The Reemergence of Tulare Lake in California

By Daniel G. Cooper, Ph.D., San Diego State University, and Nina Kruglikova, Ph.D., Oxon

California is a landscape of extremes boasting the highest point in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney: 14,505 feet/4,421 meters) and the lowest and hottest place in North America (Death Valley: 282 feet/86 meters below sea level). Within the North Pacific Gyre, the California Current carries cool air and ocean water south along the coast propelled by the Coriolis force, northwesterly winds, and atmospheric rivers that periodically bring rain and snow to the land and its mountain ranges. Throughout its history, the state has experienced alternating periods of drought and flooding. These vicissitudes have been exacerbated in the context of climate change presenting significant challenges for California residents and policy makers. This paper uses an event ecology approach (Vayda & Walters, 1999)—a bottom-up methodology for interpreting the human-environment relationship—to analyze the reemergence of Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley in 2023 and its divergent impacts on the Tachi Yokut, farmers, prisoners, and birds, raising further questions about the intersectionality of social, wildlife, environmental, and climate justice.

California became the 31st U.S. state in 1850 after the discovery of gold brought waves of migrants, rapid growth, and the displacement of Indigenous peoples who relied on subsistence hunting, fishing, foraging, and networks of trade within a landscape of abundance. Early social and economic development of the state revolved around the use of labor-intensive hydraulic mining technologies used to extract gold that eroded and deforested hillsides and polluted water tables. Much of this technological and social organization was simultaneously applied to agricultural irrigation to feed the growing population. Due to its favorable climate and an abundance of arable land, California is now the world’s 5th largest supplier of food, cotton fiber, and other agricultural commodities. In the U.S., California is the largest producer of food despite having less than 4% of the farms, suggesting both high productivity and large farms (USDA, 2023). Agriculture accounts for 40% of all water consumption in California.

The state has been in and out of drought many times since the earliest records from 1841 (Kotin & Marion, 2014). Two thirds of the rainfall occurs in the northern third of the state. Much of Southern California is a desert requiring complex engineering to bring water to large metropolitan populations in Los Angeles and San Diego with aqueducts from Northern California, the Owens River Valley, and the Colorado River. Water is essential for life, not only in urban areas, but also for the large agricultural and tourism sectors of the economy. Most of the agriculture in the state exists in its Central Valley which is divided between the Sacramento River watershed in the north and the San Joaquin River watershed in the south. Much of the water in these two rivers runs off the Sierra Nevada, especially in the spring when the snow begins to melt. The agricultural productivity of the Central Valley relies on irrigation both from surface water diversions and from groundwater pumping. Due to the myriad ways that water brings food, life, and people to the landscape, many consider it to be California’s true gold. Much like gold, water can lead to both productive and destructive consequences. This ambiguity became glaringly obvious in 2023 when the state experienced climate whiplash by swinging from three of the driest years on record to historic rain and snowfall causing flooding and the reemergence of Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley (see Figures 1, 2, and 3).

Long before Tulare Lake (approximately 758,000 - 665,000 years ago), there was Lake Corcoran that filled California’s Central Valley and was approximately the size of Lake Michigan (Sankey et al., 2016). Before it was a lake, it was a giant bay connected to the ocean. Experts believe that seismic activity along the San Andreas Fault caused Corcoran Bay to be cut off from the ocean creating an ancient lake fed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers that receive their water from rivers and streams draining off the Sierra Nevada in the Mother Lode (see Figure 4), where much of the gold was extracted during the California Gold Rush.

Over time, Corcoran Lake shrank and became Tulare Lake, predominantly in the southern San Joaquin River Valley. It was once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi (512,000 acres or 800 square miles). In the 1800s, settlers drained it for agriculture and livestock causing the land to sink and the local Tachi Yokut people to migrate. Many currently live in Santa Rosa Rancheria just north of the reemergent lake, a small piece of land relative to their traditional territory that extended throughout much of the San Joaquin Valley where they made tule boats, fished, hunted, camped, and traded with Ohlone, Tubatulabal, Chumash, Mono, Salinan, Miwok, and other peoples (see Figure 5).

In the spring of 2023, as the snowpack began to melt and run off, the lake reemerged for the first time since 1983 covering 111,000 acres of farmland with as much as 7 feet of water in some places. Much like the ancient lake, the contemporary manifestation holds fish and attracts many birds and other wildlife. The return of the lake is being celebrated by the Tachi Yokut because it is an important part of their culture and identity. They believe that the lake helps maintain an ecological balance that is more resilient to flooding. While some environmentalists agree, farmers argue that it has devastated their land. It also caused the flooding of two already-crumbling and overpopulated state prisons (Cunniff, 2022). In the wake of the lake’s reemergence, water contamination from diesel, oil, manure, pesticides, and other chemicals have become a major concern.

Leo Sisco, chairman of the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Yokut Tribe, was recently interviewed for an article in the Los Angeles Times (James, 2023). He explained how he grew up in this area and heard stories about the lake and how it was drained and taken away: “I am very happy the lake is back. It makes me swell with pride to know that, in this lifetime, I get to experience it. My daughters, my grandson get to experience the lake, and the stories that we heard when we were kids, for us it comes to fruition.”

As explained in a Valley Public Radio broadcast (KVPR; Hok, 2023), to the Tachi Yokut, the lake is called Pa’ashi, which means ‘big water.’ This life-giving lake that is sacred to the Tachi Yokut lies at the center of their creation story. According to Robert Jeff, vice chairman of the Tachi Yokut Tribe: “This lake is talking to us right now. It’s up to each and every one of us to listen to what's being said” (Hok, 2023).

Local farmers hear the lake telling them to move. Kings County and Tulare County are at the center of the reemergent lake; collectively, they have experienced nearly $300 million in flood damages to homes, crops, and dairies (Hok, 2023). Contrasting perspectives of the reemergent lake from the Tachi Yokut and environmentalists on one side, and local farmers on the other, is indicative of the social conflicts that can arise from climate change. Literature suggests that such conflicts are common in regions dependent on agriculture and in combination and interaction with other socioeconomic and political factors such as a low level of economic development and political marginalization (Koubi, 2019). Each of these factors exist in the San Joaquin Valley, suggesting an intersectionality that is leading to social conflict and climate injustice (Comim, 2008).

In addition to the social challenges, research shows that increased urbanization and climate change are leading to harmful impacts for birds in California (Jongsomjit et al., 2013). After decades of dormancy, and a long hot summer, Tulare Lake has become a warm and stagnant breeding ground for toxins that cause avian botulism, paralysis, and death. In 1983, the last time Tulare Lake emerged after winter flooding, the disease killed more than 30,000 birds. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has already removed close to 1,700 dead and sick birds since early August, but the numbers have only increased in the past few weeks (CDFW, 2023). Fall migration patterns could bring millions more birds so there’s urgency to deal with the situation. Part of the problem is that Tulare Lake, which reached the surface area of Lake Tahoe by June, does not have natural inlets or outlets that can be controlled. The lake is now receding at a rate that suggests it will take at least a year to evaporate entirely, depending on the winter ahead.      

According to an article published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (Dettinger, 2011), there is a clear connection between climate change, atmospheric rivers, and floods in California. This research indicates that the peak season within which most atmospheric rivers occur is projected to lengthen, extending the flood-hazard season. Furthermore, these tendencies could lead to both more frequent and more severe floods in California under projected climate models. The flooding of Tulare Lake signals a return to El Niño, the warm phase of a larger phenomenon called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). As El Niño gets stronger (Smith, 2023), it is becoming more likely that California will face a wet winter with more flooding.

Given the extreme spatial, topographical, and climatic variability in California—and its history of mining, agriculture, urbanization, drought, bark beetles, wildfires (Belval et al., 2022), poor air quality, and flooding—sound water management is paramount. The persistence of Tulare Lake may be celebrated by environmentalists and the Tachi Yokut, but it poses significant risks for farmers, prisoners, and wildlife in the San Joaquin Valley. Ultimately, the reemergence of Tulare Lake is an example of how climate change can have divergent impacts on the land and its constituents leading to injustice and murky waters.

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