
F. Bruce Dodge, lead attorney for the Mono Lake Committee and Audubon in the Mono Lake Public Trust lawsuit and State Water Board proceedings, passed away in July 2024. Bruce successfully argued that California’s Public Trust doctrine requires Los Angeles’ water rights to include requirements for Mono Lake’s protection, a foundation of the effort to save Mono Lake.
Bruce began his 45 years of involvement with Mono Lake back in 1979. A partner at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, Bruce launched a pro bono case that argued the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) was violating the state constitution with its water diversions because of a lengthy roster of impacts that conflicted with the state’s obligation to protect the Public Trust at Mono Lake.
It was a novel argument that required not just legal acumen but also mastering a vast amount of biological, scientific, hydrologic, and water engineering information. The case took Bruce and Mono Lake to the California Supreme Court, and in 1983 the Public Trust argument he made carried the day and transformed water law in the process.
“The public trust is an affirmation of the duty of the state to protect the people’s common heritage of streams, lakes, marshlands and tidelands. The human and environmental uses of Mono Lake—uses protected by the public trust doctrine—deserve to be taken into account. Such uses should not be destroyed because the state mistakenly thought itself powerless to protect them.”
California Supreme Court
Bruce had won the principle, but the Public Trust decision revealed that chapters of the story had yet to be written. How much water would go to the lake to protect the Public Trust? Bruce led the charge on these next steps, which would prove to take decades.

The Committee was central to the legal work, and we collaborated as co-clients with valuable allies at Audubon. Key Audubon leaders at the time were Dan Taylor and George Peyton, who recalled, “Bruce was such a champion for the lake. I appreciated his drive and determination every step along the way. There were some tough times and decisions that we faced during those days. Bruce’s voice and resolve never wavered.”
As the years of Mono Lake work went by, one interesting result was that Bruce became entwined with a bunch of radical scientists and scrappy advocates—not the typical crowd for a top-tier law firm partner at the time. Trail mix and backwoods idealism mixed with pinstripes, writer Gray Brechin described it.
Hydrogeographer Peter Vorster worked with Bruce and the science team for decades. Peter recalled, “Bruce shepherded an evolving assemblage of Committee staff, a slew of experts, many of whom of whom were still in graduate school, as well as a team of MoFo attorneys, and allied government and CalTrout attorneys who came in later in the case. All this came with some unusual travel, lodging, and meeting arrangements. In 1989 a large house—a communal crash pad—was secured for the multiple hearings in Judge Finney’s South Lake Tahoe courtroom. Bruce adapted to communal living and was a good sport with the arrangements. He agreed to enjoy his after-court cigar and drink outside and food was brought in for group meals. The attorneys and a few of the experts got their own bedrooms, while many of us spread out our sleeping pads on the floor. Bruce made sure that the experts and attorneys needed for the morning preparation were up at 5:00am; pajamas were approved apparel for preparing exhibits.”
In 1994, to implement the Public Trust doctrine, the Mono Lake legal effort moved to the State Water Resources Control Board. Years of environmental studies and extensive briefing laid the groundwork for 46 days of hearings in Sacramento. Bruce charted the path through the voluminous material, guiding the decision makers to what mattered. He enjoyed the opportunity to highlight the Supreme Court’s Public Trust decision—his earlier victory—as grounds for action.
Committee policy director at the time, Ilene Mandelbaum, shared that “Bruce was the expert at precisely calling out DWP’s ‘diversions’ of the facts as a well-financed ‘side show.’ His closing summary statements are gems of succinct and witty eloquence.”
After the momentous State Water Board decision established a mandatory lake level to protect the Public Trust resources of the lake, Bruce continued to work closely with the Committee team of staff and scientists to ensure implementation of the stream and lake restoration requirements.

I feel fortunate that I had an opportunity to work with Bruce in the years after the State Water Board decision. His early-morning work ethic still inspires me—he’d have hours of accomplishments completed and be waiting at 8:00am, often impatiently, with comments on the most recent document.
Bruce’s passions extended beyond the courtroom. He was an enthusiastic backpacker and a skilled fly fisherman, pursuing trout in the rivers near his cabin in the Sierra Nevada. Reflecting his deep appreciation for the region’s history and natural beauty, Bruce was also an avid collector of materials relating to the high Sierra, amassing an important historical collection of original manuscripts, maps, first editions, photographs, paintings, and ephemera.
A skilled bridge player, Bruce was adept at winning his lunch money on his daily ferry commute. He was a crossword puzzle expert, completing difficult cryptics to the end of his life, and enjoyed playing gin rummy and hearts with friends and family. Bruce was a devoted father and sports fan who never missed his children’s, and later his grandchildren’s, sporting events.
When I last spoke with Bruce, I was seeking advice on our current predicament of the lake level mandate being unfulfilled, and overdue. We discussed the situation, and I remember being struck by Bruce’s simple clarity of vision. Looking back, this was emblematic of his approach across four and a half decades: turn a vast amount of information into a simple, common-sense case. Communicate the problem—and a solution—at a high level. Keep it simple. Keep moving forward. Persist.
Forty-plus years later we are still implementing Bruce Dodge’s Mono Lake Public Trust victory, which first changed the legal landscape of water law, and then changed the conditions of Los Angeles’ water rights, halting the destruction of Mono Lake. Now—a bit too slowly, I know he’d observe—Bruce’s success is becoming realized out in the landscape as the lake rises and recovers. And yet it is only 50% of the way to the State Water Board’s required level, and a new hearing to address the matter looms.
Thanks to Bruce Dodge, Mono Lake survives today. At his memorial, his family shared that Bruce considered his work for Mono Lake and the Public Trust doctrine to be “by far” the most consequential accomplishments of his career. Here at the Committee we recommit that, in memory of Bruce, we will get up early, get quickly to the point, and work hard to resolve that unfinished Mono Lake business.

Top photo by Elin Ljung.