Last Wednesday afternoon brought a second hour of engaging ideas to the Mono Lake Committee’s Theater & Gallery, as US Forest Service Senior Scientist Connie Millar gave a provocative and fascinating talk on mountain ecology and climate change; a topic which she has artfully christened “Mountain Climecology.”

Connie Millar discusses mountain climecology with the group. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

The aim of her talk was to illustrate the difficult task of predicting what kinds of ecological changes might result from fluctuations in global temperature and changing climate patterns, and how accepted wisdom about the effects on plants and animals needs to be carefully tested in the field.

Dr. Millar, faced with only 45 minutes to explain and defend her argument, chose several examples from her own research on mountain ecology to illustrate her point. One example was (more…)

The Sacramento Bee has been investigating the millions of dollars that were set aside and covered up by Sacramento administrators of the state park system. The initial news led to the resignation of State Park Director Ruth Coleman; over the past weekend the Bee reported more details.

Official investigation reports are still pending and will reveal (more…)

Each May, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) submits its annual compliance report to the State Water Resources Control Board. This report contains not only compliance reporting, but the reports from the previous year’s lake and stream monitoring.

Some highlights from the 2011 monitoring include:

• Brine shrimp abundance peaked at over 40,000 shrimp per square meter for seven of the last eight years. This level was only exceeded in five other years during the 1980s (monitoring began in 1982). But it has happened almost every year since 2004.
• The “centroid” of the brine shrimp distribution over time has peaked earlier and earlier each year—as Mono Lake’s salinity has declined, the shrimp have (more…)

Please take a moment to send a letter to the California Department of Transportation today—now is the time to make your voice heard for a safe, ecologically-sound project!

A view of roadcut 4 from the Old Marina entrance with a visual simulation of the mesh drapery proposed in Option 1. Visual simulation courtesy of the Caltrans Lee Vining Rockfall Safety Project Initial Study.

The Lee Vining Rockfall Safety Project has the potential to solve old eroding roadcuts next to Mono Lake but only if Caltrans combines permanent slope stabilization with aggressive and guaranteed revegetation measures. Otherwise, a poorly-conceived (more…)

Six of us are packed into a small motor boat, laden with kiddie gates, cardboard boxes, and a crate of old sheets. We are reviewing the strategy of our siege as we cross to Twain Island—move quickly, stay low, don’t stop. We are preparing to band California Gull chicks in several research plots on the small islands east of Negit Island in Mono Lake, a monitoring project that started in 1983.

California Gull chicks in a banding corral with the Krakatoa Island basecamp in the background.

By capturing the chicks in small plots that are surrounded by 2-foot-high chicken wire fences, we can examine the birds and extrapolate information on their health and reproductive success. In addition, hopefully the bands we fasten to the chicks’ legs will be seen in the future, allowing us to learn more about these gulls’ migration and nesting. (more…)

Policy Coordinator Morgan Lindsay leads Committee staff on a tour of the rock fall project area. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

The California Department of Transportation has released plans for a highway project next to Mono Lake. The project will address rock fall issues for six slopes just north of Lee Vining on the west side of Highway 395. Careful readers of the Mono Lake Newsletter may be familiar with this new CalTrans rock fall project. You can read the complete back story on page 10 in the  Summer 2012 (more…)

Mono Lake and many other parks have been the source of intense effort over the past year from citizens, non-profit groups, and supporters seeking to keep them open and operating. (We’ve had success at keeping the Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve open.) Now investigations into Sacramento-level financial management are turning up new information and today parks Director Ruth Coleman has resigned. More news to come no doubt. The details are in the Sacramento Bee.

Sacramento Bee: California parks director resigns amid scandal

GFAJ-1 bacteria.

Follow-up research on GFAJ-1, a Halomonas bacterium cultured from Mono Lake’s shallow marine sediments, is back in the news after two new, independent studies concluded that this strange bacterium does not incorporate arsenic into its biomolecular make-up. This new research runs counter to the claims of an original study by Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon that concluded that GFAJ-1 took up arsenic into its DNA, suggesting that the foundation of biochemistry was perhaps more flexible than was previously known. (more…)

Does water conservation help reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Authors Paul Bunje and Jonathan Parfrey argue yes in a recent article in the Daily News. A new, neighborhood-level study forecasting temperature change in Los Angeles brings the future close to home for residents and underscores how wise resource management is critical. Check it out here:

Daily News: Paul Bunje and Jonathan Parfrey: The region’s future is hot, so let’s act

An overlook of LA from the Griffith Observatory. Photo by Elin Ljung.

Devils Postpile. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

After last November’s significant wind storm, now appropriately called “The Devils Windstorm,” caused considerable damage to the Devils Postpile/Reds Meadow area, the sites are now open for the season.

The Reds Meadow shuttle service is running, and the Devils Postpile and Reds Meadow campgrounds are open. Check here for updates on other Forest Service campground openings.

The wind event occurred November 30 through December 1, 2011. Wind came from the northeast, reaching the valley at (more…)