Mono Lake and Water Shortage

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) is awfully eager to announce that the California gull population at Mono Lake is thriving despite a lower lake level (“Birds, Bees and Water,” Jan. 10)

How conveniently DWP forgets that a few years ago, at the low lake levels DWP advocates, the gull colony suffered major disruptions and reproductive failures as coyotes gained access to their island nesting sanctuaries.

How easily DWP forgets that the gulls’ apparent recovery occurred as Mono Lake rose rapidly in elevation, thanks to a bounty of wet runoff years that restored the integrity of those nesting islands. In fact, the “baby boom” of those productive years could possibly explain the larger numbers of breeding adults, grown up and come home to roost in 1990.

While lawyers and engineers may debate the reasons behind the promising increase in gull numbers, DWP’s biologist expert witness did admit one thing in recent courtroom testimony: that four islands holding 70% of the gull population are vulnerable to invasion by coyotes if the lake declines to DWP’s preferred “management” levels. DWP would have us plunge the lake again to those low levels, and this time, keep them there.

What if DWP is wrong and the seemingly burgeoning gull colony loses its habitat once again? It takes twice as much water to bring the lake back up as it does to maintain it at a certain elevation. Without help from Mother Nature, not even an office full of DWP engineers could guarantee that the water will be there when Mono Lake needs it.

ILENE MANDELBAUM, Associate Director, Mono Lake Committee, Lee Vining, Calif.