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Mono Lake's South Tufa Reserve. LA Observed file photo by Judy Graeme.
Back when the legal wars were being fought over Mono Lake, a key environmental reality was that a lower water level allowed coyotes to cross a land bridge to reach bird nests on Negit Island. As soon as a judge ruled that Los Angeles was limited in how much fresh water it could divert from streams feeding Mono Lake, the lake level started to rise and the coyotes' route to the eggs was covered. But now the drought is asserting itself as the ultimate authority on what happens to the brine lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range, north of Mammoth Lakes.
Dramatically less Sierra runoff has been reaching Mono Lake, and the water level has dropped to 6,379 feet in elevation above sea level. That's bad for the Los Angeles DWP, because at 6,377 feet, the state says all water diversions from the Mono Lake Basin must stop. That threshold could be reached at the next water level reading. But around the scenic but receding lake, it's already bad. There's more exposed shoreline for winds to kick up clouds of alkaline dust — and the old land bridge is resurfacing.
Louis Sahagun of the LA Times was up there to size up things:
Of particular concern is further exposure of a land bridge that coyotes could cross to access the second-largest California gull colony in the state. That passageway to Negit Island and nearby islets is surfacing, leaving the eggs and chicks vulnerable.
"I'll be terrified if the lake level drops another few feet," said Kristie Nelson, a biologist who has been conducting research on Mono Lake's gull population since 2004. "In years past, coyotes have been known to swim across 200 yards of water to get to the gull eggs."[skip]
The controversy over the city's diversions of water from Mono's feeder streams is one of California's longest-running environmental battles.
In April, the DWP reduced its annual water exports from 16,000 acre-feet to 4,500 acre-feet, when gauges recorded the surface level at 6,379 feet in elevation.
I wrote back in 1989 about the activists who defeated Los Angeles to save Mono Lake. And went kayaking on the lake for a travel story ten years later.
Previously on LA Observed:
Still believe the California drought isn't real?
A sober look at the environment in 2014
Mono Lake tufa to stay open
Mono Lake bacteria may be nothing special
