NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:See Salton while you still can

Some of my favorite childhood memories are of drives through Hoosier farmland on the way to my grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So when Vic suggested that we take a post-Thanksgiving drive to the agricultural area of Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea for a weekend of birding, I was all for it.

I love driving around the Imperial Valley on the old gravel farm roads, looking at the crops. On this visit, I enjoyed seeing sprouts of onion sets, colorful rows of mesclun salad greens, aromatic acres of broccoli and cauliflower, and sheep turned loose in fields of newly mowed alfalfa.

It was a report of a rare Ross’s gull that lured us to the Salton Sea this year, but the bird eluded us. We did, however, find a yellow-footed gull and some laughing gulls.

Our trip list of more than 70 species included three resident pink flamingos. They escaped from captivity somewhere decades ago and have survived at the sea by feeding on the tiny crustaceans that teem in its shallow waters.

The sheer number of birds at the south end of the Salton Sea and surrounding agricultural fields is staggering. About 90% of the nation’s eared grebes migrate through or winter there. Some people have estimated the size of the flock at 3 million during peak migration.

About 30,000 white pelicans and 2,000 brown pelicans can be found there as well. Snow and Ross’s geese number about 25,000. The shores of the sea are plied by some 120,000 shorebirds of 44 different species. The Salton Sea also boasts the state’s largest breeding colony of gull-billed terns and holds about 45% of the world population of endangered Yuma clapper rails.

However, the days of such birding bounty are numbered. The sea has begun a drastic decline. The Salton Sea formed in 1905 when a break in the All-American Canal allowed water to flow into the Salton sink for nearly two years. It is currently about 51 feet deep, with the surface level of the water at minus-227 feet below mean sea level. The sea is fed by two rivers — the New River and the American River — but 85% of the water that enters the sea is from agricultural runoff.

In 2003, the Bush administration forced the Imperial Irrigation District to sell its agricultural runoff to San Diego. It was the largest transfer of agricultural water to urban use in history. Part of the deal required that some agricultural land be allowed to go fallow in order to reduce consumption of water for irrigating crops. This will free up water to be sent to San Diego, but it will also reduce the amount of water flowing into the Salton Sea by as much as one-third.

If nothing is done to offset the loss of this fresh water input, the sea will get smaller and saltier. Since the sea is already saltier than ocean water, it might take as little as seven to 12 years for all fish life to die off, which will collapse the food chain. The sea will reek from the stench of decaying fish and will become a breeding ground for flies and pathogens, instead of birds. Economies that depend on the sea — such as boating, hunting, fishing and birding tourism — will collapse as well.

The reduced air quality from fine lake bottom sediments that become exposed will result in increased respiratory disease and other human health problems.

Vic and I were dismayed to see evidence that the sea is already shrinking. A large but shallow lagoon to the right of the levee that leads to Red Hill Marina is now completely dry, and the shoreline has receded everywhere.

Fortunately, there are plans for salvaging the sea.

Eight options that provide varying degrees of help to the area are now under consideration by the state. A final choice among these options will be announced in April 2007. Passage of Proposition 84 last month will provide funds that help implement whatever plan is selected. But because of the conversion of so much agricultural water to residential use, shrinkage of the sea is inevitable. The best-case scenario is reduction of the sea by half.

If you have never visited this agricultural oasis and birding wonderland, go see it soon. Vic will be leading a birding field trip for Sea and Sage Audubon on Feb. 3 and 4. Check out their newsletter online at www.seaandsageaudubon.org for more information.

Another great way to explore the area is at the Salton Sea International Bird Festival, which runs from Feb. 16-19. Vic, along with his birding partners Bruce Aird, Bob Miller and Henry Detwiler of southwestbirders.com, will be among the tour guides.

Visit www.newriverwetlands.com/saltonsea.html for more information about the festival.