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| Mono Lake Vista Point |
When I stopped at the Mono Lake overlook on my recent excursion to the east side of the Sierra, one of the things I checked was whether a land bridge had formed out to Negit Island. As the FZ80 shot above shows, there is still water between the mainland and the island. I assumed all was well, and even as I drove past the lake along I-395 I didn't really notice just how low the lake level actually was. As of July it is 12.5 feet below the 6,392-foot "management level" prescribed for the lake.
One thing I hadn't realized about the land bridge is that the coyotes that threaten nesting gulls apparently don't need the bridge to go all the way to the island since they will cross shallow water. I also had forgotten that gulls stopped nesting on Negit Island since coyotes went over there in 1977. Instead they nest on other nearby islets.
In 2017, the Mono Lake Committee installed an electric fence to keep coyotes from threatening the nesting gulls, and camera traps showed that the fence worked. This year the lake level was just high enough that they did not deploy the fence, but they did set up camera traps. No coyotes were seen on the land bridge during the early part of the April-August nesting season.
Although I stopped at the Mono Lake County Park for a rest break on my last trip, I didn't even walk down to the lake shore, much less visit Black Point or the tufa reserves. Just being out near the lake and seeing it from the highway provides a rejuvenating sense of wonder and awe. It's all too easy to take for granted that it will always be there to enjoy.
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