This is just one post in the Owens Valley & Mono Lake Category

“Saving the Sierra” - a radio documentary, now available online

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 3, 2008 at 6:46 am

Thank you to Geoffrey of the Mono Lake Committee for sending me this link. The radio documentary, “Saving the Sierra”, is being aired in the Bay Area and Central California, and is now posted on the Internet. From the website:

Urban development threatens rural communities across America. People who live and work in these beautiful landscapes face some tough decisions about the future. We traveled California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range to explore communities in the midst of struggle against the development pressures closing in on them. In each place, we met unlikely allies who came together to find grassroots solutions for sustaining both the environment and their ways of life.

Most rural communities within driving distance of sprawling cities and suburbs face these issues. And most urban dwellers have been to a place just like the communities in these three stories:

In a remote mountain valley, both ranchers and environmentalists have begun to use conservation easements to save open space and preserve the largest wetlands in the mountain range.

In a small town north of Lake Tahoe, resort development will blanket the mountain with million-dollar luxury homes. But after a long legal battle, a deal was struck that will provide permanent, on-going funding for affordable housing, public transit, and habitat restoration.

The city of Los Angeles was forced to become a leader in water conservation because of a landmark legal ruling that kept them from draining an entire watershed in pursuit of drinking water.

Click here to visit the Saving the Sierra website and listen to the radio documentary. (The Mono Lake story is about 30 minutes in.)

May 3, 2008 · Filed Under Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's, Owens Valley & Mono Lake