There are people who stand tall in our lives. People who are honorable, courageous, and kind. Who try to do the right thing in all that they do. Who speak out when something wrong is happening.

And by being who they are, they leave this world a better place.

That is what Elden Vestal did. He gave to California a great gift--the opportunity to restore streams and fisheries in this state that have been devastated by water diversions. It was a gift born out of his integrity as a citizen and a professional fish biologist. And it is a story that--if you have not heard it--you should know because it is a shining example of how much of a difference one individual can make in this world.

I had the privilege of getting to know Elden and Ethel Vestal as part of the effort to save Mono Lake. Elden played a critical role both at the very beginning and at the very end of that battle.

Elden was one of the State's first professional fish and game biologists. He worked in the Mono Basin from 1939 to 1950. Elden knew Mono Lake's streams intimately and used a fly rod frequently--something he called "one of the tools of the trade."

Elden witnessed the construction of the aqueduct in the Mono Basin by the City of Los Angeles, and the start up of water diversions. In 1941, Rush Creek--the largest stream in the Mono Basin and an extraordinary German brown trout fishery--had been reduced to a trickle of water. So Elden wrote a letter of protest to the City of Los Angeles, asking that the City leave some water in the stream to support the fisheries as State law required.

For his trouble, Elden received from Los Angeles a pointed suggestion that he talk to his superiors at DFG, and his superiors told him to mind his own business. In 1950, Elden was reassigned to another district. And LA continued its water diversions unabated from the Mono Basin.

The rest would be history if other citizens had not stepped forward--this time in the form of the Mono Lake Committee--to try to save Mono Lake. Lawsuits were filed and chased through every court in the State. One of the cases, led by the Committee's ally California Trout, challenged the legality of LA's water diversions from the Mono streams. Ruling in the late 1980s, the courts agreed with Elden Vestal's opinion from 40 years earlier--Los Angeles never had the right to destroy the Mono Basin fisheries by taking all of the water out of the streams.

But the pivotal moment in this lawsuit came when the question was raised about what should be done to undo the damage to the streams caused by the City's diversions. Los Angeles' entire legal argument rested on the premise that no one really knew what the streams and fisheries had been like prior to the start of LA's water diversions.

Wrong. Elden Vestal knew.

So in the end I believe that it was fated that our attorneys would one day show up at Elden's home--actually, more accurately, at Elden's garage.

When Elden first spoke to our attorneys, he allowed as he might have some information that could help document the pre-diversion conditions of the streams. So the attorneys were not prepared for what they ultimately saw in Elden's garage: stacks upon stacks of dusty boxes holding Elden's copious notes, records, and photographs on the Mono Basin streams. He had kept everything--except, as Elden later apologized--his daily records.

When I first heard about this gold mine of information, my immediate thought was that his wife, Ethel, was a saint. In this day, who would be willing to keep--even in their garage--boxes upon boxes of documents that were almost half a century old?

Our attorneys asked Elden if he had been back to the Mono Basin since 1950 to see the changes in the streams. Elden said no. So he journeyed back to Mono Lake in 1990, his first visit in forty years. And he wept. Let me read to you what he said on the witness stand: "I wasn't prepared for what I found. In all my years as a fisheries biologist I've never seen a scene that was so devastating. The terrible incision, the frightful effects of flooding, erosion. And I thought ... it took thousands of years to build this habitat but just a short time in the life of man to destroy all this. I was a little choked."

Elden became the star witness both in the courtroom and later in the State Water Resources Control Board proceedings. Through Elden, the judge and the Water Board learned about the wonderful resources that had once existed in the Mono Basin and what Mono Lake's streams needed to undo the damage caused by decades of LA's diversions.

In the end, Elden said it best. On the day of the Mono Lake decision in September, 1994, Elden testified one last time before the State Water Resources Control Board. He said: "I've been waiting more than fifty years for this moment ... The City of Los Angeles was a tremendous political power, and challenging them seemed like grabbing for a bite out of the moon."

Elden's legacy only begins at Mono Lake. There are streams and fisheries up and down the state that have suffered because the same law that was not properly enforced at Mono Lake was not enforced elsewhere in California. Just this summer, a California Appellate Court ruled that the San Joaquin River must be re-watered. And in one of the great ironies of life, Elden--once again--had been the star witness in the case. The reason? The district Elden transferred to when he left Mono Lake in 1950 was the Friant District. There he witnessed the same state law being violated, as the operation of the new Friant Dam transformed the San Joaquin River into a cobblestone wash. While Elden did not testify directly on the witness stand, his notes and declarations have been central to the case.

In interviews following the Mono Lake decision, Elden would be quoted as saying, "It is hard to believe that notes and records and photographs and so on would be of some value more than half a century hence. It is extremely gratifying to have worked toward giving something back to the State of California."

It is we who are grateful to you, Elden, and to you, Ethel, and to your family. For your courage, for your caring, for your integrity in standing up for what is right. You have given all of us in California a great gift. And the sound of the flowing waters in California's streams is the most fitting memorial to the man who made all of this possible.