The Mono Basin Outdoor Education Center (OEC) is the hub of our program that links folks from Los Angeles to the source of their water here in the Mono Basin. During week-long trips participants walk along the shore of Mono…
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…
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…
It felt like a grim spring here at Mono Lake. It was too dry. No snow to speak of in January, February, or March. Meager storms in April that barely dampened ground that had been drying out for months. It…
During the 2021 runoff year (April 1, 2021–March 31, 2022), the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) was allowed to export up to 16,000 acre-feet of stream diversions from the Mono Basin because Mono Lake was above 6380…
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 Mono Lake Kutzadika’a Tribe is currently working on a number of projects aimed at reviving the uses of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of the Indigenous peoples of the Mono Basin. These efforts confront the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from…
Last summer, longtime Mono Lake Committee members donated a home and surrounding land to bolster the Committee’s scientific research and education programs. Located northeast of Mono Lake, the house and 320-acre property are perfectly positioned to serve as a home…
Winter in the Mono Basin has more dark hours than light, chillingly cold air, and a silence so profound it feels physical. It is either a time of rest, of moving slowly, of torpor to reduce the toll simply existing…
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…