The California Gull breeding grounds northeast of Negit Island in Mono Lake.

Last July, in a chicken-wire fenced plot on an islet known as Little Tahiti, California Gull banders Kristie Nelson and Nora Livingston spotted one notable adult gull among the masses. It had both a white plastic band and a metal ID band above its ankle, on the “drumstick” part of its leg (though that may be an unsavory description). Odd, they thought, no one bands that part of the leg these days.  Kristie, who has headed up the gull banding on Mono Lake’s islets since 2005, remembered seeing this distinctive bird in the same corner of this particular study plot during other seasons, too. She suspected it was an old bird and knew that, in early banding days on Mono Lake, researchers had placed colored bands—white, say—on chicks from different  islets.

The banding scene on the Mono Lake islets is well-described as calm and collected chaos. While the adult gulls scream bloody cacophony, two banders, including Kristie, sit on overturned crates, sheets spread across their laps like aprons. Then, brave assistants such as Nora (more…)

It was hot and dry down at the Mill Creek culvert last Wednesday — perfect weather for a party! An invasive plant pulling party, that is.  Volunteers and interns enjoyed free snacks and sunshine as we worked, and whenever we needed a break the icy cold creek water invited us to wade right in.  After only two hours the four of us had uprooted sixty pounds of woolly mullein and sweet clover!

Defeating invasive weeds in the Mono Basin may seem like a lost cause, but even an hour or two of pulling can make a huge difference in (more…)

Undaunted by menacing storm clouds, a group of ten volunteers from Patagonia’s Reno store spent Friday afternoon uprooting invasive plants from sites along the Lee Vining Creek Trail. The task seemed pretty hopeless at first, but we removed a whopping sixty-six pounds of bouncing bet and cleared large sections of the trail. Thank you Patagonia!

Bouncing Bet -- before. Photo by Julia Runcie.

Bouncing Bet -- after! Photo by Julia Runcie.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’ll be holding further “pulling parties” on three Wednesday mornings during the summer: July 28th, August 18th, and September 1st. Pulling Party Number 1 will take place from 9am to 12pm on Wednesday, July 28th at the Mill Creek culvert on Cemetery Road. Meet at the Mono Lake Committee at 9am to carpool to Mill Creek, or join us whenever you can at the culvert. Every little bit counts — stay for twenty minutes, an hour, or the whole morning! Email me with any questions. Watch out weeds!

Patagonia volunteers with 66 lbs of uprooted bouncing bet. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

by Julia Runcie and Hannah Doherty

Normally when the two of us head down to Rush Creek on Tuesday afternoons it’s an easy wade through ankle-deep water to reach the eastern bank. We hike through a willow thicket to a very old and overgrown utility road, and then the hunt begins for the six piezometers, or groundwater gauges, that hide in the brush on either side of the trail. At each piezometer we extend a tape measure deep into the throat of a PVC pipe until it hits water, and we record the depth. It’s often a struggle even to catch sight of the pool at the base of each pipe. But last week was different. (more…)

On Saturday July 3rd, Grant Lake Reservoir began spilling for the second time since the year 2000–it also spilled in 2006 after filling up in 2005.

Inflow is dropping as the melting snow runs out, although the warm weather is melting higher elevation snow, which could maintain high inflow for a few more days. Outflow is declining as well after peaking this morning at about 460 cfs (cubic feet per second). The spill peaked at 171 cfs on Thursday and Friday last week, but LADWP was still increasing the flow in the MGORD (Mono Gate One Return Ditch) until this morning. LADWP installed pumps at the spillway in order to ensure it would (more…)

Water cascades over the Lundy Lake Reservoir spillway on its way down Mill Creek to Mono Lake. Photo by Sarah Melcher.

I grabbed the flow meter and eagerly drove out to Lundy Canyon, where our beloved Mill Creek runs in its complicated course to Mono Lake. As the intern assigned to monitor Mill Creek this summer, I got to be one of the first people to see Lundy Lake Reservoir spill into the usually less-than-full creek bed.

Typically, Mill Creek is diverted at Lundy Lake to the SCE power plant. Some of that water is then diverted for delivery to water rights holders, but (more…)

For the last four days, Lee Vining residents and visitors strolling down the Lee Vining Creek Trail could hear boulders knocking against each other over the roar of the whitewater in Lee Vining Creek. The “clunking” sound is coming from the creek—it is the sound of large “bedload” moving—rocks moving along the bottom.

Yesterday Lee Vining Creek peaked at 512 cfs. This is the highest flow in the creek since 1998. Maximizing the peak flow below the DWP diversion dam is the primary tool used to restore the creek from damage done by (more…)

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power submits annual compliance reports in May to the State Water Resources Control Board. The May 2010 report was recently distributed and we’ve posted each section on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse. You can download the cover letter, the status of compliance report, the operations plan, the fisheries report, the tributaries report (geomorphology, hydrology, and vegetation), and the waterfowl report.

The Final Synthesis Report was released this week! You can read it below. You can also download the 58 MB appendices, which contain the Stream Scientists’ responses to comments, on the State Water Board’s Website. You can find the draft reports and additional information and links in our Streamflow Center. (more…)

The Mono Lake Committee submitted the 51-pages of comments below on March 30th to the State Water Resources Control board. The comments are regarding the draft “Synthesis Report” which was released (more…)