Dan Walters talks about the rebirth of Tulare Lake

[Kevin Burroughs]

Lets just hope for a nice cool spring. The biggest reservoir in the state is over full and gravity still never takes a day off.

 

[Jumpshooter]

It will be interesting to see if Boswell farms donates the land reclaimed by the once magnificent Tulare Lake out of the goodness of their corporate farming hearts. They might also pursue a conservation easement of some kind. Either way it would be great to re-establish waterfowl habitat there.

Sorry, but as someone who has grown up there and been in the Agriculture business, this isn't happening! Only way you are getting that land from them is will eminent domain. If you want to read about this land in particular, go read "The King of California" and "The Dreamt Land".

 

[California Flyway]

Well it is certainly a golden and maybe once in a lifetime opportunity to line up funding and partners for what would be a very worthwhile project.

 

[California Flyway]

The only benefit of land subsidence (sinking due to over pumping the aquifer) that I can think of is that it has made the Tulare Lake bed deeper. Hopefully this will contribute to folks recognizing what restoring this lake can mean for waterfowl, fish and recreation.

 

[Mudtoes]

Mark Twain said “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting” and it seems like that is what is going on in the Tulare Basin right now, but instead of lack of water is from too much. Big fight going over the diversion of flood waters and this is just going to get much more heated. Landowner vs landowner on where to divert the water. When the snow pack gets melting heavily this flood may last well over a year. Some interesting articles, since Newsom the Governor has a budget shortfall he has taken some programs off the table which would have helped wetlands. This would be a great opportunity to restore some historic wetlands, help ground water aquifers and provide critical habitat. Get on the web and read some of what is going on, pretty interesting.

 

[Speckslayer]

The only benefit of land subsidence (sinking due to over pumping the aquifer) that I can think of is that it has made the Tulare Lake bed deeper. Hopefully this will contribute to folks recognizing what restoring this lake can mean for waterfowl, fish and recreation.

Please define “restoring this lake”. You want it like it was or just a few thousand acres?

This lake used to get runoff from the Kings, Kaweah, and Kern rivers plus numerous other smaller creeks. If you eliminated all the farming in the lake bed and stopped over pumping at the same time you wouldn’t have enough water to maintain a lake in most years. To restore the lake you’d have to eliminate huge portions of the farming and the cities in the south valley. It would cost trillions of dollars and destroy many cities.

 

[California Flyway]

Well Speckslayer it was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi at 640,000 acres, how about a compromise of 100,000 acres.

 

[Jumpshooter]

Again, this isn't going to happen. You have the largest farmer in the nation owning that land, the J.G. Boswell Corp. This goes back to who owns the water rights, so not only would you be buying the land, but the water rights. This state doesn't have that kind of money......... Boswell's father in law was Chandler, who owned the L.A. Times and stole the water from the Owens Valley literally. This is not a bunch of dumb people, this is the most powerful corporation in Ag that you want to try and take on.

Currently, they are doing every underhanded trick to flood everyone else's land before theirs. They have caught blocking access to levees and cutting others to make sure their land is ready to plant. Also, this would flood the High Speed Train, so Newsome isn't going to go with this......

 

[California Flyway]

Boswell's employees used to carry shotguns to keep people away from their shenanigan's. Have any shotgun wielding Boswells been seen by their neighbors?

 

[Jumpshooter]

As I understand it, yes. They currently have a paid guard sitting on the main levee between town and the flood water.......... Has been reported in the Fresno Bee a few times.