Tulare Lake Basin Area

The southern San Joaquin Valley and its major rivers lacked normal river drainage to the sea, with the result that the rivers sought the lowest points in the western lowlands and formed two lakes, Buena Vista and Tulare Lake. The former was the basin for the Kern River and the latter for the Kings, Kaweah and Tule Rivers. During particularly wet years the two lakes joined into what would be temporarily the largest freshwater lake in the State. Indeed, during the 1969 floods Tulare Lake, for a few weeks, regained the title. The lowest point in the lake basin is 53 meters (175 feet) above sea level, and the highest water level on record was 67 meters (220 feet) above sea level.

Commercial fishing and hunting boats once operated on the lake, as did pleasure boats. The lake was bordered in many places by marshes with dense stands of tules, Scirpus spp., and cattails, Typha spp. There are shell mounds, some of which are 2 meters (6 feet) high and 30 meters (100 feet) long composed of soft-shelled clams, near several of the Indian villages on the lake's margin.

During the last 50 years flood control projects, levees, canals, etc., have eliminated the lake, and most of the area is under cultivation.

Here and there within the old basin are remnants of the various communities that once existed. (See Dudley Ridge and Saint Johns / Yettem Area). In this particular area are remnants of three of these, valley grasslands, marshlands and alkali sinks. Species found in the grasslands include Vulpia microstachys var. pauciflora, Deschampsia elongata; in the marshlands, Scirpus acutus, Crassula connata, and in the alkali sinks, Frankenia salina, Isocoma acradenia and Atriplex lentiformis.

Compared with the original conditions, the animal populations are depauperate or extinct. The rare San Joaquin kit fox, Vulpes macrotis mutica, may still inhabit parts of the area, and there are a number of ducks in the area during migratory season.

The land is of Recent basin deposits.

Integrity: Tulare Lake Basin still exists, though as farmland; the lake is gone. There are still marginal areas showing the native habitat.

Use: Educational, research, observational, on the public portion; remainder, private.

March 1976