What the Hwy 395 Scenic Corridor Needs to Achieve a Deeper Beauty
A drive through Mono County on Highway 395 is a pleasant visual experience. And it is a noble goal to keep it that way. But focusing only on maintaining visual beauty is shortsighted. There is a deeper beauty in the landscape that must be maintained. The value of a working landscape, instead of a museum to be looked at but not touched, and the value of a functioning ecosystem, instead of mere pretty scenery, cannot be overstated.
Suppose the scenery visible from the highway no longer contained the majestic Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep. While the scenery remains the same, I believe some beauty would be lost from the landscape. You would know that the ecosystem is no longer healthy enough to support a mammal that has inhabited this area for thousands of years.
Suppose the scenery in the Antelope Valley no longer contained working ranches. While the meadows and large old cottonwoods might persist in the moister areas, the extreme overallocation of the waters of the Walker Basin would certainly be ameliorated somewhat, but knowing that the inhabitants of the area no longer depend on the land would take away from the landscape’s beauty. This is why conservation measures must be implemented immediately, so that Walker Lake is saved and so are the farms. It is already as critical as the Klamath Basin where there isn’t enough water for anyone, either fish or farmers--but somehow Lahontan Cutthroat Trout in the desert aren't as "sexy" as salmon on the coast. Fish and farmers can coexist, and should coexist, but we must stop waste and excessive use if this is to happen. And Walker Lake has very little time left.
So what can we do to protect the full beauty of the scenic corridor? We must take care of the land. Maintain its productivity, its health, and our connection to it. And where we already have problems, we must do what we can to fix them. And make sure we don’t create new ones.
CALTRANS CREATED NEW
EROSION PROBLEMS
AN AGENCY WITH OVER
100 YEARS OF TRANSPORTATION EXPERIENCE
Unfortunately, the very agency that maintains the highway often creates new problems. The 2002 Rush Creek Project between June Lake and Lee Vining caused new erosion and runoff problems that gullied the hillside below the highway and washed out the Lee Vining Creek Trail. Caltrans claimed the trail was in good condition after they obliterated it and replaced the once wonderful, gradual beginning with a steep, loose, dangerous temporary trail. When they finally agreed to construct a new trail, they refused to go past their right of way and completely fix the mess they made. They finally agreed to fix the trail and the erosion and came up with a workable situation--after much prodding. For an agency that is in charge of transportation, their actions show that they sure don’t think much of walking.
GULLY DOWN THE CENTER
OF THE LEE VINING CREEK TRAIL
GULLIES, WHERE THERE
NEVER WERE EROSION PROBLEMS BEFORE
COURTESY OF A STATE AGENCY
Other public entities are also damaging the land with new projects. The new Lee Vining Community Center, much awaited by all, has also created a new runoff and erosion problem, and now a 6 foot deep gully exists in the hillside below Mono County’s new structure. Proper drainage control could have averted these messes very easily.
It is hard to focus on fixing existing problems when new ones are being created right and left, but the existing problems are serious and worthy of attention. Most of Lee Vining’s drainage during each rainstorm goes through a storm drain, washes out an inadequate culvert under a dirt road, and flows down an actively eroding gully, then over an actively growing alluvial fan that crosses the Lee Vining Creek Trail and dumps the muddy, trash-filled water into Lee Vining Creek. Caltrans installed a clarifier that removes the trash and pollutants, but only as mitigation for illegally dumping sediment into Lee Vining Creek in 2000. If they hadn’t been caught doing this, they would not be fixing this problem. And the runoff their highway produces still washes out the trail every time it rains, and cuts the gully a little bit deeper.
What needs to happen, is that instead of building new roads and lanes that cause new problems, we need to pause for a moment in our building frenzy, look back at what we’ve done, and begin to fix the problems that we have created. For the next few years the LTC should provide funding for this, instead of just doing business as usual. Maybe we will even learn something from fixing the problems--that it is easier to do something right the first time. And if you can’t do the job right, well maybe you shouldn’t do it at all.
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Gregory J. Reis
