Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 by Sarah, Mono Lake InterncloseAuthor: Sarah, Mono Lake InternName: Sarah Melcher Title: Mono Lake Intern About: After a five-month hiatus in Spain, where she made it her goal to try the chocolate gelato in every city she visited, Sarah is back for round two as an intern to help with policy projects and stream monitoring. During the school year she attends St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where she studies sociology, anthropology, and Spanish, and regularly daydreams about the Eastern Sierra.See All Posts by Sarah (6) Contact Sarah
The Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 by Erik, Mono Lake InterncloseAuthor: Erik, Mono Lake InternName: Erik Lyon Title: Mono Lake Intern About: Erik first visited the Mono Lake Committee in September 2010. He learned about the lake's natural and political history as a participant of Whitman College's "Semester in the West," a hundred-day-long environmental field studies program focused on the politics, ecology, and writing of the American West. He quickly took great interest in water policy and hydrology, and is excited to be back for a second Committee internship to continue to learn about water in his home state of California. At Whitman, he finished up a bachelor's degree in Economics with a minor in Biology in 2012. When he is not at work, Erik can be found playing guitar, hiking, taking photos, and playing volleyball.See All Posts by Erik (2) Contact Erik
Phalaropes fly in front of tufa and the Mono Craters. Photo by Bartshe Miller.
Visit the shores of Mono Lake this weekend, and you’ll be in for a treat. Driving north of town along Highway 395, you might see shimmering clouds moving low over the lake in the morning sun. Make your way closer, perhaps down to the South Tufa boardwalk, and you’ll see that these clouds are flocks of tiny birds—phalaropes—that have stopped in at Mono Lake’s All-You-Can-Eat Fly & Shrimp Buffet.
Wilson’s and Red-Necked Phalaropes are here in numbers that have not been seen in many years, and the result is a spectacular (more…)
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 by Julia, Mono Lake InterncloseAuthor: Julia, Mono Lake InternName: Julia Runcie Title: Mono Lake Intern About: As a native of the diminutive Green Mountains, Julia is completely in awe of the Sierra but has to admit she sometimes misses real maple syrup. After her 2010 summer internship she stayed through the winter as a Project Specialist, and is now a Mono Lake Intern for her second summer. In her free time, Julia loves to hike, cook, write, and uproot invasive weeds.See All Posts by Julia (42) Contact Julia
On Thursday, July 14, a group of employees from Patagonia’s Reno outlet visited us in the Mono Basin. In the morning we treated our visitors to a canoe tour on the lake. The weather was beautiful and we saw hundreds of gulls and phalaropes and trillions of brine shrimp.
Patagonia visitors enjoying a morning paddle on the lake.
In the afternoon we headed down to Old Marina, where the Patagonia team put in an hour’s work pulling invasive (more…)
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 by Elin, Communications CoordinatorcloseAuthor: Elin, Communications CoordinatorName: Elin Ljung Title: Communications Coordinator About: Elin's job consists of some of her favorite things: finding typos, experimenting with layouts, and figuring out how best to communicate the Committee's work to the world. She also oversees the Field Seminar program. Elin is an EMT on the Lee Vining Fire Department, loves sitting at Latte Da Coffee Cafe immersed in a good book, and watches English Premier League football (soccer) at any opportunity.See All Posts by Elin (133) Contact Elin
Anyone who has been to Mono Lake knows it: this place is unique, breathtaking, inspiring, and worth fighting for. In the last few days visitors to Mono Lake have posted a few reviews online that corroborate that opinion!
Canoe tours are one of the very best ways to experience Mono Lake. Weekend Sherpa, an outdoor lifestyle publication, published a trip report from one of our canoe tours.
Sunday, July 17th, 2011 by Sarah, Mono Lake InterncloseAuthor: Sarah, Mono Lake InternName: Sarah Melcher Title: Mono Lake Intern About: After a five-month hiatus in Spain, where she made it her goal to try the chocolate gelato in every city she visited, Sarah is back for round two as an intern to help with policy projects and stream monitoring. During the school year she attends St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where she studies sociology, anthropology, and Spanish, and regularly daydreams about the Eastern Sierra.See All Posts by Sarah (6) Contact Sarah
Canoeing Mono Lake is an incredible way to see the lake, whether it’s for the first time or the twentieth. Even for those who have done walking tours at the lake, being out on the water allows you to see everything from an up-close-and-personal point of view.
We offer one-hour, naturalist-guided canoe tours on Saturdays and Sundays at 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00am. Aside from learning (more…)
Friday, July 1st, 2011 by Elin, Communications CoordinatorcloseAuthor: Elin, Communications CoordinatorName: Elin Ljung Title: Communications Coordinator About: Elin's job consists of some of her favorite things: finding typos, experimenting with layouts, and figuring out how best to communicate the Committee's work to the world. She also oversees the Field Seminar program. Elin is an EMT on the Lee Vining Fire Department, loves sitting at Latte Da Coffee Cafe immersed in a good book, and watches English Premier League football (soccer) at any opportunity.See All Posts by Elin (133) Contact Elin
Mono Lake Committee interns visit Mill Creek at the Cemetary Road culvert.
Earlier this week, Eastern Sierra Policy Director Lisa Cutting took the Committee’s seasonal staff to the north Mono Basin to learn about the region’s complicated plumbing. They braved rain and sleet to visit Lundy Lake Reservoir, the Lundy power plant, the ditches and waterways that irrigate ranches, and Mill Creek, following the water toward Mono Lake.
On Tuesday afternoon when the group visited Lundy Lake Reservoir, it wasn’t spilling yet, but by Wednesday morning the spillway was full of water and Mill Creek was running at over (more…)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 by Elin, Communications CoordinatorcloseAuthor: Elin, Communications CoordinatorName: Elin Ljung Title: Communications Coordinator About: Elin's job consists of some of her favorite things: finding typos, experimenting with layouts, and figuring out how best to communicate the Committee's work to the world. She also oversees the Field Seminar program. Elin is an EMT on the Lee Vining Fire Department, loves sitting at Latte Da Coffee Cafe immersed in a good book, and watches English Premier League football (soccer) at any opportunity.See All Posts by Elin (133) Contact Elin
Friday, June 17th, 2011 by Russ, Canoe CoordinatorcloseAuthor: Russ, Canoe CoordinatorName: Russ Taylor Title: Canoe Coordinator About: Throughout the winters of the 1990s you could find Russ paddling the rivers of Florida and Georgia on 28-day canoeing expeditions with adjudicated youth. The summers he worked in the High Sierra as a wilderness guide, where he initially fell in love with the Eastern Sierra. He's spent a large portion of his outdoor career in canoes, this summer on Mono Lake and winters on expeditions in the Everglades. Also a freelance photographer and writer, Russ has lived in Ladakh, India, and Papua New Guinea and has traveled to over 30 countries. To see photos from Russ' travels, visit nomadruss.com.See All Posts by Russ (3) Contact Russ
Starting today you can make your summer canoe tour reservations on Mono Lake online. Simply click on the blue “Canoe Mono Lake” button on the home page and it will take you to the main canoeing page, where you click on the orange “Canoe tours” button. Once you’re there click on the date and time you want and you’re on your way to a great Mono Lake adventure.
Canoe tours begin on June 25th and run each Saturday and Sunday throughout the season until September 4th. (more…)
Thursday, May 26th, 2011 by Morgan, Policy CoordinatorcloseAuthor: Morgan, Policy CoordinatorName: Morgan Lindsay Title: Project Specialist About: Morgan works to support the protection and restoration of Mono Lake and its tributary streams in the office and out in the field. She loves doing something different every day, from monitoring the lake's rise and groundwater patterns along the creek's bottomlands to researching policy issues. But after three summers sharing Mono Lake with visitors by canoe, Morgan's favorite job will always be making new friends for the lake. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with an Environmental Studies degree in Water Science & Policy, there is nowhere Morgan would rather be than the Mono Basin. If she's not out hiking, skiing, or digging in the dirt with the Sierra Bounty CSA, Morgan's probably at rehearsal for the next Eastern Sierra theatrical adventure—eager for any socially acceptable excuse to sport a goatee.See All Posts by Morgan (33) Contact Morgan
Male Yellow-headed Blackbird. Photo courtesy of Ted Beedy.
The weekend kicks off with two free stewardship events on Thursday to give back to the land with Friends of the Inyo. With ten new presenters added this year there are plenty of engaging bird walks and talks still available, especially on Saturday morning with stellar leaders John Sterling, Karyn O’Hearn, and Ali Sheehey. The Chautauqua is great for all ages—we have two special events with popular children’s book author Michael Ross.
The Chautauqua picnic on Sunday is open to the public with free live music from Keith Greeninger with Dayan Kai. You can find all the information you need to sign up at the Chautauqua website.
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 by Russ, Canoe CoordinatorcloseAuthor: Russ, Canoe CoordinatorName: Russ Taylor Title: Canoe Coordinator About: Throughout the winters of the 1990s you could find Russ paddling the rivers of Florida and Georgia on 28-day canoeing expeditions with adjudicated youth. The summers he worked in the High Sierra as a wilderness guide, where he initially fell in love with the Eastern Sierra. He's spent a large portion of his outdoor career in canoes, this summer on Mono Lake and winters on expeditions in the Everglades. Also a freelance photographer and writer, Russ has lived in Ladakh, India, and Papua New Guinea and has traveled to over 30 countries. To see photos from Russ' travels, visit nomadruss.com.See All Posts by Russ (3) Contact Russ
Paddling through the stillness of the waters on a Mono Lake guided canoe tour is one of the best ways to experience all that the lake has to offer. You’ll learn some local and natural history from a knowledgeable guide, examine the brine shrimp and alkali flies up close, all while moving among the mysterious formations known as tufa towers.
Gliding past submerged calcium-carbonate tufa towers.
