If you haven’t experienced poconip, or ice fog, at Mono Lake, I recommend it. It usually happens when it’s sunny in most other parts of the Eastern Sierra, and the ground is frozen or snow-covered.

Rime ice in the Lee Vining Creek riparian area.

The fog can be quite thick, and it is very chilly inside the fog layer—keeping temperatures below freezing all day. The poconip creates rime ice on (more…)

Number 1 on our Top Ten highlights list is the remodeled Committee storefront—a multi-year process culminating in the construction and grand re-opening this past summer!

The crowd gathered for the storefront grand re-opening in August! Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

Among the many highlights and wonderful moments (more…)

Number 4 on our Top Ten highlights list is a compendium of things that have made this year particularly memorable. One of the great things about living in the Mono Basin is that life is infused with the happenings of the natural world.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words….

Dry years can mean cold temperatures without precipitation, which makes good conditions for ice skating. We rang in the year with some seriously memorable ice skating on very-frozen lakes such as Lundy Lake Reservoir shown here. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

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Number 5 on our Top Ten highlights list is the the Trail Chic fashion show fundraiser for the Committee’s Outdoor Experiences program.

Mono Lake Intern Max Henkels walked the runway as the invasive weed, sweet clover. Photo by Lynette Villagomez.

This is really one of those events that you’ve got to see to believe. The Mono Lake Committee pairs up with Barefoot Wine & (more…)

If you’ve been in the Information Center & Bookstore in the past few years you’ve seen the brine shrimp tank in the hallway. Directly on the other side of that tank is the hallway that leads to the room that Geoff McQuilkin and I call our office. In the summer we get used to the din of people checking out the brine shrimp, and in the winter it’s pretty quiet. So, yesterday my ears perked up at the sound of a small herd of snow-boot-wearing kids. It was the Lee Vining Elementary Kindergarten class paying us a visit.

I think I probably don’t need to say much more than, especially right now, it was a really heartwarming moment that I thought Mono Lake Committee members and friends would enjoy too.

Calling all photographers! The call for submission for the 2014 Mono Lake Calendar is here. If you are interested in submitting, click here for the submission information and read on for details. The submission deadline is Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

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 to fund the efforts of our non-profit organization to protect and restore both the lake and the Mono Basin.

The Mono Lake Calendar has been widely acclaimed for its artistic merit, due in large measure to the talent of the photographers whose work is (more…)

Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted a record number of nature enthusiasts who flocked to Lee Vining for the 11th annual Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua.

Quick, everyone look over here! Photo by Rose Catron.

Two hundred and sixty-three nature appreciators of all ages attended over 80 field trips, workshops, and presentations. There were plenty of walks focused on bird appreciation, but plant, flower, dragonfly, butterfly, mammal, geology, astronomy, photography, art, nature journaling, and story-telling events were also very (more…)

I must start here with an apology for the tongue-in-cheek pun that is the title of this Mono-logue post, which is actually an update on the Mono Lake Committee’s Information Center & Bookstore storefront improvement project. I’m afraid that from my vantage point sitting in the corner of the building closest to the storefront construction project, it simply cannot be avoided. The warm spring combined with the daily activity happening within arms-reach and earshot of my desk chair means that our door opens out onto all the action.

One of the neatest things so far has been the installation of six large boulders around which the front steps are being built. The rocks were carefully drawn into the architects’ plans, so we’ve been excited about them the whole time, but actually making them happen has been unexpectedly cool. (more…)

A week ago Saturday an unusual event took place on the Dana Glacier at the Sierra Crest. As part of Climate Impacts Day, a project organized by 350.org, a group of climbers unfurled an 80-foot-square banner that read “I’m melting” across the glacier. And it’s true.

Dana Glacier's "I'm melting" banner. Photo courtesy of 350.org.

The article includes a quote about the Sierra’s dramatically-shrinking glaciers from Yosemite National Park’s geologist Greg Stock: “Given the amount of change we’ve seen even over the past few decades, I think it’s safe to say that those glaciers will be gone in 100 years. They may even be gone in 50 years and there’s a chance that some of them will be gone in 20 years.”

Change is positive, necessary, and good. And change is what we’re about to see out in front of the Mono Lake Committee Information Center & Bookstore starting tomorrow morning as the storefront remodel gets underway. Are you ready?

For the past few days I’ve been poking around out front taking photos to document what things look like before the remodel, and generally just getting used to the idea that this project, years in the making, is actually going to happen.

The Mono Lake Committee Information Center & Bookstore on the morning of March 27, 2012.

Today we took away all of the things we want to keep … the wine barrels for flowers, the river rocks that marked the garden areas, the signs from inside the kiosk out front. Yes, we kept the rocks.

Geoff McQuilkin and Rose Catron saving soil from the old planters before the construction crew arrives.

It’s impossible not to get excited for things like the new deck to welcome people into the store, the seating areas for visitors, the new greywater system, the ADA-accessible lift, and the drinking fountain and water bottle filling station.

A conceptual drawing of the storefront remodel. Drawing courtesy of Siegel & Strain Architects.

There’s a little bit of nostalgia too. I haven’t (more…)