Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge

This refuge is famed as the site of the largest annual concentration of waterfowl on the North American continent. During the fall migrations millions of pintails, Anas acuta, and hundreds of thousands of mallards, Anas platyrhynchos, Canada geese, Branta canadensis, and white-fronted geese, Anser albifrons, can be observed at one time.

A variety of duck and Canada geese nest here, as do large numbers of grebes, eared, western and pied-billed, Podiceps caspicus, Aechmophorus occidentalis, and Podilymbus podiceps. The endangered bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus, is frequently sighted on the refuge. On the five refuges in the Basin (see Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge for those in California) over 279 species of birds have been observed.

Though a substantial portion of the area is in freshwater marsh, with tules, Scirpus sp., and cattails, Typha sp., much of the area is farmed for the benefit of the waterfowl.

Geologically, the refuge lies on Quaternary lake deposits. On the west there is a fault scarp with Tertiary volcanics.

In the 1870's Tule Lake occupied some 385 square kilometers (150 square miles) but by the 1920's irrigation use had reduced the lake to a shallow pond.

Integrity: The refuge was established in 1928. The lake now covers 5,260 hectares (13,000 acres).

Use: Research, educational, observational, hunting upon occasion.

July 1976