Executive Director
Mono Lake Committee
Bio:
Geoffrey McQuilkin joined the effort to protect Mono Lake in fifth grade and he has worked for the nonprofit Mono Lake Committee for over three decades. Geoff leads the Committee’s efforts to protect Mono Lake, restore Mono Lake’s tributary streams, share the wonders of this special place through education programs, and ensure that the strong tradition of scientific research at Mono Lake continues. A graduate of Harvard in the history of science, Geoff is excited to be blending science, policy, education, and love of place to make a difference for Mono Lake’s future. He’s happy to live close to the lake with his wife and their three daughters.
Title: Protection Successes and Challenges at Mono Lake
Abstract: Thirty years ago California mandated Mono Lake be restored to a healthy level to recover from the impacts of excessive water diversions. It is a landmark success in protecting the ecosystem at Great Salt Lake’s saline sister lake, and a model of using a single nature-based solution to achieve multiple ecological, wildlife, air quality, cultural, economic, and scenic benefits. Yet today Mono Lake is only halfway to the management level, generating new efforts, hearings, and political opportunities to assure promised protection is realized at the lakeshore.