Imperial County, California — Not everyone can turn their hobby into a profession. But thanks to the Salton Sea, California duck hunting guide Brick Dickinson can do just that. He doesn't even advertise it, yet the work was booked for him years in advance.
Falling water levels in the Salton Sea, which has lost about a third of its water supply in the past 25 years, are putting the future of its business at risk. He adds that ducks are still plentiful, but access to the lake has declined and other species of birds have largely disappeared.
“For one thing, there are no more brown pelicans here,” Dickinson says. “They used to be here. The Salton Sea used to have fish, but those big algae blooms depleted all the oxygen and they died.”
All that could change over the next year or two as California nears completion of a habitat restoration project to conserve the species. The project's primary goal, according to Samantha Arthur, assistant secretary for Salton Sea policy at the California Natural Resources Agency, is to restore habitat for the endangered desert pupfish. But it's just the first step in California's plans to restore 30,000 acres of habitat in the Salton Sea — a move that could have implications for the future of the Great Salt Lake.
A great egret flies near Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge in Imperial County, California, on Friday, December 15, 2023.
Christine Murphy, Deseret News
Habitat for fish and food for birds
The loss of water from the Salton Sea—due primarily to changes in water policy that reduced the agricultural runoff that once fed the lake—has created significant difficulties for human access to the lake. As the beach receded, it left behind a crust that concealed sticky mud underneath. It may seem like you could drive across it to get to what's left of the lake, Dickinson says, but if you did it would be “like driving on a giant pie. … You'll break through the crust and find all the sweets underneath.”
But for wildlife, high salinity poses the biggest challenge, according to Vivienne Maisonneuve, director of the Salton Sea Management Program at the California Department of Water Resources. Like the Great Salt Lake, the Salton Sea is a terminal lake, meaning the water and salts it contains have nowhere else to go. As the sea shrinks, the salt becomes more concentrated, raising the salinity to about 7% today. Ocean water contains about 3.5% salt by weight; The percentage of the Great Salt Lake ranges from 5% to 27%
Maisonneuve says the increased salinity of the Salton Sea means it can no longer support fish, which in turn has affected species such as brown pelicans that rely on fish as a food source.
To combat this, he says, California plans to pump water from a nearby river and mix it with water from the Salton Sea to achieve ideal salinity. The mixed water will be used to fill man-made ponds dug on the shore of the Salton Sea to create an artificial wetland — or what environmental professionals call managed wetlands. Maisonneuve says habitat managers in California will have the ability to adjust water levels and salinity in wetlands to keep them within the ideal range for the desert pupfish. As the fish return, shorebirds that once frequented the Salton Sea should do so as well.
The New River Diversion Structure at the Species Conservation Project near the Salton Sea in Imperial County, California, is pictured on Wednesday, December 13, 2023. The structure will divert New River water into basins where it can be mixed with pumped water. from the Salton Sea, allowing control of salinity concentrations in habitat basins. The Species and Habitat Conservation Project will convert more than 4,000 acres of exposed lake bottom into wetland habitats for aquatic wildlife and migratory birds in the Pacific Migratory Pathway, as part of a 10-year plan to restore 30,000 acres around the Salton Sea.
Christine Murphy, Deseret News
Habitat opportunities in wetlands
Managed wetlands are nothing new to the Great Salt Lake. Between projects run by the federal government, the state of Utah and several private entities such as duck clubs and conservation groups, the lake's shoreline already includes about 300,000 acres of managed wetlands, according to Max Malmquist, engagement director for the National Audubon Society Saltwater. Lakes Program. Some of these wetlands date back to efforts in the 1930s to control the spread of waterfowl botulism in the area, says Adam Wicklin, senior project manager at the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Fund, which is jointly managed by Audubon and The Nature Conservancy.
But like the Salton Sea, the Great Salt Lake may benefit from an expanded network of managed wetlands if the lake continues to shrink in the future.
As the lake recedes, the distance between what we normally consider the endpoint of the freshwater rivers that feed it and the shore of the lake itself increases, Malmquist says. This creates larger wetland-like areas in areas previously covered by the lake itself. Although most of these areas are not currently managed for the express purpose of providing bird habitat, Audubon has noted that these growing delta areas tend to attract shorebirds.
“If the lake level stays low, the amount of habitat it provides may change,” Malmquist says. “If we are looking to maximize or improve bird habitat, we may want to start looking at freshwater and saltwater interfaces to see what can be done to create more habitat in those locations.”
This would also have the added benefit of helping control dust that might blow up the exposed lake bottom, a benefit California also expects to see from wetland projects in the Salton Sea, Malmquist says.
That would also come with some potential trade-offs, Malmquist says. What makes the Great Salt Lake unique is the sheer diversity of habitat it provides for all kinds of birds – from the lake itself, with its salt flies and brine shrimp, to the surrounding wetlands and their different types of plants, insects and invertebrates. While one group of waterfowl may depend on wetlands for food, another group – such as the eared grebe – needs the open lake and brine shrimp.
“One of the things we're seeing in the Salton Sea is that lake levels are going down, and we're seeing winners and losers there. The fishless gamebirds are the losers in this situation,” Malmquist says. “But these other habitats are starting to emerge and provide additional resources for existing species.” “In habitats that may have occurred historically in the Salton Sea.” “What we observe in the Salton Sea is something we can look at here as conditions change to determine what habitat is available, what water is available.”
So, while a shrinking lake may open up more opportunities for wetland habitats, the current goal, Malmquist says, is to ensure the lake has enough water to support all the habitat it currently represents.
