The lake in the Tulare basin

When white explorers first came to California a giant lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, formed in the Tulare Basin almost every year at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley.  Over the years, through dams and levees, the lake was eliminated.  Its bottom became one of the richest agricultural areas on the globe.  

Now, after all the rains and atmospheric rivers, the Tulare basin has again turned into a giant lake, flooding thousands of acres of farmland.  

The environmental philosopher Barry Commoner published four laws of ecology.  The fourth one was “Nature bats last.”