The precedent-setting 1983 California Supreme Court Decision on Mono Lake and the Public Trust Doctrine is now available online (again)! A few years ago it had been available on the State's Website, but it disappeared. We've now posted it on the Mono Basin Clearinghouse!

Legal title: NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY et al., Petitioners, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF ALPINE COUNTY, Respondent; DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al., Real Parties in Interest 33 Cal.3d 419 S.F. No. 24368. Supreme Court of California. Feb 17, 1983.

Sarah Kimball is studying mechanisms that isolate species in hybrid zones. She is using Penstemon newberryi and P. davidsonii. In 2006, she studied the plants in low, middle, and high elevation gardens in Lee Vining Canyon.

View soils information from soil surveys. It takes a little practice getting used to the viewer, but pretty quickly you can generate a soil map for an area of interest of less than 10,000 acres. You can also see detailed descriptions for each soil map unit. Soils information is not available for many mountainous parts of the Mono Basin. As I write this, I see that I'm sitting in a building built on Watterson gravelly loamy sand.

2006 Water Year precipitation for Lee Vining was 22.67", or 160% of average.

September precipitation was zero (just like August). In general, June has the lowest average precipitation, and May and August are the months most likely to have zero precipitation. April, June, and July also have zero precipitation more than 20% of years.

November set a new official maximum temperature record of 75 degrees (unofficial internet weather summary says 71.4). The previous record was 71.

We have also moved data from prior to the 2003 installation of an instrument shelter to a separate page to avoid accidental misuse of the data. As noted above, there are still minor discrepancies between NOAA data and our internet data, but they were much larger prior to 2003.

Eared Grebe Surveys: No count in 2006 due to grebes leaving in early October and the Department of Fish and Game plane in Sacramento getting its windshield replaced. Anyone wishing to support a local backup plan for years like this (a few hundred dollars for chartering a plane, an SLR camera, 15 rolls of film, and a practiced volunteer) please contact the Mono Lake Committee. See http://www.monobasinresearch.org/research/boyd.htm

Surficial Deposits of the Mono Basin Watershed: Angela Jayko of the USGS is currently focusing her field research on the Mono Basin. Her research concerns a synthesis of the Quaternary evolution of the Mono Basin watershed. Study of this area will address larger tectonic issues concerning Pacific-North America Plate boundary propagation into the interior of the continent. And, address unresolved tectonic problems concerning evolution of the Sierra Nevada Frontal Fault and its link to the Walker Lane Belt.

A paper in The Condor, by Joseph R. Jehl Jr., 1985. Discusses the occurrence of white Eared Grebes.

We've started a list of Climate Change links on our links page. This is a temporary home, and soon we will give Climate Change its own category on the other pages of the site.

So far, links include:
California Climate Change Portal
Our Changing Climate: Assessing the Risks to California
California Climate Action Registry
Presentations (pdf) from the recent (Sept 2006) Third Annual California Climate Conference
National Phenology Network
PSW Energy and Fuel Conservation Initiative