The Owens Valley, its bordering mountain ranges, and diversity of geologic features–some due to faulting; some to glaciation and erosion; some to volcanic activity–engender a number of transition zones between biological communities and varying habitat for at least 33 reptile species. Whereas desert horned lizards (Phrynosoma platyrhinos) tend to linger on warm, sandy flats on … Read more
Action: Write to the Inyo County Board of Supervisors or the LADWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners. Urge Inyo County to reject a larger station and urge Los Angeles to abide by the terms of the Inyo-Los Angeles Water Agreement. Background: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has launched a lobbying … Read more
Owens Valley mammals include species from several different biogeographic regions–including the Great Basin, Mojave Desert, White-Inyo mountains, and Sierra Nevada mountains–as well as species unique to the groundwater-dependent alkali meadows on the valley floor. The Owens Valley vole (Microtus Californicus vallicola), a nocturnal short-tailed vole, makes its home in groundwater-dependent meadows on the valley floor. … Read more
Legal and political background In 1913 Los Angeles diverted Owens River from its channel leading to Owens Lake, into an aqueduct leading to Los Angeles. Thus began the drying of Owens Lake. By 1924 the drying was complete and the dried lakebed was becoming a major source of air pollution in the form of blowing … Read more
On September 5, 2000, Owens Valley botanist and conservationist Mary DeDecker passed away. She was 91 years old and had lived in Independence with her husband, Paul, for 65 years. Mary started the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society in 1982 and added immensely to our knowledge of the flora of eastern California. … Read more
By Daniel Pritchett, Conservation Chair of the local Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society Skip to: Riparian forest and shrub communities Alkali meadow and shrub communities Upland xerophytic shrub communities Groundwater-dependent vegetation References Vegetation of the Owens Valley has been studied, classified, and described in many ways. Paiutes living in the Valley when the first … Read more
id=”top” Taxonomy, nomenclature, and seasonal divisions used follow the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) Check-list of North American Birds, 7th edition, 1998. Sp = spring ( 1 March to 30 May), Su = summer (1 June to 31 July), F=fall (1 Aug to 30 Nov), W = winter (1 Dec to 28 Feb). Click below to skip … Read more
This checklist contains the names of 241 species that have been found in the Owens Lake area. The boundaries are Hwy 395 on the west, Hwy 190 on the south, and Hwy 136 on the north and east. This includes the towns, desert scrub, riparian patches, marshes, and Owens River from the lake to these … Read more
Historically, Owens Lake was one of the most important stopover sites for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds in the western United States for thousands of years. Joseph Grinnell, visiting the lake in 1917 from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley, reported, “ Great numbers of water birds are in sight along the lake shore–avocets, phalaropes, … Read more
The Owens Valley can be defined, dryly, as a 100-mile long by 6-to-20-mile wide drop in the earth’s crust between two large faults at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada and at the western base of the Inyo mountains. The valley reaches north to the Volcanic Tablelands and south past the Haiwee Reservoir. Before … Read more