Featured Image Credit: Citizens of the Planet/Contributor/Getty Images
At more than 100 miles long and 30 miles wide, California's Tulare Lake was once one of the largest bodies of freshwater in the US.
Back in the late 19th century, it contained so much water that a steamboat could carry 'agricultural supplies from the Bakersfield area up to Fresno (at the heart of the San Joaquin Valley) and then up to San Francisco' - a distance of nearly 300 miles - according to Vivian Underhill of Northeastern University.
However, the researcher explained that the lake first started disappearing in the late 1850s and early 1860s due to 'the state of California’s desire to take [historically indigenous] land and put it into private ownership.'
The reclamation of the lake - which was originally named 'Pa’ashi' by the indigenous Tachi Yokut tribe, would see colonialists 'either draining inundated land or irrigating desert land to create arable farmland.'
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If people could drain the land, they'd granted partial ownership of it. "So there was a big incentive for while settlers to start doing that work," she said.
By 1890, Tulare Lake had completely vanished.
But, last year, 130 years after it disappeared, the lake has made a triumphant return.
"California just got inundated with snow in the winter and then rain in the spring," Underhill explained.
"If you have a rain and snow event, the snow melts really fast."
That melted snow then ran into the depression where the lake once sat.
Tulare's return has seen a resurgence in wildlife in the area.
"Birds of all kinds — pelicans, hawks, waterbirds" are returning as well as the 'vulnerable' burrowing owl, which has been spotted nesting around the shore.
And, members of the Tachi Yokut tribe are overjoyed by its reappearance.
She said: "The return of the lake has been just an incredibly powerful and spiritual experience," Underhill said.
"They’ve been holding ceremonies on the side of the lake. They’ve been able to practice their traditional hunting and fishing practices again."
But, it's not such happy news for everyone. Farmers and landowners in the region have faced devastating losses of their homes and businesses due to flooding.
There have been efforts to once again drain Tulare Lake, but Underhill says that climate change means 'floods of this magnitude or higher will happen with increasing frequency.'
"At a certain point, I think it would behove the state of California to realize that Tulare Lake wants to remain. And in fact, there’s a lot of economic benefit that could be gained from letting it remain," she concluded.
