For a beautiful break in your workday, take a look at this moving slideshow about the “magnificent 70″—those state parks on the closure list. See if you can recognize those that have been removed….

Saddleback Butte State Park in Antelope Valley.

Morro Strand State Beach on the Central Coast.

Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park in Northern California.

Starting Tuesday, March 27, the Mono Lake Committee Information Center & Bookstore storefront will begin to look quite different. The next phase of the outdoor remodel includes removing picnic tables, planters, and signs in order to tear up asphalt and prepare the storefront for some exciting new additions!

By mid-summer, we hope to have: an expanded retail space in the form of a patio, a wheelchair lift, amphitheater (more…)

Andrea Mead Lawrence.

Please join the Mono Lake Committee for this year’s Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner. The evening will be one of good food, friends, and inspirational discussion. The dinner will feature a keynote address by Robert Hanna, descendent of John Muir and state park advocate, followed by the presentation of the Andrea Lawrence Award to a local organization for passionate engagement in community and the land.

2012 Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner
When: Friday, April 27, 2012
Time: 5:30pm
Where: Parallax Restaurant, McCoy Station, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area

You can reserve your tickets with a $60 donation. Please contact Carolyn Weddle at (760) 647-6595  by Tuesday, April 3 to make your reservation. We hope to see you there!

Castle Rock State Park. Photo by Karen T. Borchers.

THE ENCOURAGING: Today is Park Advocacy Day at the state capitol in Sacramento. Please take a moment to tell policymakers that state parks should be defended from park closures. The successes of the ten state parks to come off the closure list show that your voice makes a huge difference!

THE GOOD: Castle Rock State Park, located along the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is the tenth California state park to be removed from the closure list! Congratulations to all who (more…)

When I went to bed on Friday night, the wind had calmed and the streets were completely dry here in Lee Vining. When I awoke Saturday morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was almost a foot of snow at my doorstep!

The Mono Lake Committee stays open in all sorts of weather. Come by and celebrate the snow with us!

Policy Coordinator Morgan Lindsay, Information Center & Bookstore Manager Jessica Horn, and I started off our day here at the office shoveling snow. We got about a foot and a half of snow overnight and it continued to snow all morning and into the afternoon.

The weather forecast for this weekend predicted up to nine (more…)

The Winter & Spring 2012 Mono Lake Newsletter is now online and available to view and download for Mono Lake Committee members. The online version comes complete with color photos! You’ll find articles about Mono Lake’s state park success, DWP’s proposal to eliminate limnology monitoring at Mono Lake, the upcoming remodel in front of the Committee, Mill Creek’s return pipeline, the 2011 California Gull research, this very dry winter, the Defender of the Trust Award winner, the 2012 Field Seminars, and much more.

Join the Mono Lake Committee to become a member and to see the current issue today! Members also have access to (more…)

Come on out to the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area Visitor Center next Thursday, March 22 for a fun day of sprucing up the building and grounds in preparation for season opening!

The Mono Basin Visitor Center. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

Volunteers are needed starting at 9:00am, and the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association will provide lunch for everyone. Wear work clothes and bring gloves if you’d prefer to do outside clean-up work. Call the Visitor Center at (760) 647-3042 with any questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

The March 1st snow surveys in the Mono Basin found 33% of average snow water content to date. This is only 28% of the April 1st average, when the snowpack usually peaks. There is still much less snow in the Rush Creek drainage:

Rush Creek March 1 2012 snow course water content
Gem Pass 7.9″ (6.7 in 1977, 2.0 in 1991)
Gem Lake 7.4″ (4.8 in 1977, 3.4 in 1991)

Lee Vining Creek March 1 2012 snow course water content
Tioga 8.6″ (7.5 in 1931, 8.2 in 1976, 7.6 in 1977, 0 in 1991)
Saddlebag 9.0″ (7.1 in 1977, 3.2 in 1991)
Ellery 8.8″ (8.2 in 1976, 7.0 in 1977, 2.6 in 1991)

Based on these snow surveys, April–July runoff for the Mono Basin has been forecasted at 39% of average. This is an average (more…)

This past Thursday, March 8, the Mono Lake Committee hosted SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Los Angeles. The event took place at The Landmark West Los Angeles and was a fun-filled evening with a great selection of inspirational environmental and adventure films.

Lively discussions followed the premiere of The Mono Lake Story at intermission. Mono Lake Committee Board member Vireo Gaines chatted with festival attendees at the Landmark Theater West Los Angeles. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

This was the LA premiere of the Committee’s new film, The Mono Lake Story. Recently accepted into the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, Sun Valley Film Festival, and the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, we were very excited to show this film in LA to our members, Board, and lots of (more…)

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks for the Mono Lake Story film team as the film has been gaining recognition in festivals around the world. Not only has it been accepted into the 2012 Wild & Scenic Film Festival, but also the Sedona International Film Festival, Colorado Environmental Film Festival, the Sun Valley Film Festival in Idaho and the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival in New Zealand.

On top of being accepted into these wonderful festivals, the film has been awarded Director’s Choice for Best Documentary Short in Sedona! Many congratulations to our excellent film team: Ryan Christensen and Jonah Matthewson of Bristlecone Media and score composer Cody Westheimer.

After hearing the great news, we are even more excited for (more…)