Where vegetation has returned to the shore, this summer you should be able to find the skeletal shells of the larvae left behind on stems when the larvae emerge as flying adults. Some plants have begun to grow again along the channel. Tiny little cottonwood trees are sprouting here and there. Last spring, an amazing display of blue lupine flowers appeared near the Lee Vining Creek crossing of the county road. The seeds must have been waiting there in the soil for years.
Water brings the return of life.
But despite these hopeful signs, the flowing water may not, in itself, restore the old conditions to the creek channel. Unfortunately, after all the streamside vegetation had been long dead, a couple times over the years high-water floods scoured the unstabilized channel, altering its bed and its very location. A healthy stream needs a variety of riffles and deep pools, quiet and swift water, gravels for spawning and places for trout to escape and hide. And it needs banks stabilized by grasses, shrubs and trees. Cottonwoods, aspens, and willows will have other benefits, of course.