How Tulare Lake Vanished from California’s Landscape
The trouble started in the 1850s when California began converting what they called “public lands” into private farms. Of course, these weren’t really “public” at all but had been indigenous territories for centuries. This land grab changed everything.
Between the 1850s and 1890s, farmers and developers got busy. They built dams, levees, and irrigation canals that diverted the four rivers feeding the lake basin. By 1920, the lake was mostly gone, replaced by fields of cotton, almonds, and other crops. A vast wetland ecosystem became farmland practically overnight.
The lake tried to make comebacks during super-wet years. It popped up briefly in the 1930s, 1969, 1983, and 1997. Each time, though, pumps and canals quickly drained the water away. People weren’t ready to give up valuable cropland for an old lake.
Read More: Scientists Report Rare Ice Growth in Antarctica After Years of Steady Decline
