I've added more photos to the 1976 Study 2006 Reunion page--thanks to Jeff Robins and Gayle Dana for sending them. Gayle also sent some photos of her 1980s brine shrimp research, including the infamous "burning boat".

ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE: AN ACCOUNT OF THE MAMMALS, BIRDS, REPTILES, AND AMPHIBIANS IN A CROSS-SECTION OF THE SIERRA NEVADA BY JOSEPH GRINNELL AND TRACY IRWIN STORER, 1924

Ecology, biodiversity, management, and restoration of aspen in the Sierra Nevada, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station

Chronology and Paleoclimate Records of the Late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation at Mono Lake, California
Susan Herrgesell Zimmerman, 2006, Columbia University

The Southern Sierra Nevada Drip and the Mantle Wind Direction Beneath the Southwestern United States
George Zandt, University of Arizona

Tom Gardali of PRBO and Jim Lowe of Cornell have revived the publication of the Breeding Bird Census in the online journal Bird Populations (edited by Dave DeSante and David Ainley). The BBC is an annual and long term breeding bird survey similar to the Christmas Count and Breeding Bird Survey in its longevity, standardization and national scope, but more in-depth as it presents true densities derived from several visits to a site in which observers map territorial individuals. Some nest data, weather, habitat data and some additional remarks are also included in the standard writeup. The census has not been published since 1995, but Bird Pops just reinstated the publication of the data by publishing years 2001 and 2002. In future years, they will backfill by publishing results from
1996 - 2000 censuses and 2003 - current censuses.

This gave PRBO the opportunity to publish their breeding bird density data for Rush, Lee Vining, Mill and Wilson Creeks for 2001 and 2002 (and they will do so through 2005).

Mono data is specifically presented in the table on page 93 and 95. And the specific writeups, by creek are found on pages 96 - 99 (2001) and pages 114 - 117 (2002).

Mono Lake Radiocarbon: The Mystery Deepens. Vol. 88 No. 12, 20 March 2007 EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union
Broecker, Wallace. This article isn't available at all to the public on AGU's Website, so let me know if you want me to email it to you. The article suggests there may be anthropogenic reasons for Mono Lake's radiocarbon mysteries.

California Temperatures on the Rise
NASA Earth Observatory

Twentieth Century Glacier Change in the Sierra Nevada, California
Hassan Basagic, Portland State University

Golondrinas de las Americas is a swallow project co-coordinated by David Winkler of Cornell University. We've added a photo and a link to the project Website.

Violet-green Swallow Study
Ben Winger, Cornell University

Sage Grouse Local Working Group Locator, a part of NBII's Great Basin Information Project, allows someone to quickly find contacts and information on local conservation planning efforts.

Intermountain West Coordinated Bird Monitoring Program
part of NBII's Great Basin Information Project

Microbial Fossilization Processes in Extreme Environments
Jack Farmer and Mike Thomas, NASA

Map of the Mono Lake Christmas Bird Count circle posted

Long term carbon accumulation in a cold desert: Role of shrub islands and soil moisture across a long chronosequence of shoreline dunes at Mono Lake, CA
M. I. Shuldman, J.H. Richards, Z.T. Aanderud. Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources University of California, Davis

Relationships between United States Federal land managers and surrounding communities; 19th and early 20th century support of US National Parks by civic and corporate advertisers; the role of non-profit partners funding of US National Parks.
Chris Lever, UC Berkeley

Detailed Area Plant List for Mono Basin, Mono County, California. While this list is not complete, it is still very useful, being pulled from reputable and varied sources. Good location and source information on each record.

Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Data Access
View original field notes and specimen collections, including the Grinnell surveys of 100 years ago!

Video of amoeba gobbling algae cells in Mono Lake (on YouTube)

The Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District has an FTP site where you can download meteorology data from 2000-2006. Available sites include Lee Vining and Simis (NE shore).

USEPA has Mono Basin water quality data available for download. Sites included are 2 Lee Vining Creek, 2 Rush Creek, 1 Parker Creek and 1 Mill Creek.

USGS also has water quality data available. We were unable to link directly to Mono Basin stations but the California page provides a good starting point.

Our explanations page for DWP's real-time hydrologic data page has been updated for the April 1-Sept. 30 2007 period. Runoff is expected to be 52% of average (the first officially "Dry" year since 1994). Dry year minimum flows are listed and no Stream Restoration Flows are required this year.

December 2006 had a high wind gust of 72 mph, highest since 87 and 75 mph gusts in December 2005 (which was a new record and the highest since a 74 mph gust in 1998). December precipitation was 1.22 inches, less than 50% of average.

January 12-13 2007 had the first negative low (-3) and the first high in the teens (15) since Jan 14, 1997 (-2, 15). In the 9 years prior to the 1997 occurrence, this happened 5 times--but only twice in the last 10 years.

February was the warmest and windiest since 2002.

March was the warmest since 2004 and had the slowest average windspeed since 1998.

October to March had 48% of average precipitation and 50% of average snowfall. It was the 4th driest winter on record. April 1st Mono Basin snowpack is 47% of average--the lowest since 1990.

Piezometer readings for Rush and Lee Vining Creeks from 1995-2006. On Lee Vining Creek, the C1 piezometer was flooded (for the first time since 1997) as a newly forming channel began flowing just upstream. On Rush Creek, Piezometer 4 shows the increasing confinement of Channel 10 over the years (as the duration of flooding decreases), however still records flooding each year (except in 2004). 2007 starts off with a high water table, but due to the dry year will be the first year without a peak flow--and combined with upstream channel rewaterings, there should be some interesting readings.

Eastern Sierra Interagency Land Tenure Project - examining land ownership adjustment opportunities.

National Atlas Raw Data Download - If you don't have GIS, click on "Map Maker" to use an excellent Web-browser-based tool. If you are susceptible to losing track of time while using Google Earth, then here is another place to spend countless hours--viewing meaningful GIS maps. If you are interested in the types of geographic data available for viewing (such as butterfly and bat ranges, amphibian distributions, invasive species ranges, and much much more), you could be here a while.

National Inventory of Dams - Information on 79,000 dams in the US. I explored this site two months ago but it is now restricted to government users. A public site (I haven't explored) is now available.

USDA Geospatial Data Gateway

NRCS Soil Data Mart - works well in conjunction with the Web Soil Surveys mentioned in a previous update.

USGS Earth Explorer - Download aerial photo mosaics and more!

USGS National Aerial Photography Program - more ways to get aerial photos

USGS Seamless Data Distribution System - download DEMs

Historical Landmarks in the Mono Basin and Mono County
Read the text of selected historical markers: Lee Vining, Navy Beach, Mono Inn, and Bodie.

Climate Choices: Global Warming and Climate Change in California

EPA STORET environmental data system

River Restoration at UC Berkeley