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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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.

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.

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Rumors (and at least one Yosemite blogger) are saying that the Tioga Road is open from the east to the top. Not true.

As of Tuesday May 11th, 2010 at noon, the lower gate is still closed. In addition, Mono County crews are starting to plow into the park today, Wednesday May 12th. There are less than 10 miles of snow-covered road left to clear since the NPS crews have reached pothole dome. Once clear, the road doesn’t open immediately due to additional maintenance and avalanche danger.

Tuesday May 11, 2010 at noon. Contrary to rumors triggered by a blogger with incorrect information, the lower gate is still closed. Photo by Greg Reis.

Beavers were introduced into Lundy Canyon long ago, and in recent years have been spreading to other nearby creeks such as Wilson Creek and DeChambeau Creek. Dead beavers have been seen more than once in the last several years along Mono Lake between Old Marina and Lee Vining Creek.

About three weeks ago we were informed by Dr. Roland Knapp of beaver sign along Lee Vining Creek below the diversion dam. Friday morning I took the photos found here–click on a photo to (more…)

"Lundy Canyon Fall" is one of the images on display in the Committee gallery. Photo courtesy of Robb Hirsch.

Field biologist by trade, naturalist by heart, and photographer by passion, Robb Hirsch has traveled through Africa, Central America, and the Western United States. He enjoys spending extended periods of time in the backcountry to experience the natural history of the ecosystem at hand; his photography is an extension of this love for the natural world. Scouting locations incessantly, Robb attempts to combine alluring locations and complementary illumination. His images are known for their compelling subjects, careful compositions, and fine light.

Robb’s exhibit in the Committee gallery focuses on Mono Lake, the Eastern Sierra, and Yosemite. Stop by and take a look!

We are all getting bulked up on the white stuff. Yesterday I spent six hours shoveling between my roof and the berm left by the snow plow. It’s a pleasure to see this much snow, and it’s the first time in a while that this much has fallen around Mono Lake. We measured 33.2″ from Monday to Friday this week at our weather station here in Lee Vining. Thursday’s storm (1-21-2010)  set all-time low barometric pressure records for the San Joaquin Valley, to Reno, to Las Vegas. I don’t know if there’s an official barometer for Lee Vining, but the pressure dropped to just above 983 millibars/29.04 inches on one local weather station, the the lowest I’ve ever seen it.

A view to the north from the south-bound lanes of Highway 395, through the middle of Lee Vining.

Yep, the snow is still falling—sometimes fast, sometimes with big heavy flakes, but always, falling. It’s beautiful, and exciting, and the roofs are shedding like little avalanches and here in the office we’re taking turns outside with shovels. Greg said it looked like there was one hour around lunch when it snowed 3 inches just behind the office. Santiago said in one 45 minute period we got 2 inches in front of the store. I got the lucky shovel shift with our awesome town plow driver: shovel out a pile, swipe with big plow blade, repeat.

Here are some photos (more…)