How long will restoration take?
• A: Wet years in the late 1990s gave a huge boost to the lake, which rose an average of 2.2 feet per year. It dropped from 1999 to 2004, and rose back to its 1999 highstand in 2005 and 2006. With average climate, Mono Lake is projected to take as long as 20 years to rise to its management level of 6392 feet. The streams will take even longer to recuperate. While riparian vegetation is springing back along the formerly dry channels, the cottonwood seedlings along the stream banks will take 50 years to mature. Only then will we see again the multi-storied cottonwood-willow forest that formerly lined Mono’s streams.
