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

Tag: Mono Lake Newsletter

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…

Summer 2022 Mono Lake Newsletter now online

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…

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…

Traditional burn in the works at Parker Creek

The Mono Lake Kootzaduka’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…

Naturalist notes

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…

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…