Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge
This project is part of a wetland/cropland rotation program being implemented on Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) to alleviate declines in both wildlife habitat values and agricultural productivity. The purpose of this program is to re-establish the ecological processes that historically created Tule Lake NWR's productive wetlands, while maintaining and enhancing economically viable and sustainable agriculture. The project restored 622 acres of seasonal wetlands within the leased agricultural lands on Lots 65 through 70 of Tule Lake NWR.
Levees were constructed and water control structures installed to manage the lands as seasonal wetlands for the first three years following construction. They are to be flooded yearround in the fourth year. Upon completion of the fourth year, the lands are designed to be returned to agricultural production and another block of land elsewhere on the refuge will be entered into the habitat-agricultural land rotation program.
Tule Lake NWR is one of the most important waterfowl areas in North America. |