A Story of Water

There is a certain irony to the County Park owned by the city of Los Angeles and leased to Mono County. It was one of the few places in town I saw a green lawn.

Though a number of tributaries carry fresh water to Mono Lake, laid out at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevadas, it loses water only through evaporation. Minerals carried from the mountains remain behind making the water saline, more hospitable to brine flies and brine shrimp than fish. Because of the abundant flies and shrimp, the lake is an important destination for migrating birds; Wilson’s and Red-napped Phalaropes and other shorebirds, come here to double their weight before flying south.

In 1941, Los Angeles began diverting water from the eastern Sierra for city use. Because of the diversions, less fresh water flowed into Mono Lake lowering it from an elevation of 6417’ to its present day level of 6382’ and doubling the salinity. With the system on the brink of collapse, a citizen’s group, The Mono Lake Commission, began a decades long litigation to restore water to the lake. The commission continues to work statewide to educate consumers about water conservation. Did you know that a lawn in LA uses more water to maintain than a swimming pool?

I read a study once that demonstrated that humans are fundamentally, and perhaps evolutionarily drawn to water. The researchers asked participants to rate forest scenes and grasslands compared with those containing lakes, rivers and streams. But the pictures had to be screened carefully – one forest scene was chosen again and again as preferable until the researchers noted, after looking closely, that indeed a stream flowed through the trees.

So was I drawn to Mono Lake. I spent the afternoon walking its shores and bird watching. Wherever I went in town, the lake drew my eye. The tufa towers—built from mineral deposits from underground springs—entranced me, hardened mounds like dribble castles built by children then eroded by the tide. Once underwater, the towers now stand amid blue-eyed grass, paintbrush and willow.

I stayed at the County Park until the sun set behind the mountains and the light left the lake, casting the far shore in mauve and violet. I stayed watching phalaropes spin for their meals and Long-billed Dowitchers probe the alkaline flats with their bills. I stayed to hear the raucous calls of California Gulls as their rookery settled into night. As I walked back to my car Violet-green swallows and bats vied for insects, and then the sprinklers kicked on keeping the green lawn green and sending the tributaries of Mono Lake into the dry dessert air.