From: Greg Reis
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 11:10 PM
Subject: Mono Basin Clearinghouse Updates for 7/22/01
Dear Friends,
LINKS TO MONO BASIN EIR REORGANIZED
Thanks to the help of MLC summer intern Moss Templeton, we've reorganized the
links to the Mono Basin EIR to be much more user friendly. Now, instead of
guessing which volume might contain the information you want, All the chapter
titles are listed in a drop down menu under the volume. Selecting a chapter from
the menu takes you to a listing of its contents and tables. See http://www.monobasinresearch.org/onlinereports/mbeir.htm
CURRENT RESEARCH
We've added some current research to the list found at http://www.monobasinresearch.org/research/,
including bird studies, an economic study of protected areas, and some
fascinating graphs of brine shrimp abundance and salinity gradients in Mono Lake
courtesy of Bob Jellison. The Summer 2001 Mono Lake Newsletter discusses Bob's
research on meromixis in more detail, as does the profile of meromixis (just
updated) found here: http://www.monobasinresearch.org/timelines/meromixis.htm.
LINKS
Several new links can be found at http://www.monobasinresearch.org/links/,
including:
A excellent Website on Aplodontia rufa (Mountain Beaver) by Dale Steele,
including his account of his Mono Basin sighting A USGS site on Sage Grouse and
shrubsteppe management The Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation
NEW SERVER
We recently moved all of the Mono Lake Committee -maintained Websites to a new
server, which has vastly more space than our old one. This means we have a lot
more room for online reports and studies! Please e-mail any Mono Basin -oriented
reports and studies you would like posted.
Unfortunately, we now have to provide ourselves with the same level of tech
support that came with our site hosting in the past, and we've had a few
problems configuring the new server. Big thanks to Russell Bell for volunteering
his help with the UNIX programming, sometimes late into the evening. We don't
have all the bugs worked out yet--you might notice that email addresses @monobasinresearch.org
still aren't working. Please e-mail instead until we get these
problems fixed.
DATABASE OF STUDIES
Cole Hawkins is once again volunteering his time this summer to help us enter
the Mono Lake Research Library into a database. Once entered and merged with
LADWP's list of studies, we will allow access to it through this Website. We
hope to have a preliminary (or if we are lucky, final) version available before
winter. We intend to make this database fully searchable, with a physical
location field so you know how to find the reports your searches come up with.
SIERRA NEVADA BIGHORN SHEEP UPDATE
We have not posted this on the Clearinghouse, but following is a July 13 update
on the status of the Lee Vining herd from John Wehausen:
On June 20, Sally Miller was on top of Mt. Warren and saw 3 ewes and 2 lambs
below her on the north side. Tim Taylor and Jeff Davis found them still there 2
days later along with 8 rams nearby (8 rams had been in Lee Vining Canyon for a
while in spring). The question has been how those ewes related to the ewe and
female lamb seen on Mt. Warren in 1999. Last year they were never seen, but some
dropping suggested that they still existed.
On July 10, we found a total of 10 rams in lamb-ewe basin (7 + 3) and very
recent (1-day old) sign of the ewes and lambs in the Mt. Gilcrest chute that
drops to the mouth of Lake Canyon. On July 11 we found 2 ewes, 2 lambs, 1
yearling ram, and 1 2-yr. old ram on Mt. Scowden above Lake Canyon. This group
matched what was there last year with the addition of 2 new lambs; thus the Mt.
Warren sheep appear to be descendents of the 1999 ewe. The simplest explanation
is that his ewe had a female lamb last year and is one of the 3 ewes (a
yearling). Nobody has looked at them well enough to see if one is a yearling,
but when we collected pellets for genotyping from their site on June 26, there
was one pile that strongly suggested a yearling, and it has come up female in
the lab.
What this all boils down to is that we can currently account for 21 sheep
between Lee Vining and Lundy Canyons. Of the sheep we knew in 1999, we are still
missing 2 rams, which could be mortalities over the past couple of years, but
may also still exist. This situation is a lot less bleak than it was two years
ago. I thought you and your various associates would take some delight in this
information. We hope to get to Mt. Gibbs near the end of the month. John
UNSUBSCRIBE
If you would like to unsubscribe to this monthly-or-less-often email summarizing
what's new on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse, email . Those that
would like to subscribe should also send a message to this same address. Please
note that I will be gone for a Living Lakes Conference until August 7, so don't
expect replies until then.
Thanks for your interest in Mono Basin research,
Greg
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Greg Reis, Information Specialist, (760) 647-6386 x41
Mono Lake Committee, 647-6595, fax: 647-6377
Mono Lake: www.monolake.org
Living Lakes: www.livinglakes.org
Lee Vining Chamber: www.leevining.com
Mono Basin Clearinghouse:
www.monobasinresearch.org
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