On Tuesday, November 11, Eastern Sierra students from two counties participated in the Experience Ambientalia program for World Fisheries Day. In partnership with the Mono Lake Committee, local high school teachers, Beaver’s Sporting Goods, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and our colleagues at Laguna Mar Chiquita in northern Argentina, these students took a tour of the Mono Basin extension of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and learned about the importance of fish in our community.
Students learned how water from the Mono Basin since 1941 has been diverted and sent more than 330 miles south to Los Angeles and how the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) must manage the water to balance ecological needs in the Mono Basin instead of exclusively delivering water to the city—a situation that is currently out of balance as Mono Lake remains nearly ten feet below its mandated healthy level. A key focus of the tour was how the presence of fish below DWP’s dams in the 1980s helped catalyze efforts to save and restore Mono Lake and its tributary streams.
After the educational introduction to the day, Brad Beaver of Beaver’s Sporting Goods and Aaron Sturtevant of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shared the work that goes into supporting the fisheries of the Mono Basin. They explained the fish-stocking process in local streams and emphasized the economic importance of fishing for communities across Mono County. They also reviewed recreational fishing rules and regulations and shared best practices to help students support their local fisheries. Finally, Brad, Aaron, and the adult chaperones taught each student how to fish at Ellery Lake.
The day concluded at the Lee Vining Creek diversion pond, where participants cleaned up the streambanks, removing trash and old fishing line to improve the habitat. The students who picked up the most trash received new fishing poles.
Students from both hemispheres are now carrying out parallel environmental stewardship and education projects at their respective lakes. For World Fisheries Day, the Argentina team invited wildlife biologists to speak with students about fish and the tributary streams that feed Laguna Mar Chiquita. They wrapped up the outing by sharing a new curriculum they developed that highlights the fish of the Laguna Mar Chiquita basin.
In December, students will connect virtually with their counterparts across the hemisphere before the program takes a brief hiatus in spring.
About the Experience Ambientalia program
Experience Ambientalia is a community group that connects young people to their home ecosystems, introduces them to sister saline lakes across the Western Hemisphere, and encourages environmental stewardship. It was 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. The program came to Mono Lake in 2022 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.
Top photo by Ryan Garrett.