Natalie Holt enjoying a Sierra stream. Photo courtesy of Natalie Holt.

Two years ago, Natalie Holt spent much of her summer volunteering for the Mono Lake Committee—leading tours and helping with a variety projects in the office. More recently, for her senior high school project, Natalie created  a seven-minute film called “Environmental Identity,” featuring our very own Communications Coordinator Elin Ljung!

In the film Natalie interviews Elin, a park ranger, an Earth First activist, and the owner of a green products store, asking what motivates, inspires and concerns (more…)

The film “Sympathy for Delicious” was one of the “15 buzziest films at Sundance,” according to online news source The Daily Beast. You can see an image from the movie, which stars actor Orlando Bloom.

One might ask … how does “Sympathy for Delicious” relate to Mono Lake?

Well, just about one year ago, the Mono Lake Committee got a call from the set, requesting a large order of our stainless steel klean kanteen water bottles. Director Mark Ruffalo had seen a bottle owned by the costume designer, and wanted to provide his cast and crew with an alternative to plastic water bottles. A few days later, we saw photos on the internet of the actors with our bottles!

Watch for “Sympathy for Delicious” coming to your local theater, and see if you can spot a bottle either in the movie or in the credits.

Could these Wilson's Phalaropes be a few feet from a shadow biosphere?

Last week the Royal Society in London hosted a discussion meeting about the detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society. During the symposium/discussion Dr. Paul Davies (University of Arizona) presented a webcast lecture The eerie silence: are we alone in the universe? In this webcast he discussed the progress of SETI and the continuing, albeit thus far, quiet search for intelligent life beyond earth. But what of any (more…)

Deer tracks on the Lee Vining Creek trail. Photo by Rose Wilson.

Over the last few days the Mono Basin has really shown us a full range of weather and light—deep poconip, light dustings of snow, and brilliant sunshine glinting off the lake. Each morning I wake to a new story told in the windblown snow, the story of the little, quiet animals that creep about the basin at night while most of us are sleeping. There are the rabbit tracks in the alley, scooting from their cozy snow caves in search of food. Outside my door a pair of raccoons wanders almost nightly, leaving teeny, human-like prints in the snow. Best are the bird tracks, big and small, marking where they sheltered from the wind or alighted before heading for the trees. I never see these creatures—by the time I creak open the door they are long gone, scurrying at the sound of my footsteps. But I love knowing they were there before me—the footprints of deer on the Lee Vining Creek trail or the minuscule trace of mice feet and a dragging tail on the fresh snow behind the visitor center. One thing I’ll really miss come spring is the story these wandering footprints tell.

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…)

Lee Vining-ites woke from last night’s clear starry skies to slow encroaching snow this morning. The snow started coming down around 9:00 am, and now at 10:30, it’s definitely sticking and starting to accumulate. I went out and shot a couple of photos … we’ll see if this storm is worth doing before-and-after shots!

If you are traveling in the area please, please drive carefully. We’ve had two bad accidents close to town in the last week … and that was before the snow even started to fall. As I took these photos out in the street just now people were flying by way too fast—I try to remind myself that we carry our most precious cargo, the people we love and care about, in our cars.

10:30 am on Monday, January 18---Highway 395 looking north from the Mono Lake Committee.

After the noisy and somewhat unsettling winds on Sunday, it was lovely to wake up to the calm of a powdery snowstorm on Monday. By this morning, the Lee Vining Creek canyon was covered in a hushed blanket of snow. In the summer, throngs of tourists visit the creek trail, but today the only creatures disturbing the snow were deer and rabbits. The Mono Basin is beautiful in all seasons, but the snowflakes etching the tree branches and pillowing the rocks show that winter, while quiet, definitely has a majesty all its own.

Lee Vining Creek under fresh snow. Photo by Rosanne Wilson.

It’s Sunday afternoon at the Mono Lake Committee office here in Lee Vining and I just got back from a mission to photograph what looks like it could be another airborne particulate matter (dust storm) record-breaker of a day. While out photo-documenting at various promontories around the basin it occurred to me that monophiles might actually be curious about what the strong wind gusts we experience in the Mono Basin are like.

The Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District measures dust storms at Mono Lake, and their monitoring stations have the most accurate data. But here’s more of a personal account of what it’s like.

When Geoff calls to say that you can’t see Paoha Island from the stretch of Hwy 395 along the lake, I grab the camera (more…)

The International Symposium on Terminus Lakes has a subtitle on the program: “preserving endangered lakes through research.” Gathering reliable information really is the first step in saving a lake—with Mono Lake, the 1976 ecological study laid the groundwork for the formation of the Mono Lake Committee and its early work, and the fight to save the lake over the years benefited from the many other studies of the ecosystem.

With the Walker Lake watershed north of Mono Lake, (more…)