The Owens Valley Committee

We watch the water.

 The Owens Valley

photo by Ceal Klingler

The Owens Valley can be defined, dryly, as a 100-mile long by 6-to-20-mile wide drop in the earth's crust between two large faults at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada and at the western base of the Inyo mountains.

The valley reaches north to the Volcanic Tablelands and south past the Haiwee Reservoir.  Before 1900, the Owens River ran through it, starting at the southern tip of the Long Valley Caldera, gathering water from multiple streams that drained the eastern Sierra, and flowing into the Owens Lake, once a navigable body of water (15 miles long, 10 miles wide, and about 30 feet deep) that offered a stopover for millions of migratory waterfowl. The valley region hosts more than 2,000 plant species and more than 320 bird species, including many species that depend on the valley for essential food and rest stops during long migrations.