The Mono Lake Committee recently received the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s (DWP) forecast for Mono Lake levels for the 2013 runoff year (April 1, 2013–March 31, 2014). The lake level forecast is primarily based on the preliminary April 1 runoff forecast of 66%, which makes this year officially “dry.”

Despite the 2013 runoff year being officially "dry," the area around Tioga Pass still has quite a bit of snow, as this photo from April 22 shows. Photo by Angie Glaser.

Median levels of precipitation and evaporation are assumed, so after September the accuracy depends on how wet next fall and winter will be. The elevations in the table below are in feet above mean sea level. (more…)

Volunteers count California Gull nests at Mono Lake. Photo by Russ Taylor.

You are on a rocky volcanic island surrounded by an alkaline sea. Your only protection from the high-desert sun is your khaki-colored Mono Lake Committee logo bucket hat. It’s also your only protection against the frenzied California Gulls flying every which way and trying, as you suspect, to whitewash you with an airborne “splat!” (more…)

After an average fall, precipitation-wise, we recorded double the average December precipitation in Lee Vining. Between October 1st and the end of December, we have measured more snow (34.5″) and precipitation (6.5″) than during all of last winter! This represents about 50% of the average annual total.

Snow blankets the Mono Lake Committee's storefront on December 26, 2012. Photo by Bartshe Miller.

For years with similar wet Decembers (1992, 1996, 2002, 2005, 2010), the following runoff year had close-to-average or (more…)

Number 2 on our Top Ten highlights list is the intensive process of planning for a 21st century aqueduct that can deliver restoration flows to Mono Lake’s tributaries at the times they need it the most, deliver water to Mono Lake so it can rise to the management level of 6392 feet above sea level, as well as efficiently export water to Los Angeles.

An aerial view of Rush Creek, the Rush Creek return ditch, and Grant Lake Reservoir, which are key to the 21st century aqueduct discussions. Photo by Geoffrey McQuilkin.

If you’ve been following the Mono Lake Newsletter, you’ll know that the Committee has been working intensively on this process for nearly two years. (more…)

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…)

Three dedicated volunteers and two Mono Lake Committee staff members helped clean the Committee’s adopted mile of Highway 395 recently. The crew met on Friday, October 26, donned fluorescent vests and leather gloves, and hit the road under sunny skies.

The Committee adopted a section of  Highway 395 south of Lee Vining in 1997 and leads two to four cleanups annually. A lot more recyclable materials were found this time along with the usual assortment of things that blow out of or fall off moving vehicles. All in all, six bags of litter and one bag of recycling were gathered. It’s nice to leave the road spiffed up before the winter winds blow! A big thanks to volunteers Rich & Cathy Foye and Rebecca Watkins.

This looks like the best weekend yet for beautiful fall color in the Mono Basin … drop everything and come on over!

Golden cottonwoods line lower Mill Creek, in a capture from the Mono Lake Committee's Mill Creek webcam.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Conway Summit, Lundy Canyon, Lee Vining Canyon, and the June Lake Loop are all at the peak (more…)

The October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012 water year recently came to a close. Happy new 2013 water year!

What is a water year?
It is said that hydrologists get to celebrate a new year at least four times a year—January 1st for a calendar year, April 1st for a runoff year, July 1st for a coastal California rainfall year (as well as a fiscal year), and October 1st for a water year. Needless to say, this creates challenges in organizing hydrology data.

Here in the Mono Basin, we typically use the runoff year to summarize most measurements involving stream flows, since (more…)

Thanks to recent efforts of California Trout, a video of part one of Elden Vestal’s November 3, 1993 deposition is now on YouTube. You can watch the hour and forty-seven minute video here on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse.

Watch the YouTube Video of Elden's 1993 historical testimony here!

Elden was a California Department of Fish & Game Fisheries Biologist whose deposition was instrumental (more…)

Erica and Rose at Lundy Lake Reservoir. Photo by Lynette Villagomez.

The sole of a shoe, a child’s rubber ball, and a bait container printed with the phrase “please do not litter”—what do these items have in common?

All were found and picked up by sharp-eyed Mono Lake enthusiasts during the Great Sierra River Cleanup, held on September 15. This was the (more…)