The massive atmospheric snowstorms that pummeled California this year have been a boon to ski slopes throughout the Sierra Nevada mountains. But the rains have had an unusual result: The torrents of rain have drowned thousands of acres of farmland in California’s Central Valley and resuscitated a lake that vanished decades ago. Standing in an area that was dry as a bone just a year ago, right now, as far as the eye can see, water stretches to the horizon. It has covered roads, and crop fields, and submerged homes and buildings.
The lake is called Lake Tulare.
Lake Tulare, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, is a compelling example of the delicate balance between human activity and natural forces. Located east of Interstate 5 from Kettleman City, Lake Tulare was also the second-largest freshwater lake in the United States, based on surface area. At its peak, Lake Tulare covered an area of nearly 700 square miles and was a critical component of the region’s complex hydrological system.
The lake’s disappearance over a century ago can be traced back to multiple factors, including agricultural development, water diversion, and climate. Fed by the Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers, the lake supported a vibrant ecosystem teeming with fish, waterfowl, and other wildlife. Native American tribes, including the Yokuts, relied on the lake’s abundant resources for sustenance and trade.
Lake Tulare began to shrink in the late 19th century as European settlers moved into the area and agriculture took hold. The burgeoning need for water to support the growing agricultural industry led to the construction of canals and dams, which diverted water away from the lake. As a result, the lake’s surface area shrank rapidly, and by the early 20th century, it had disappeared almost entirely.
Spanish captain Pedro Fages led the first excursions to the southern San Joaquin Valley in 1773 and wrote this account:
This plain will exceed one hundred and twenty leagues in length and in parts is twenty, fifteen and even less in width. It is all a labyrinth of lakes and tulares, and the river San Francisco, divided into several branches, winding in the middle of the plain, now enters and now flows out of the lakes, until very near to the place where it enters into the estuary of the river.
Pedro Fages
Today alfalfa is grown on the southern basin and there is invasive saltcedar, a common species that has also impacted regions of the Colorado River Delta. Animal life includes the Buena Vista Lake shrew (Sorex ornatus relictus), the southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida), fulvous whistling-duck (Dendrocygna bicolor), and the California red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii). Other species native or present in the area are sandhill cranes and tricolored blackbird.
But what is the future of Lake Tulare?
Last summer, UCLA climate scientist Dan Swain published a paper that predicted more intense weather patterns on a gradually warming planet. He told CNN that the worst-case scenario of relentless atmospheric rivers could actually make Tulare Lake permanent again, turning it into a vast, inland sea.
We’ll have to wait and see.
And in the meantime, check ut this recent before and after satellite image of the central valley and Lake Tulare.
