Number 2 on our Top Ten highlights list is the intensive process of planning for a 21st century aqueduct that can deliver restoration flows to Mono Lake’s tributaries at the times they need it the most, deliver water to Mono Lake so it can rise to the management level of 6392 feet above sea level, as well as efficiently export water to Los Angeles.

An aerial view of Rush Creek, the Rush Creek return ditch, and Grant Lake Reservoir, which are key to the 21st century aqueduct discussions. Photo by Geoffrey McQuilkin.

If you’ve been following the Mono Lake Newsletter, you’ll know that the Committee has been working intensively on this process for nearly two years. (more…)

The Mono Lake Committee’s 2012 Annual Report is hot off the press and available to view online!

Read about the 2011 projects and activities in our focus areas of protection, stream restoration, education, and scientific research. View the Committee’s financial  (more…)

This looks like the best weekend yet for beautiful fall color in the Mono Basin … drop everything and come on over!

Golden cottonwoods line lower Mill Creek, in a capture from the Mono Lake Committee's Mill Creek webcam.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Conway Summit, Lundy Canyon, Lee Vining Canyon, and the June Lake Loop are all at the peak (more…)

Thanks to recent efforts of California Trout, a video of part one of Elden Vestal’s November 3, 1993 deposition is now on YouTube. You can watch the hour and forty-seven minute video here on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse.

Watch the YouTube Video of Elden's 1993 historical testimony here!

Elden was a California Department of Fish & Game Fisheries Biologist whose deposition was instrumental (more…)

Erica and Rose at Lundy Lake Reservoir. Photo by Lynette Villagomez.

The sole of a shoe, a child’s rubber ball, and a bait container printed with the phrase “please do not litter”—what do these items have in common?

All were found and picked up by sharp-eyed Mono Lake enthusiasts during the Great Sierra River Cleanup, held on September 15. This was the (more…)

Since the last week of June Mono Lake Committee staff and dedicated volunteers have been going into the field each Wednesday to pull invasive plant species at Mill Creek, near County Park, and at Old Marina along the path that leads to the Visitor Center.

Volunteers remove invasive sweet clover at Mill Creek. Photos by Lynette Villagomez.

Myself, fellow intern Max Henkels, and our volunteers were able to assist in clearing the path at Old Marina of invasive (more…)

Mono Lake Intern Lynette Villagomez recording measurements at Mill Creek.

For many Mono Lake interns, one of the main draws of working for the Mono Lake Committee is the opportunity to work outdoors in the Mono Basin. One of the opportunities to do this is the weekly stream monitoring that the Committee carries out at Mill Creek. Mill Creek monitoring, as we call it around the office, is part of the broad effort to track the status of the streamflows and ecology of the five creeks that feed Mono Lake from the Sierra Nevada. (more…)

This summer is turning out to be drier than expected. Preliminary data for April–July show Lee Vining Creek runoff is about 1,000 acre-feet short of the 17,900 acre-feet (53% of average) forecast, Rush Creek runoff about 2,000 acre-feet short of the 23,400 acre-feet (49%) forecast, and Parker Creek runoff about 600 acre-feet short of the 3,400 acre-foot (62%) forecast. Only Walker Creek appears to be on target with its 1,300 acre-foot (42%) prediction—notably the lowest forecast of the four creeks. (more…)

Each May, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) submits its annual compliance report to the State Water Resources Control Board. This report contains not only compliance reporting, but the reports from the previous year’s lake and stream monitoring.

Some highlights from the 2011 monitoring include:

• Brine shrimp abundance peaked at over 40,000 shrimp per square meter for seven of the last eight years. This level was only exceeded in five other years during the 1980s (monitoring began in 1982). But it has happened almost every year since 2004.
• The “centroid” of the brine shrimp distribution over time has peaked earlier and earlier each year—as Mono Lake’s salinity has declined, the shrimp have (more…)

As of April 1, the winter precipitation in Lee Vining added up to 45% of average, and Mono Basin snowpack measured 47% of average. The forecast for April–July runoff is 50% of average.

An average March for precipitation in the Mono Basin brought to an end the 2011 Runoff Year (April 1, 2011–March 31, 2012). The preliminary runoff total for last year is 142% of average. (more…)