Eastern Sierra Water Watchers

Check back soon for more information about Friends of the Inyo's citizen based water quality monitoring program.

Join us on April 12 for New Monitor Training! Check the Calendar [4] for more information.

Contact Laura at 760-873-6500 or laura@friendsoftheinyo.org [5] for more information.

Inyo National Forest Route Inventory

[6]Defining the Routes Less Graveled

On a cold February day in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed Executive Order 11644 - Use of Off-Road Vehciles on the Publc Lands [7]"to establish policies and provide for procedures that will ensure that
the use of off-road vehicles on public lands will be controlled and
directed so as to protect the resources of those lands, to promote the
safety of all users of those lands, and to minimize conflicts among the
various uses of those lands." Above all, this Executive Order directed all federal land management agencies to designate "specific areas and trails on public lands on which
the use of off-road vehicles may be permitted, and areas in which the
use of off-road vehicles may not be permitted." The Order directed that these route designations:

1. "Minimize damage to soil, watershed, vegetation, or other resources of the public lands;
2. minimize harassment of wildlife or significant disruption of wildlife habitat; and
3. minimize conflicts between off-road vehicle use and other existing or
   proposed recreational uses of the same or neighboring public lands, and
   to ensure the compatibility of such uses with existing conditions in
   populated areas, taking into account noise and other factors"

EO 11644 set a target date of August 1972 for these legal route designations to be in place.

A Chance for a workable travel system

Today, thirty five years and an additional 93 million Americans later, the United States Forest Service is finally embarking on a natiowide Travel Management [8]process to desingate a legally-compliant, sustainable and manageable system of roads and trails for motorized use across our public Forest lands.

Locally the Inyo National Forest began thier Travel Management process (aka Route Designation) [9] in early 2002 with a cadre of motrocycle, quad and truck based mappers criss-crossing the Forest to inventory every road, spur, rut, single-track and route out there. Maps and extensive background information are available through the Forest here [10].

This Inventory of over 3600 miles of routes was made available to the public in early 2005 with the goal of gathering as much public input as possible to ensure the final designated system provided continued motorized access to favorite desintations, such as campsites, trailheads, rockhounding outcrops, and fishing holes, as well as respected the health of the land, local wildlife and the Forest's ability to actively manage motorized recreation.

Getting out on the Ground

To play a useful role in this ongoing public process and provide meaningful comments on the Route Designation Plan as it is being developed, Friends of the Inyo has organized volunteers and paid staff to extensively ground truth the existing route network. Our goal has always been to ensure that the final designated system is a truely manageable system that gets us all where we want to go while protecting water quality, solitude, private property and wildlife habitat. Detailed maps and photos of our field work from 2005 can be found here. [11]

Copies of our recently submitted comments containing overall and route specific recommendations and rational for over 200 routes is available here [12]. To get a copy of the photo index for these comments click here [13]. (caution - this is a 7mb file and therefore too large to place on this page).

If there are places you care about that need help, specific routes you want to see added to the system or restored, or to share any other specific input, email Paul McFarland at paulmc@friendsoftheinyo.org [14] or call 760-873-6400. We are happy to make large scale maps from all stages of this process available to anyone by appointment at our Bishop or Lee Vining offices.

 UPDATE - The Collaborative Alternative Team 

Throughout the month of March 2008, a broad group of Eastern Sierra citizens met in open meetings to see if there could be some collaborative agreement on specific routes. Please click below to view the Collaborative Alternative Team's Statement of Findings (pdf file) signed by 19 folks who care about the future of our public lands. 

Fish Slough Volunteer Patrol

[15]

Standing against the blue sky, there are rock formations whose curvatures resemble works of abstract sculpture. Looking in the stream, there are silvery-blue Owens pupfish darting through the high grasses. Walking through the alkali meadows, there are rare plants unlike those found throughout the rest of the Owens Valley.

This is Fish Slough, a desert wetland. Wait a minute... a wetland in a desert? Can such a thing exist?

Located 5 miles north of Bishop on the boundary of the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts, Fish Slough is an island oasis, a rare area where water flows across the desert. Many species have come to depend on the Fish Slough area for a source of water; not only is it home to the endangered Owens Pupfish and the threatened Fish Slough Milk-vetch, it is also a key area for migrating birds. Unfortunately, today this ecosystem faces many threats from illegal off-road vehicle use, cattle grazing, and invasive species.

The story of the Owens Pupfish: This aggressive, 2-inch fish used to be found throughout the Owens River, from Mammoth Lakes to Lone Pine. Since, historically, there were no predatory fish to be found in the Pupfishs' habitat, the naïve pupfish was an easy target when game fish were later introduced. As water was diverted away from the Owens River, and as larger game fish began to feast on the pupfish, the Owens pupfish's habitat shrunk to a few pools in Fish Slough.

By 1969, they could only be found in one pool, a pool which was slowly evaporating away in the August heat. If it had not been for Phil Pister, a biologist from the Department of Fish and Game, who, bucket in hand, transferred the Owens pupfish to safety, it may very well have gone extinct.

Today, the Owens Pupfish can be found in a few pools in the Fish Slough Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Though relatively stable, their population remains vulnerable due to its limited distribution. Presently, the Owens Pupfish can be found in a few pools in BLM spring, in an area blocked by a fish gate which protects them from larger non-native fish.

Fish Slough Volunteer Patrol: Friends of the Inyo, along with the Bureau of Land Management, has helped organize the Fish Slough Volunteer Patrol, a group of volunteers who perform weekly monitoring in the Fish Slough Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Monitoring tasks include checking for OHV use off existing roads, clearing the fish gate to protect the habitat of the endangered Owens pupfish from non-native bass, and reporting vandalism at Native American petroglyph sites.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer steward of this unique and fragile oasis, please email maria@friendsoftheinyo.org. The patrol is rotating, so volunteers commit to one day every few months.

Click on the excel sheet attachment to view the statistics of the Fish Slough Patrol.