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.
Elden was a California Department of Fish & Game Fisheries Biologist whose deposition was instrumental in establishing firsthand evidence of the pre-diversion conditions in the Mono Basin in the 1930s and 40s. This testimony was relied upon by the State Water Resources Control Board in issuing the September 28, 1994 Decision 1631, as well as the subsequent 1998 restoration orders requiring the restoration of the Mono Basin’s streams and fisheries. You can also read his depositions here.
California Trout and the Department of Fish & Game are doing some additional sleuthing to see if part two turns up. If it does, we’ll post it when it becomes available online. What better way to celebrate the 18th anniversary of the State Water Board decision than to watch Elden talk about the pre-diversion streams and rich fish and wildlife resources of the Mono Basin?