Snow-covered hills above Highway 395.

As a Mono Lake Committee Project Specialist, my duties are many and varied. From working in the Information Center & Bookstore to drafting grant proposals to pulling invasive weeds, I never seem to be doing the same thing for more than a few hours at a time, and each new project is an exciting surprise.

Last week our communications team gave me an interesting assignment. Every issue of the Mono Lake Newsletter features a “benchmark”—a pair of photos, one old, one current, showing a before-and-after snapshot of a particular site in the Mono Basin. This time we had the “before” photo, a shot taken by Burton Frasher in 1938. But the “after” photo (more…)

Mono Lake's endemic brine shrimp (Artemia monica).

A few days ago I cross-country skied out to the shoreline to measure Mono Lake’s exact height above sea level, now 6381.99 feet. I knelt down at the water’s edge to admire the still green water, and could hardly believe my eyes.  First one tiny hatchling, then another, then five more full-size brine shrimp sculling in circles on their backs—I counted over twenty in all. (more…)

There are only three spaces still available in the Winter Photography Field Seminar … snap them up now before someone else does!

A space in the seminar would make a wonderful gift for any photographer this holiday season. Winter at Mono Lake is like nowhere else on earth, and it offers many unique photographic opportunities. With instructor Rick Knepp, a veteran of Mono Basin winters, you’ll have the perfect guide. Sign up now!

Anyone taking a look at the water from County Park or the Old Marina boardwalk could tell you that there are a lot of birds on Mono Lake. Gulls, phalaropes, avocets, killdeer—the list goes on and on. But the exact numbers of these birds is not so easy to determine. In the case of the Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), an accurate count requires a small airplane, a digital camera, a calm day, and a lot of white plastic trash compactor bags. (more…)

Last month the Lee Vining High School principal and teachers invited me to participate in a three-day outing to Yosemite National Park with the whole school. I felt very happy with the offer since I’ve wanted to do such a trip with the local high school for a long time. For many years I have worked with Lee Vining Elementary School doing environmental education outings, but never with the high school students. The field trip was divided into day-long outings and we went to places like Olmsted Point, Pothole Dome, Yosemite Valley, and Lembert Dome.

Lee Vining High School at the top of Lembert Dome in Yosemite.

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Rain delays the Mars rover's Mono Lake excursion.

On Sunday, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA brought a prototype Mars rover to Mono Lake, staging it under tents at the Scenic Area Visitor Center while they prepared it to go down to the lake. The plan was to test the rover’s sampling equipment and procedures in an environment that, while unlike Mars, would provide some Mars-like challenges. In the search for evidence of past life on Mars, scientists think that areas on Mars that had terminal lakes like Mono Lake might have sustained life, and preserved evidence of it.

This isn’t the first time NASA has tested its methods at Mono Lake. In August 1995, NASA used (more…)

On Sunday, I climbed Mt. Andrea Lawrence. That is not an official name for the peak … yet. Last week the House of Representatives passed HR 5194, the “Mt. Andrea Lawrence Designation Act of 2010.” People are already referring to the peak by this name, and (more…)

No, that’s not a typo. It’s true, we’re sending out the 2012 Mono Lake Calendar call for submissions. If you’re already on the calendar mailing list, there’s a letter heading your way. If you’re a photographer interested in submitting, click here for the submission information and read on for details.

Since 1986, the magnificent geological and ecological wonders of Mono Lake have been celebrated in the Mono Lake Calendar, published by the Mono Lake Committee. Sales of the calendar help (more…)

Last weekend Lee Vining hosted the 30th Annual Tioga Pass Run, and what an anniversary celebration it was! Over 100 participants raced up Highway 120 west, starting in front of the Mono Lake Committee in Lee Vining, and finishing at the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. That’s 12.4 miles … but only one hill!

And they're off! The Tioga Pass Run participants start the race in front of the Mono Lake Committee in Lee Vining.

The locals once again dominated the run, with 52 participants coming from the Eastern Sierra communities of Bishop, Crowley Lake, Mammoth Lakes, Lee Vining, and Bridgeport. But participants also came from (more…)

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…)