It’s a story told over and over again. Imagine you are small bird, flying from Mexico or even farther, from as far south as Chile. You are headed all the way back to the arctic to breed, and will need places to rest and refuel along the way. But in this story you are not flying along the Pacific’s coastal estuaries. You are inland, making your way through the desert. You will rely on saline lakes as your oasis in this difficult landscape.
Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is at the southern end of one of these saline lakes, the Salton Sea – which is California’s largest inland lake. Along with Owens Lake, Mono Lake, and as far away as Great Salt Lake in Utah, these western WHSRN sites provide critical rest stops for not only migratory shorebirds, but many species of waterfowl and other wading birds as well.
Fed by the flows of the Colorado River, the Salton Sea naturally filled and drained for thousands of years before the river majorly flooded in 1905 due to a human-caused breach, filling the sea to its current size. As agricultural and urban development rapidly replaced wetland habitat across central and southern California, the Salton Sea became an ever more important refuge for nesting, wintering, and migrating birds. 35 miles long and 15 miles wide, the Sea has provided crucial habitat that supports more than 400 bird species.
Photos: Andrea Jones.
But without action the Salton Sea will no longer sustain its current level of bird diversity. Today, the Salton Sea is shrinking by about one foot every year. In early 2018, a portion of the water that had been feeding the Sea through agricultural drains began being redirected to San Diego for municipal use. With a significant reduction of fresh water, the Salton Sea has become so salty that almost all of its fish have died – causing thousands of fish-eating birds to disappear too. Andrea Jones, Audubon California’s Director of Bird Conservation, said that this spring, they watched hundreds of American White Pelicans but not one was catching fish. And the formerly millions of Eared Grebes that have been staples at the Sea for decades were nowhere to be seen in these numbers.
And what about shorebirds? They are able to fuel themselves on brine flies and other insects that can tolerate the salt. Western Snowy Plover, American Avocet, and Black-necked Stilt are breeding at the Sea, and almost 30 other species of migratory shorebirds still stop to feed on its shores. But if water continues to recede, fewer and fewer species will be able to survive such a saline environment.
Photo: Andrea Jones.
Loss of wildlife is just the tip of the iceberg. Toxic clouds of salty, alkaline dust form without water to wet the lake bottom. This toxic dust pollutes the air and plagues the low-income communities in the area with respiratory and other health problems.
The state of California responded to this pressing public health hazard and ecological crisis with the creation of a ten-year management plan to build habitats and control dust on the dry playa at the Salton Sea. The State Legislature approved the plan in 2017, estimating it would cost $403 million – but frustrations have mounted among environmental health advocates and bird conservation groups alike, as dust-mitigation and habitat restoration projects have continued to be delayed.
Just last week, on June 5, 2018, Californians voted to approve Proposition 68 – a $4 billion state bond measure dedicated to funding state parks, clean water, climate change resilience, and wildlife habitat that provides $200 million specifically for efforts to save the Salton Sea. With the $80.5 million that had already been approved, this means almost 70% of the budget has now been secured to fund the State’s ten-year management plan.
Before this victory, in December 2017, Andrea Jones reflected on the decade of changes at the Salton Sea. “The sea will change – there really is no way to stop that,” she wrote, “but there is a way to control that change to make sure that residents and birds don’t suffer in the process.”
Could the passing of Proposition 68 turn the tide for the Salton Sea? More funds are still needed and work needs to be implemented. Bringing attention to this disappearing lake will move restoration and dust-mitigation projects forward — bringing clean air back to local communities, and birds back to the Salton Sea.
To learn more about the Salton Sea or to take action, contact Andrea Jones (ajones@audubon.org) or Laura Chamberlin (lchamberlin@manomet.org).
