EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

A Most Unusual Lake

Honey Lake
California, USA

Explanation:  On a recent flight south along the border between California and Nevada, we skirted the edge of this most unusual lake.

This is Honey Lake, located just over the border in California, located between Susanville and Lake Tahoe.  Looking east, here, the snow-dashed mountains belong to Plumas and Mount Lassen National Forests, where the volcanic Cascades meet the granitic Sierras.  And below us, including the lake basin, reside in the Great Basin Desert.  

And that is a clue about why this is an unusual lake.  It was formed along the Honey Lake fault zone which itself forms part of the Sierra Nevada frontal fault system.  

The lake is shallow and often dries mostly or fully during summer, forming a salt pan.  Shown here, in early April, it is still holding some turbid water, but the shoreline is already receding.

As part of the Great Basin, the lake is surrounded by sagebrush steppe, alkali vegetation, and agricultural lands, as shown in this week's image.  

It also forms the Honey Lake Wildlife Area, administered by California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which provides habitat for cranes, swans, ducks, geese, hawks, songbirds, deer, pronghorn, and much more.  Hunting for rabbits, waterfowl, snipe, doves, and other species is permitted.  And yes, amazingly, there is even regulated fishing that provides access to largemouth bass and channel catfish.  So much life for a fault-created salt pan!  

OH, one more thing ... notice the FIRE and smoke plume in the background.  Although this episode was going to include warnings about low water levels under climate change trends, we can point to the very early wildfire here as a warning of things to come ...