Mono Lake: From Dead Sea to Environmental Treasure

Introduction

xi Introduction M ono Lake,” observed Berkeley ornithologist and Mono Lake Committee cofounder David Winkler in the 1981 film Water Wars: The Battle for Mono Lake, “is really one of the last untouched ecosystems in the state.” Winkler’s comment suggests an image of a region that has somehow escaped mankind’s polluting hands, a pure wilderness area known only to the gulls and grebes that use the lake area for their nesting grounds. In actuality the Mono Lake Basin region of California, and Mono Lake itself, has been observed, exploited, and advertised since it was first discovered by explorers in the 1830s. The historical record of the lake reveals that in the past hundred years Mono Lake has had hungry prospectors taking birds and their eggs, entrepreneurs promoting the promise of Mono Lake oil and drilling wells on Paoha Island, the U.S. Navy exploding bombs in a series of underwater seismic tests, and businessmen unsuccessfully attempting to establish a commercially profitable marina. People have drowned in Mono Lake, and several airplanes have crashed in or near it. Goats have been pastured on Paoha Island. For decades, the Fourth of July has been celebrated with fireworks exploding over the lake. At various times, with little to moderate success, people have tried to extract mineral salts from the lake waters and to harvest the lake’s brine shrimp. While people have remarked on the scenic grandeur of Mono Lake, the record is clear on the attempts to exploit the resources of the area for commercial profit. Mono Lake is demonstrably not an isolated refuge for wildlife, and the present concern for its ecological values dates only to the early 1970s. Mono Lake was the subject of a major dispute between the city of Los Angeles and an array of environmentalist groups, led by the National “ xii Introduction Audubon Society and the Mono Lake Committee. The city maintained that the waters of the tributary streams emptying into Mono Lake were indispensable for supplying water and power to the three million residents of Los Angeles; the Mono Lake Committee argued that diversion of the streams from the lake caused a recession in the lake level to a point where the ecological balance of the Mono Basin was threatened. City projections of further reductions in the lake level were totally unacceptable to the Mono Lake Committee. The battle fought between the Mono Lake Committee and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) through the 1980s and early 1990s in many ways resembled the fight between David and Goliath. Mono Lake has no outlet, and were there no diversions by the city there would still be no stabilized level, for the lake does fluctuate according to evaporation and the runoff from winter snow. Given a hot summer and a poor snowfall, Mono Lake’s level would drop, whereas a cool summer and a heavy snowpack would see it rise. Geologists measure time in millions of years, and by that standard Mono Lake’s famous tufa towers. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Introduction xiii the human habitation in the Mono Lake Basin is but a blink in the eye of geological time. Yet in the 180 years or so since explorers met American Indians at Mono Lake, the region has experienced a number of human endeavors—mining, oil wells, farms and ranches, a few small settlements, the founding of the small town of Lee Vining, and the growth of resorts and recreational facilities. In marked contrast to the urban areas of the state, especially in Southern California, Mono County has often demonstrated appreciation of its heritage, as might be expected of a region where many residents carry the same names as those of the pioneering generation and the place names on the map. Within modest financial limits, the county supports the Mono County Museum, jammed with the memorabilia of a century of county history and offering a trip through time in its display of photographs , furniture, office equipment, and farm machinery of a bygone day. Historic sites are also noted, with markers placed by the California Historical Society, the Native Sons of the Golden West, and by E Clampus Vitus, a satirical fraternity of gold-rush times resurrected in the 1930s and Mono Lake and its famous tufa towers. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. xiv Introduction now with chapters throughout the...