Long Live Lake Mono

Bumper stickers riddled this guardrail at an outlook to an overview of Lake Mono near Lee Vining, California.

 

Some interesting background on the “Long Live Lake Mono Bumper Sticker” from Wikipedia: “In order to provide resources for the growing Los Angeles area, water was diverted from the Owens River. In 1941 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power extended an aqueduct system into the Mono Basin So much water was diverted that evaporation soon exceeded inflow and the surface level of Mono Lake fell rapidly. By 1982 the lake was reduced to 37,688 acres (152.5 km²) having lost 31 percent of its 1941 surface area. As a result alkaline sands and once-submerged tufa towers became exposed and Negit Island became landbridged exposing the nests of gulls to predators (chiefly coyotes) and forcing the breeding colony to abandon the site.

 

In 1976, University of California, Davis graduate student David Gaines earned his master's degree studying the Mono Lake ecosystem and was instrumental in alerting the public of the effects of the lower water level. Gaines formed the Mono Lake Committee in 1978 and joined with the Audubon Society to fight a now famous court battle to protect Mono Lake through state public trust laws. While these efforts have resulted in positive change the surface level is still below historic levels and exposed shorelines are a source of significant alkali dust during periods of high wind.

 

Owens Lake, which once sustained a healthy ecosystem, is now a dry lake bed during dry years due to water diversion. Mono Lake was spared this fate when the California State Water Resources Control Board issued an order to protect Mono Lake and its tributary streams on September 28, 1994. Since that time, the lake level has steadily risen. In 1941 the surface level was at 6,417 feet (1,956 m) above sea level and as of August 2006 it was at 6,385 feet (1,946 m).[3] The lake level of 6,392 feet (1,948 m) above sea level is the goal, a goal made more difficult during years of drought in the American West.”

 

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Uploaded on July 28, 2008
Taken on July 13, 2008