After I finished my day’s data collections of stream flows for Mill Creek, I took the time to explore the Mill Creek bottomlands and the Black Point Marsh at the lakeshore. I eagerly hiked down the stream, bushwhacking through sagebrush, stopping to closely observe wildflowers, and frequently crossing the creek to observe curious Killdeer through my borrowed binoculars. Suddenly, completely out of the blue, I stepped onto the pumice sand of the beach and I was in a new world.

Where Mill Creek's water meets Mono Lake.

Not only had I had never seen Mono Lake from this angle, but following the trickle of Mill Creek water into the lake gave my weekly flow measurements and data collections new meaning. I am monitoring (more…)

Did you catch an Osprey in flight with a fish in its talons … a beautiful sunset in a tufa grove … a flower show up Lundy Canyon … a natural history mystery … a beautiful rainstorm over the Mono Craters?  There are 86,400 seconds in a day, which means there are about that many great photographs to be taken at Mono Lake every day.  We know there are some amazing photographs taken by Mono Lake Committee members and friends, and we’d love to see them.

So, you can now share your Mono Lake photos on the Mono Lake Website!

It’s simple: upload your photos to the Mono Lake Flickr group, and they are randomly chosen to appear (more…)

On July 24th the Mono Lake Committee and Barefoot Wine & Bubbly held a fashion show fundraiser for the Outdoor Experiences Program. There was a great turnout for a fun show featuring locals strutting down an astroturf runway in the Lee Vining Community Center.

Trail Chic 2010 models.

Trail Chic is a fundraiser for the Outdoor Experiences program, specifically to raise money for the Bus Money Fund, which helps Los Angeles youth with transportation costs of getting to Mono Lake. Quite often we find school groups, youth groups, and community groups that (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.

Get ready for the seventh annual Ghosts of the Sagebrush Tour on July 30-31, a two-day event that will explore the year 1940 in the Mono Basin! Enjoy dinner and dancing on Friday night, and then head out into the field on Saturday for a tour of aqueduct facilities that (more…)

Join the Mono Lake Committee and friends on Saturday, July 10 from 2:00–5:00pm for an artist reception for photographer Robb Hirsch. Robb’s exhibit, “Mono Basin & Beyond: Sublime Moments in Nature,” is now on display in the Mono Lake Committee gallery.

Trained as a biologist, Robb Hirsch developed an intimate relationship with the natural world during annual childhood visits to Yosemite. Robb’s images are known for their compelling subjects, careful compositions, and fine light.

Come meet the photographer, enjoy light refreshments, and see Robb’s work.

The ninth annual Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua was another rousing success, wrapping up on Sunday afternoon with great music by Kris Delmhorst & Jeffrey Foucault and delicious food benefitting Lee Vining High School.

For more photos from the 2010 Chautauqua, check out the Mono Lake Committee’s Flickr set and join the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua group to add your images to the collection. And mark your calendar right away for the tenth anniversary of the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua: June 17–19, 2011!

Jeffrey Foucault & Kris Delmhorst drew from their repertoire of songs about birds for the Chautauqua crowd. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

Rob, Bob, Lundy, and Rena prepared tasty meals as a fundraiser for Lee Vining High School. Photo by Elin Ljung.

Mono Lake Committee founder David Gaines toured tirelessly around California with carousel of slides and a call to help a dying lake–talking to anyone who would listen. The Mono Lake Committee has continued this tradition by showing The Mono Lake Story slideshow at our headquarters in Lee Vining every year to thousands of visitors and Mono Lake enthusiasts. This old tradition will now continue in a new media format.

We are excited to announce that we are creating a 20-minute film (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…)

With warmer weather and the road open as far as Tioga Pass from Highway 395, there was quite a bit of human-powered recreation going on at Tioga Pass this weekend. Cars—many with bike racks and ski racks—were at times taking almost all the available parking spots that had been cleared of snow between Ellery Lake and Tioga Pass.

Cyclists enjoy the car-free Tioga Pass Road in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

(more…)