the photographers whose work is (more…)