Mono Basin fall color update
The fall colors are just starting to appear in the Eastern Sierra! Here in the Mono Basin we still have mostly green leaves with a few hints of gold. Mono County Tourism has classified Mono Basin groves as either “0-10%…
Elin, Communications Coordinator
Lee Vining Centennial celebration, August 29
The tiny town of Lee Vining turns a whopping 100 years old this year! Join all 400 residents and many thousands more fans of Lee Vining to celebrate at a community fair in Hess Park on Saturday, August 29, 2026.…
Summer 2026 Mono Lake Newsletter
A note from the editor: This issue of the Mono Lake Newsletter feels to me like the whole Mono Lake story distilled into one publication. It’s a familiar story to anyone who knows Mono Lake. It starts with the lake…
DWP diverts Mono Lake’s water non-stop
During a typical spring in the Mono Basin, the export of water to Los Angeles stops on March 31, the end of the runoff year, and water destined for Mono Lake is allowed to flow down the streams to the…
2026 Andrea Lawrence Award honors Marina Castellino
On a spring evening in early May, Eastern Sierra friends, community members, high school teachers, and local students gathered at Mammoth Mountain’s Parallax Restaurant to celebrate passionate engagement in community and the land, and this year’s Andrea Lawrence Award recipient,…
Winter & Spring 2026 Mono Lake Newsletter
As I write this note for the Mono Lake Newsletter, winter feels like a distant memory. Two weeks into an astonishing heat wave, the aspen trees are leafing out, the desert peach is starting to bloom, and Mono Lake’s tributary…
April 1 Mono Lake level: 6,382.75 feet above sea level
Annual lake level measurement Yesterday staff from the Mono Lake Committee and Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) met at the shore of Mono Lake to cooperatively read the lake level gauge, as is customary at the start…
Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner, May 1, 2026: Tickets now on sale
Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner, May 1, 2026: Tickets now on sale We hope you’ll join us for our annual celebration of fellow community members who embody the Andrea Lawrence Award spirit of passionate engagement in community and the land. Andrea…
Wilson’s Phalaropes advance toward endangered species protection
Last week Wilson’s Phalaropes, the small shorebirds that rely on saline lakes like Mono Lake, inched toward protection under the Endangered Species Act. The US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a “positive 90-day finding,” which advances the birds to…
Time to get tough and finish the Right Thing
This essay, written by Marc Del Piero, appears in the 2026 Mono Lake Calendar. “The price for the protection of water rights is vigilance.” —Attributed to Henry Miller of the Miller-Lux Ranch Now is the time that all residents of…