California’s Tulare Lake has been playing hide-and-seek for centuries. The giant lake formed millions of years ago, first vanished 130 years ago, and then kept reappearing. These cycles of vanishing and returning earned it nicknames like “ghost lake” or “zombie lake.” In 2023, a massive snowstorm caused flooding, briefly reviving the lake. By April 2024, the waters started receding once again, marking the fifth time it has disappeared, according to Popular Mechanics. Chasing this lake is like chasing a shadow.
Representative Image Source: A vehicle drives near inundated farmland in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California on April 26, 2023. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Once the “largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River,” Tulare Lake formed millions of years ago from rain and meltwater collecting in its basin, according to the Sarah Mooney Museum. Until 1878, the lake spanned 1,080 square miles—an area equal to 30 townships.
Representative Image Source: Floodwaters cover a road in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California in April 2023. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“At this time, it contained so much water that a steamship 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,” researcher Vivian Underhill of Northeastern University explained in a press release, and added, “However, in the succeeding decades, the ‘ancestral lakes’ and connecting waterways that made such a route possible all but vanished thanks to manmade irrigation.”
Located in the lowlands of the San Joaquin Valley, Tulare Lake was first drained in the 1800s, when settlers of the Tachi Yokut tribe were forced to live on its shores. The tribe relied on the lake for food, shelter, and as a trade route, per NPR. If people could drain that land, they would be granted ownership of segments of that land. This incentive lured these settlers to dry the water body.
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In 1938, pouring rainstorms nearly filled up the lake, and in 1983, the lake was rippling again. But over the past century, it has mostly been dry, appearing and disappearing again and again. In 2023, when the lake resurrected and the waters returned, Underhill called this process “reclamation.” Months after the lake’s remarkable resurrection, the wildlife returned to the area. “Birds of all kinds — pelicans, hawks, waterbirds are returning,” Underhill said, adding that “the Tachi also say that they’ve seen burrowing owls nesting around the shore.”
Representative Image Source: Floodwaters inundate farmland in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California on April 26, 2023. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The waters were bubbling merrily until March 2024 when the lake was observed to be drying once again. When The Guardian’s reporter Dani Anguiano visited the lake, she found “sprouts of grass and thick mud” in the region. Before drying up, she estimated, that the lake submerged hundreds of acres of cotton, tomato, and pistachio fields, as well as homes, roads, and power infrastructure. Less than a year after its rebirth, Tulare Lake had shrunk to just 2,625 acres, according to the Kings County Office of Emergency Services. Experts proclaimed that the lake would vanish again in less than a year. “Despite the predictions, the lake is nearly gone,” said Dani Anguiano.
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President Donald J. Trump and photo of a forest.
Public united and adamantly opposes Trump’s plan to roll back the Roadless Rule
There doesn't seem to be much agreement happening in the U.S. right now. Differing moral belief systems, economic disparity, and political divide have made a country with so many positives sometimes feel a little lost. Everyone desperately seeks a niche, a connection, or a strong sense of community to which they can feel a "part of," rather than just "apart."
But there seems to be one thing that the country strongly unites over, and that's the "Roadless Rule." With the Trump Administration attempting to roll back conservation policies that protect U.S. National Forests, Americans are saying in harmony an emphatic "No." A nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization, the Center for Western Priorities, reviewed a comment analysis on the subject. After receiving 223,862 submissions, a staggering 99 percent are opposed to the president's plan of repeal.
What is the 'Roadless Rule' policy implemented in 2001?
The Roadless Rule has a direct impact on nearly 60 million acres of national forests and grasslands. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the rule prohibits road construction and timber harvests. Enacted in 2001, it is a conservation rule that protects some of the least developed portions of our forests. It's considered to be one of the most important conservation wins in U.S. history.
America's national forests and grasslands are diverse ecosystems, timeless landscapes, and living treasures. They sustain the country with clean water and the wood products necessary to build our communities. The National Parks protected under their umbrella offer incredible recreational retreats and outdoor adventure.
Why does the administration want to roll it back?
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins told the Department of Agriculture in a 2025 press release, “We are one step closer to common sense management of our national forest lands. Today marks a critical step forward in President Trump’s commitment to restoring local decision-making to federal land managers to empower them to do what’s necessary to protect America’s forests and communities from devastating destruction from fires." Rollins continued, “This administration is dedicated to removing burdensome, outdated, one-size-fits-all regulations that not only put people and livelihoods at risk but also stifle economic growth in rural America. It is vital that we properly manage our federal lands to create healthy, resilient, and productive forests for generations to come. We look forward to hearing directly from the people and communities we serve as we work together to implement productive and commonsense policy for forest land management.”
Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz explained the Roadless Rule frustrated land management and acts as a challenging barrier to action. It prohibits road construction needed to navigate wildfire suppression and properly maintain the forest. Schultz said, “The forests we know today are not the same as the forests of 2001. They are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, mortality, insect-borne disease, and wildfire. It’s time to return land management decisions where they belong – with local Forest Service experts who best understand their forests and communities."
Why are people adamantly opposed to the proposed rollback?
A 2025 article in Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, expressed its concern over the protection of national forests covering 36 states and Puerto Rico. A rescinded rule allows increased logging, extractive development, and oil and gas drilling in previously undisturbed backcountry. Here is what some community leaders had to say about it:
President Gloria Burns, Ketchikan Indian Community, said, "You cannot separate us from the land. We depend on Congress to update the outdated and predatory, antiquated laws that allow other countries and outside sources to extract our resource wealth. This is an attack on Tribes and our people who depend on the land to eat. The federal government must act and provide us the safeguards we need or leave our home roadless. We are not willing to risk the destruction of our homelands when no effort has been made to ensure our future is the one our ancestors envisioned for us. Without our lungs (the Tongass) we cannot breathe life into our future generations.”
Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, stated, "Roadbuilding damaged salmon streams in the past — with 240 miles of salmon habitat still blocked by failed road culverts. The Roadless Rule protects our fishing economy and more than 10,000 jobs provided by commercial fishing in Southeast Alaska.”
The Sierra Club's Forest Campaign Manager Alex Craven seemed quite upset, saying, "The Forest Service followed sound science, economic common sense, and overwhelming public support when they adopted such an important and visionary policy more than 20 years ago. Donald Trump is making it crystal clear he is willing to pollute our clean air and drinking water, destroy prized habitat for species, and even increase the risk of devastating wildfires, if it means padding the bottom lines of timber and mining companies.”
The 2025 recession proposal would apply to nearly 45 million acres of the national forests. With so many people writing in opposition to the consensus, the public has determined they don't want it to happen.
Tongass National Forest is at the center of the Trump administration's intention to roll back the 2001 Roadless Rule. You can watch an Alaska Nature Documentary about the wild salmon of Tongass National Forrest here:
- YouTube www.youtube.com
The simple truth is we elect our public officials to make decisions. The hope is they do this for all of our well-being, although often it seems they do not. Even though we don't have much power to control what government officials do, voicing our opinions strongly enough often forces them to alter their present course of action. With a unanimous public voice saying, "No!" maybe this time they will course correct as the public wishes.