Green grass with fluffy seed heads lines the shore of a lake, tufa formations are in the water offshore.

Category: Protection

Wild horse activity at South Tufa

Last winter, wild horse activity sharply increased at and around South Tufa, with upward of 100 horses regularly seen on the trail to Mono Lake, near Navy Beach, and at the freshwater spring along the shoreline. Wild horses used to…

Drought worsens at Mono Lake

Drought forces reduced diversions, causes problems for nesting birds and air quality Mono Lake is suffering from a severe drought. The lake has dropped more than three feet in elevation since 2019, exposing more lakebed. Dust storms have become more…

Raising Mono Lake requires a new plan

Stream diversions holding back lake rise On the wall of the Mono Lake Committee Information Center & Bookstore is a vertical blue tube representing Mono Lake’s level, with a yellow sliding arrow pointing to the present-day surface elevation. It is…

Protecting California Gulls at Mono Lake’s low levels

Each autumn Mono Lake Committee staff optimistically hope for a wet and snowy winter, but cautiously prepare for drought. Last fall, drought contingency planning included the possibility of re-deploying the mile-long temporary electrified fence to protect California Gulls; no small…

The 2022 Mono Lake level forecast

Each spring the Mono Lake Committee’s team of modelers and Mono Basin hydrology experts uses the lake level on April 1 together with the Mono Basin snowpack numbers and similar-year and other relevant hydrological statistical data to produce the Mono…

California Gulls catch a break

Each spring tens of thousands of California Gulls migrate inland to their nesting grounds on Mono Lake’s islets. Because of the lake’s current low level, the landbridge to the islets is once again becoming exposed, which increases the threat of…