Thanks to a partnership between the Mono Lake Committee, our colleagues at Laguna Mar Chiquita in northern Argentina, and Eastern Sierra high school educators, local high school students and teachers are participating in the second edition of Experience Ambientalia.
Launched in 2021 by Fundación Líderes de Ansenuza and the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network at Laguna Mar Chiquita in the Cordoba Province of Argentina, Experience Ambientalia aims to connect youth to their home ecosystems, introduce them to sister saline lakes across the Western Hemisphere, and practice environmental stewardship. The program came to Mono Lake last year because Laguna Mar Chiquita and Mono Lake are sister lakes that provide critical habitats for Wilson’s Phalaropes, a migratory shorebird that is at risk due to the declining health of saline lakes worldwide.
On September 21, students at Mono Lake joined International Coastal Cleanup Day through the program. They participated in a canoe tour of Mono Lake, where we explored its political and natural history and the challenges preventing it from reaching the healthy levels set by the California State Water Board in 1994. We also talked about the significance of the saline lake network for migratory birds and the responsibility we have as a community to protect our environment. Following the canoe tour, students removed trash from Navy Beach and South Tufa.
On the other side of the hemisphere, youth at Laguna Mar Chiquita also spent the morning picking up trash at Laguna del Plata, a large cove of the larger Mar Chiquita. Teachers, students, and community members shared two hours of work before ending the day birding the wetlands in the area.
Last year, students on both sides of the hemisphere completed concurrent environmental stewardship and educational activities at Mono Lake and Laguna Mar Chiquita. By celebrating International Coastal Clean-Up Day, World Migratory Bird Day, Duck Days, and World Wetlands Day; discussing the Wilson’s Phalarope Endangered Species Act petition; and participating in the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey, students from Argentina and Lee Vining have combined to put in hundreds of volunteer hours leading up to an international exchange dedicated to saline lake education and conservation.
As we continue to build on the success of last year, the next event for the Experience Ambientalia students will be a concurrent, hemispheric celebration of World Migratory Bird Day in October. Youth at Mono Lake will complete a bird outing and a service project assisting in the restoration of wetlands around Mono Lake.
About the Experience Ambientalia program
Experience Ambientalia is a community group that seeks to better connect youth to their home ecosystems and cultivate a sense of environmental stewardship. The Mono Lake chapter of Experience Ambientalia parallels a much larger program and contingent of students in Argentina, where Experiencia Ambientalia was founded in 2021 to engage youth in conserving Laguna Mar Chiquita. Mono Lake is a sister lake with Laguna Mar Chiquita within the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network because of their combined role in providing critical habitat for Wilson’s Phalaropes.
We are seeking support to cover essential expenses and educational materials to provide these life-changing opportunities to students. If you are interested in supporting the Experience Ambientalia program, you can do that here:
Top photo by Ryan Garrett.