Will Turman

Mono Lake Reference

Highlights

  • Mono Lake Committee: Mono Lake Newsletter

  • PBS, Nature, and Atlas Obscura: Untold Earth: Mono Lake
    Short public-facing video feature on Mono Lake, produced as part of PBS Nature’s Untold Earth series with Atlas Obscura.

  • Michael Light: Mono Craters 07.17.06
    Aerial photographic series made over the Mono Craters and Mono Basin on July 17, 2006. Includes Panum Crater views and related images of pumice, tephra, coulees, alkali flats, and the edge of Mono Lake.

  • William L. Kahrl et al.: The California Water Atlas
    Statewide 1979 atlas and water-history reference. Useful for placing Mono Basin, Los Angeles water development, water project operations, and California water politics in broader geographic context.

California State Water Resources Control Board

2026 Public Workshops

Mono Lake Public Workshop 1: Water Quality, Salinity, Brine Shrimp and Alkali Flies

June 4th, 2026 Workshop recording

Mono Lake Public Workshop 2: California Gulls and Other Migratory Birds

June 25th, 2026 Workshop recording

California Geological Survey

  • California Geological Survey: Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve GeoGem Note 37
    Short geology reference on Mono Basin, Lake Russell, Panum Crater, tufa formation, sand-tufa structures, salinity, alkalinity, and the lake-level consequences of freshwater diversions.

Maps

  • California Geological Survey: Geologic Map of the Sierra Nevada
    Geologic Data Map No. 9, Plate 1A. Regional geologic map placing Mono Basin at the meeting edge of Sierra Nevada structure, Great Basin extension, and adjacent young volcanic fields.

  • William L. Kahrl et al.: The California Water Atlas
    Historic statewide atlas for California water geography, basin characterization, infrastructure, water rights, water supply, and water project operations.

Reference Works

  • William L. Kahrl. Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles Water Supply in the Owens Valley. 1st ed. University of California Press, 1983.

    • History of Los Angeles water development and the Owens Valley conflict. Useful background for LADWP, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the institutional setting behind Mono Basin exports.

  • Marc Reisner. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. Rev. ed. Penguin Books, 1993.

    • Broad western water history and critique of twentieth-century reclamation, infrastructure, and growth politics. Useful for placing Mono Lake within the larger water-development story of the American West.

Media

  • PBS, Nature, and Atlas Obscura: Untold Earth: Mono Lake
    Short public-facing video feature on Mono Lake, produced as part of PBS Nature’s Untold Earth series with Atlas Obscura.

  • Michael Light: Mono Craters 07.17.06
    Aerial photographic series made over the Mono Craters and Mono Basin on July 17, 2006. Includes Panum Crater views and related images of pumice, tephra, coulees, alkali flats, and the edge of Mono Lake.

Literature

  • John Muir: My First Summer in the Sierra, Chapter IX: Bloody Canyon and Mono Lake
    Public-domain text via Project Gutenberg. Useful for Muir’s literary and geologic framing of Mono Basin at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada.

  • Mark Twain: Roughing It, Chapters XXXVIII and XXXIX
    Public-domain text via Project Gutenberg. Twain’s Mono Lake chapters are a foundational literary reference for the lake’s nineteenth-century public image.

  • Mary Austin: The Land of Little Rain
    Public-domain text via the Library of Congress. Austin’s desert essays are useful literary context for Owens Valley, the eastern Sierra, and the arid lands south of Mono Basin.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

  • LADWP and Mono Basin
    LADWP’s public overview of its Mono Basin operations, infrastructure, and restoration commitments.

Records Requests

  • LADWP CPRA Request: 26-348 Mono Basin records
    Public records request page for the LADWP Mono Basin source workbook and related records.

  • LADWP Subpoena Request: 26-334 Mono Basin records
    NextRequest subpoena portal record for related LADWP Mono Basin materials.

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