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SCIENCE DEVELOPS NEW TOOLS Environmental restoration is not as simple as fenc- ing off a tract of land or watershed segment and let- ting nature take its course. Fortunately, the growing interest in environmental restoration has coincided with the development of new scientific tools and academic research that have deepened under- standing of complex and overlapping ecological relationships that often ignore human-delined bound- aries such as property lines or even state borders. Environmental restoration planners use a variety of scientific tools to identify areas where they are likely to have the most success and then manage those areas to achieve restoration goals. Depending on the project, these tools may include historical informa- tion about local environmental conditions, satellite MONO LAKE One of the starkest examples of man made environmental change occurred in the remote Mono Lake area of the eastern Sierra Nevada, After years of litigation and regulatory proceed- ings, Mono Lake could become a prime example of environmental restoration success. Situated on the eastern slope of the Sierra just east of Yosemite National Park, Mono Lake and its tributaries supported complex riparian and aquatic habitats that included a brown trout fishery waterfowl and richly vegetated wetlands, But in 1941 the city of Los Angeles began diverting water from Mono Lake's tributary creeks, causing the lake to shrink and hundreds of acres of ripar- ian vegetation and wetlands to be lost. Waterfowl populations plummeted, as did the trout tishery, Conservation groups led by the National Audubon Society and California Trout banded together in 1979 and filed suit against Ihe city of Los Ange- imagery of the targeted restoration areas, data on vegetation and fire management and population counts of wildlife. Technological innovations like computerized data systems and the World Wide Web have put a wealth of historical and environmental data at planners' fingertips, Project managers use that information to help design strategies to restore target areas, Aerial photogra- phy and satellite data enable them to see a project area in a broader context. For instance, aerial photographs helped The Nature Conservancy identify key tarmlands adjacent to its Cosumnes River Preserve. It then negotiated agreements with several farmers to manage their lands in ways that support restoration goals for the river. les, invoking the Public Trust doctrine to stop its water diversions from Mono Lake tributaries. Four years later, the California Supreme Court issued a landmark decision enforcing the Public Trust doctrine by requiring the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) to protect water bodies such as Mono Lake even if protective measures include reconsideration of past water- allocation decisions, A decade later, in 1994, the State Board issued Decision 1631 to amend the city's water licenses to comply with Fish & Game Code Section 5937's requirements to protect downstream fish and to ensure that public trust values such as air quality and wildlife habitat were protected at Mono Lake, The 1994 decision guaranteed permanent water flows and related restoration actions for these Mono Lake tributaries, Today, these flows have partially restored historic stream channels that support riparian vegetation and fish habitat. r "l, ~,~~.:]:'".. ~~ 2;--~ ~'"'"iC:~' ~_....."!....-.r--- ,... L -..