By now I’m sure you’ve guessed it … our #1 highlight for Mono Lake in 2011 was getting the Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve removed from California’s state park closure list. It was, first and foremost, a group effort—with Mono Lake Committee members playing a key role in writing and signing thousands of letters and petitions that got the attention of key decision-makers in Sacramento as they were hand-delivered to their offices each week. Finding creative solutions (the working mantra of the Mono Lake Committee) played a key role in the effort, and we are enthusiastic about The Bodie Foundation stepping up (more…)

Here in the office we call it the Collaborative Aqueduct Modernization & Management Plan, or CAMMP for short. But when we say things like, “Geoff, Lisa, and Morgan are CAMMP-ing,” it’s not what it sounds like. CAMMP is a State Water Board mandated series of facilitated meetings embarked upon by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, the California Department of Fish & Game, California Trout, the State Water Board-appointed Stream Scientists, and the Mono Lake Committee with the goal of working through the details of implementing the scientific streamflow prescriptions issued in 2010 and the associated aqueduct modernization necessary for the aging infrastructure to be able to reach the restoration goals at Mono Lake.

So … what does all that mean? It means that (more…)

Number 8 of the top 11 of 2011 is actually recognition of three major celebrations—the Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner, the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua, and the Defender of the Trust Award ceremony. Yee-haw! (more…)

The Sierra Club recently released a scorecard comparing the water conservation efforts of cities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The City of Los Angeles was the only city to meet all 19 criteria and receive a perfect score!

The criteria included (more…)

In 1994, the State Water Resources Control Board issued Decision 1631, restoring Mono Lake and its tributary streams through a plan of reduced water diversions to Los Angeles. At that time, the decision considered LA’s water supply projections:

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) projects that the city will use approximately 700 thousand acre-feet per year by 1995, increasing to 756.5 thousand acre-feet by 2010 due to population growth. DWP cautions, however, that large uncertainties exist regarding future projections.

The decision went on to (more…)

How much water do you use every day?

It might be relatively easy to estimate the amount of water you use at home and in your yard, but do you know how much water it takes to grow and produce your dinner from last night? What about to produce the energy you’re using this winter to keep warm? Or the items you bought last weekend at the mall?

National Geographic’s water footprint calculator takes you through an easy survey to estimate your complete water footprint. (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…)

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…)

Join in on a statewide effort to clean up California on September 25! The Mono Lake Committee and friends will tackle a stretch of Lee Vining Creek as part of the Great Sierra River Cleanup.

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