Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

Vorster Center tackles critical hydrology questions

For over 40 years, the Mono Lake Committee has pursued the best scientific understanding of Mono Basin hydrology. Last year we created the Vorster Center for Mono Basin Hydrology (see Fall 2018 Mono Lake Newsletter) to address new questions in an era of climate change and to serve as a hub for data collection, modeling, analysis, forecasting, and real world hydrology applications. The Vorster Center is not a physical space, rather a collaboration of research, science, and ideas. It supports the work of Committee staff and advisors, including expert Mono Lake hydrologist Peter Vorster, and brings new resources to the essential study of the lake, its tributary streams, and the Mono Basin.

The work of the Vorster Center is already underway, with capacity for new analysis and creating tools to address big-picture questions about the future of Mono Lake, including: Is the lake rising on the expected timeline? If not, what hydrology factors are different than expected? How does climate change fit in?

The ever-important question is this: How long will it take for Mono Lake to reach its ecologically-sound management level? Thanks to the Vorster Center, the Committee hydrology team has this new capacity and ability to tackle these questions and find answers that will make a real difference for the health of Mono Lake and its tributary streams.

This post was also published as an article in the Winter & Spring 2019 Mono Lake Newsletter (page 7).