There’s an assumption that summer is our busy season, but in one week this past November, Friends of the Inyo’s staff illustrated how ambitious and inspiring we are at the following events: Presented about the connection between stewardship and advocacy at Winter Wildlands Alliance’s Grassroots Advocacy Conference in Lake Tahoe. Mobilized our members and the public to provide overwhelming opposition to the proposed gold mine at Conglomerate Mesa at the Inyo County Board of Supervisor’s meeting. Took 91 Mammoth Elementary students out for a Fall Field Day for SnowSchool to learn about watersheds and have fun in the Mammoth Lakes…
Events
Despite predictions of precipitation and howling winds, Sunday, November 5 was a gorgeous, sunny late fall day—perfect weather for celebrating the unrivaled climbing opportunities that grace Bishop’s backyard. As the culminating event of the American Alpine Club‘s Fall Highball climbing festival, we combined forces with the Bishop BLM to lead climbers in stewardship projects near our most popular bouldering areas. We planted native bitterbrush in disturbed areas in the Buttermilks and the Volcanic Tablelands, used local stones to delineate parking spots, trails, and campsites, picked up trash, and reduced fortress-like campfire rings to more appropriate sizes. Of course, it’s not…
Saline Valley Monarch Overwintering Opportunities: As you may know, monarch butterflies have declined by around 80% over the last 20 years. Scientists and citizens alike have been working to gather data that will help us make informed decisions about this species. Monarchs from the eastern U.S. overwinter in central Mexico while western monarchs typically overwinter on the coast of California. However, in some very unique areas in California, Nevada, and Arizona, monarchs are known to overwinter at inland sites. One of these areas is Saline Valley, part of Death Valley National Park. Starting in the 1970’s, a naturalist named Derham…
The iconic scenery of the June Lake Loop was the perfect background for a morning of stewardship last Saturday. A partnership between Friends of the Inyo, June Lake Trails Committee, Mono County, and the Inyo National Forest, the eighth annual June Lake Trails Day brought together 36 volunteers from as far away as Reno and Arizona. Volunteers tackled a variety of projects on popular trails, from pulling weeds, picking up trash, and repainting signs along the Gull Lake trail to crosscutting fallen trees on the Yost Lake trail. Steep trails like the one to Fern and Yost Lakes are very…
At the head of the Bridgeport Valley, Twin Lakes is the gateway to a spectacular corner of the Northern Sierra. Climbers, skiers, backpackers, fly-fishers, kayakers, and campers visit the area and travel its trails. This year, we were excited to partner with Mono County and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest to host the first annual Bridgeport Trails Day at Twin Lakes. Twenty-four hardy volunteers pitched in to pick up trash and fishing line, crosscut downed logs, brush the Cattle Creek trail and the Lake trail, and disguise illegal switchback cuts along the Horse Creek trail. In all, we maintained nearly 12,000…
Once again, Friends of the Inyo and the Mono Lake Committee kicked of the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua with a volunter event sponsored by Mono County and in partnership with the Inyo National Forest. This year, we worked on trails around the Mono Lake Visitor Center, including the ADA trail and the Lee Vining Creek Trail. Check out photos below: It’s been a while since the ADA has been touched up, so volunteers and Friends of the Inyo staff worked on widening it back to fit regulations. Check out the nice, clean, finished product… We also brushed and realigned the…
Joanne Hihn took some amazing bird pictures on Owens Lake during the 2017 Owens Lake Bird Festival. Thanks for sharing Joanne…
While the birds were the star of the festival, the people made it pretty great too: Saturday started out cold (photo by David Carle)… But we persisted, and had a great time (photo by Janet Carle). It was a gorgeous day to search for birds (Gabby Guerrero). We learned a lot from Bob Steele about the art of bird photography (Sam Dummer). Dave Herbst led his always popular exploration of the microbiotic life of Owens Lake (Janet Carle). (David Carle) This year’s festival offered many excited trips off the lake. Here’s the group…
We believe the best way to show how great a time we had at the Owens Lake Bird Festival is to share some of the photos from the weekend. Here are a few of the birds we saw- From Martin Powell: From Sam Dummer: From David Carle: