By Darren Mierau, CalTrout North Coast Regional Director
It's here where the fought-over waters that fill Mono Lake originate.
Most of California’s abundant Sierra Nevada snowmelt runs down the gently sloping foothills westward toward the Pacific Ocean. But for every 100 drops that run west, a few drops of that precious water escape down the much steeper “backside”, down the eastern slope and into the rain-shadow-lands of the Great Basin. Some of those drops end up in Mono Lake.
Mark Twain wrote in 1872 in his famous travel journal Roughing It, a century before CalTrout’s founding:
There are six Mono Lake tributaries to be exact - Rush, Lee Vining, Parker, Walker, Wilson, and Mill creeks. And the fact is Mono Lake never had any surplus water; its fullness has always depended on the amount of water running into it. So as soon as some of that water was cut off, which began in 1941, the Lake started to plummet and the entire ecosystem dependent on those “half a dozen little mountain brooks” soon followed.
The engineers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) had long coveted the waters of the Eastern Sierra. As early as 1912, LADWP began purchasing land and water rights in the Mono Lake watershed. In 1923, they applied for a permit to “appropriate the entire flow of the Mono [Lake tributaries] for domestic use and power generation.” The two defining features of water in the Mono Basin, at least to LADWP surveyors, were its purity and its elevation (Grant Lake Reservoir is at 7,130 feet above sea level). Mark Reisner’s famous quote that in California “water runs uphill toward money” may be true enough, but it helps if it has a little momentum.
Mono Basin from the International Space Station, 2002
A dry Rush Creek. Photo courtesy of Mono Lake Committee
It only took until 1941 for the Mono Basin water to start flowing down south, first through the Mono Tunnel, down the Owens, into the LA Aqueduct, then the uphill part over the Tehachapi mountains, and finally to LA. Not long after, the results were apparent.
By 1979, Mono Lake’s surface level had receded forty-three feet below pre-diversion level, lost half its volume, and doubled in salinity. In most years, the four main tributaries, those “little mountain brooks” - Rush, Lee Vining, Parker, and Walker creeks - were dry most (if not all) year, and fish populations disappeared.
The Mono Lake ecosystem was collapsing.
To protect what we value, sometimes we have to undo things…undo environmental damage, undo water rights, undo dams. At CalTrout, we can do, and we can undo.
If Hat Creek was the birthplace of California Trout, the Mono Lake litigation was its precocious and spirited adolescence. CalTrout got its official start in 1972 and passed a decade of youthful exuberance. But by the early 1980’s the organization, with its leaders emboldened by its brethren the National Audubon Society and the Mono Lake Committee, was challenging not only the water rights possessed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, but also the political power exercised by LADWP over one of the more influential state agencies - the State Water Resources Control Board.
The environmental goal of the 1980’s litigation was always clear: to save the Mono Lake ecosystem. In hindsight though, it is also clear this environmental outcome required not only undoing the 1940 water rights decision but also required the State to consider the needs of the ecosystem in its decision-making process. This was revolutionary, profound, and is now essential to modern-day CalTrout’s work.
Rush Creek in 2015
In January 1989—in response to a suit brought by CalTrout, the Mono Lake Committee, and the National Audubon Society—the Court of Appeal ordered the state to review and ammend the water right licenses to four tributaries to Mono Lake. The ammended licenses had to comply with Fish and Game Code 5937, which states “The owner of any dam shall allow sufficient water at all times to pass over, around, or through the dam, to keep in good condition any fish that may be planted or exist below the dam.” This ruling, which became known as CalTrout I, ended nearly 50 years of LADWP using rights to divert without regard to impacts on the streams and their fish.
CalTrout went back to court the following year, after the State Water Board proposed to undertake many years of study before amending the water rights. In what is known as CalTrout II, the Court of Appeal directed the State Water Board to immediately amend the water rights to require compliance with the Fish and Game Code, after which the Board would determine the long-term flow schedules. In 1994, the State Water Board issued Decision 1631, which established those schedules reducing LADWP’s historical diversions by 75%.
Taken together, these landmark cases not only restored four Eastern Sierra fisheries and began the process of refilling scenic Mono Lake, but they have also been instrumental in redefining the way dams are required to be managed and water allocated throughout the state. The precedent set by these cases has been used to establish public trust claims on natural resources and ensure future protection for California’s rivers.
The Mono Lake case is best known for the precedent-setting use of the Public Trust Doctrine. This doctrine rests upon the principle that the public’s interest in certain natural resources is so important that these resources could not be transferred to private hands, but instead should remain freely available to the entire citizenry… and should be protected by the sovereign.
This is the essential beauty of the Mono Lake litigation, taking up the very foundation of environmental law - the Justinian Common Law principle of the Public Trust, which stated (in 534 AD), "By the law of nature these things are common to mankind – the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the shores of the sea" - and aiming that principle directly at the most powerful water interest in the western hemisphere: The Department of Water and Power.
– How the Law Mattered to the Mono Lake Ecosystem, William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, Vol. 35
Rush Creek from Grant Lake all the way to Mono Lake
A much lesser-known outcome also resulted from these cases, which involved so much acrimony and conflicting science in the early days. And that is a commitment to use best available science as the basis for stream restoration. Judge Finney (El Dorado Superior Court) oversaw interim flows and habitat restoration while the State Water Board amended the water rights, and he appointed a panel of independent scientists to guide these remedies. Two of those advisors were later named the “Stream Scientists” in the State Water Board’s historic Decision 1631 to oversee the restoration of Mono Lake and its “little mountain Brooks”. One of those Stream Scientists, Dr. Bill Trush, defined the goal for the Mono Lake program as “restoring the capacity for self-renewal”. In Dr. Trush’s 2017 essay on the topic, he asks:
More narrowly speaking, the desired outcome for CalTrout I and II should be “Fish in Good Condition” (ah... let’s dream of those 16-20 inch brown trout). I asked Ross Taylor, the SWRCB fisheries Stream Scientist, if that had yet been achieved. Ross explained that the condition of the brown trout fishery in Rush Creek below Grant Lake Reservoir is highly dependent on runoff year type and reservoir storage levels going into the summer months:
The State Water Board is now considering a settlement between CalTrout, our partners Mono Lake Committee and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and LADWP to end the Mono Lake Cases. The settlement uses decades of science data and predictive models to adapt Decision 1631’s flow schedule. CalTrout’s long-time attorney in these cases, Richard Roos-Collins, said: “These water rights will be living licenses, a first in California’s history. Flow management and evolving science are fully integrated to restore good conditions in these streams.”
It appears that nature—and not LADWP—is now back in the driver’s seat as the main influencer of trout condition.
Of course, in a legal settlement and the ensuing restoration program, compromises are necessary, and some were made. But the final questions that remain, I think, are: “Did we get it right? Were the ecological values, so hard fought for, protected? Will the stream ecosystems once again sustain that magnificent trout fishery that existed before 1941? And, has use of the Public Trust Doctrine and the Fish and Game Code provided an impetus for other environmental victories, as important precedents should?
In all cases, the answers are an affirmative - YES!
And with that, CalTrout graduated to adulthood.
We’ve seen tremendous success over our first 50 years, but our work has only begun. Together, we can protect California's clean, cold water for generations to come.
For our Future. For California. Forever.
The findings from this study have made it clear – the time to act is now. We can work together to ensure that California will always have resilient populations of wild fish thriving in clean, cold water streams.
Here are some things you can do today:
This factor refers to hard rock mining, from which contaminated tailings, mine effluents, and toxic pollutants may have been dumped or leached into streams, mostly from abandoned mines. Mercury mining, used for processing gold in placer and dredge mining, left a lasting negative impact on wildlife.
Human use of streams, lakes, and surrounding watersheds for recreation has greatly increased with population expansion. Boating, swimming, angling, off-road vehicles, ski resorts, golf courses and other activities or land uses can negatively impact salmonid populations and their habitats. The impacts are generally minor; however, concentration of multiple activities in one region or time of year may have cumulative impacts.
Development of towns and cities often negatively affects nearby streams through alteration for flood prevention, channelization, and water diversion, and increased pollution. The timing and magnitude of flows are altered by the increase in impervious surfaces such as pavement. Pollution from surface runoff, sewage discharges, and storm drains can degrade water quality and aquatic habitats.
Improperly managed livestock grazing can damage streambanks, limit riparian vegetation and increase sedimentation. This can result in a loss of habitat complexity, increased stream temperatures, and decreased spawning habitat conditions. Severe grazing in meadow streams can cause down cutting resulting in meadows drying out and reductions in streamflow.
Widespread and often severe instream mining impacts occurred mid-19th to early 20th century due largely to hydraulic mining. Many rivers were excavated, dredged, and hydraulically mined for gold, causing dramatic stream degradation. Instream gravel mining also removed riparian vegetation and spawning gravels and degraded riparian habitats. Such mining is now largely banned, but lasting impacts remain in many areas.
Hatcheries and releases of hatchery reared salmonids into the wild can negatively impact wild populations through competition, predation, disease, and loss of fitness and genetic diversity. Hatchery influences are especially apparent to for anadromous species where dams blocked access to spawning habitat and hatcheries were established as mitigation. Inland trout can also be impacted with stocking of hatchery fish for recreation.
All anadromous salmonids depend on estuaries for rearing during a portion of their lives. Most estuaries in the state are highly altered from human activities, especially diking, draining, and sandbar removal between the estuary and ocean. Land-uses surrounding estuaries often involve extensive wetland reclamation, greatly reducing ecological function and habitat complexity.
Harvest relates to legally regulated commercial, tribal, and recreational fisheries, as well as illegal harvest (poaching). Over-harvest can have substantial impacts on fish populations, particularly for those with already limited abundance or distributions, those which are isolated or reside in discrete habitats making them easy to catch (e.g. summer steelhead), or those that attain large adult size (e.g., Chinook salmon).
Transportation corridors such as highways confine stream channels and increase sedimentation, pollution, and habitat degradation from storm runoff and altered streamflows. Culverts and other passage or drainage modifications associated with roads often block migration and restrict fish movements, which can fragment populations.
Many heavily logged watersheds once supported the highest species diversity and abundance of fishes, including anadromous salmon and steelhead. Improperly managed logging increases sediment in streams, increases solar input which increases stream temperatures, and degrades riparian cover. Stream habitat is also degraded by the extensive network of unpaved roads that supports timber extraction.
Non-native species (including fishes and other aquatic organisms) are ubiquitous across many of California’s watersheds; their impacts on native species through hybridization, predation, competition, increased disease transmission, and habitat alteration can be severe.
Wildfires are a natural component of California’s landscape. However, fire suppression, coupled with climate change, has made modern fires more frequent, severe and catastrophic. The transition from relatively frequent understory fires to less frequent, but catastrophic, crown fires can have a severe impact on fish habitat and wipe out populations with narrow habitat ranges.
Impacts from agriculture include streams polluted by agricultural return water or farm effluent; reduced flow due to diversions which can affect migratory patterns; and increased silt and pesticides in streams. Marijuana grow operations, legal and illegal, were considered in this metric.
Dams block access to historical spawning and rearing habitats. Downstream, dams alter the timing, frequency, duration, magnitude, and rate of change of flows decreasing habitat quality and survival.
As California’s population grows, rural development increasingly encroaches along or near streams. Resulting impacts include water diversions, groundwater pumping, streambed alteration (to protect houses from flooding, construct road crossings, etc.), and pollution (especially from septic tanks and illegal waste dumping).
Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.