Environment of California

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This article is about the human impact on the environment. For a description of natural features, see Ecology of California.
California is on the western coast of the United States.

The

environment of California describes results of human habitation of the American State of California
.

History of environmental action

Gold miners excavate an eroded bluff with jets of water at a placer mine in Dutch Flat, California sometime between 1857 and 1870.

California's

St. Louis, Missouri.[2] Water soon became the limiting factor for population growth, and early laws established water rights for irrigation and hydraulic mining. The Great Flood of 1862 washed gravel displaced by gold mining downstream to cover riparian cropland and fill formerly navigable stream channels serving as transportation corridors to San Francisco Bay. The damage encouraged passage of water pollution control legislation, broadly regulating disposal of waste to include relatively innocuous materials like gravel.[3] These California laws provided a template for the United States Environmental Protection Agency National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
.

Population and transportation

Main article: Transportation in California
20th century petroleum extraction helped the city of Los Angeles become one of the largest in the United States.

California's aboriginal population of about 300,000 was distributed in relatively self-sufficient groups with subsistence resources on the coastal wetlands near the mouth of the

coastal redwood forests was transported to San Francisco by ships. Redwood proved poorly suited for railroad ties, so fast-growing Australian eucalypts
were widely planted to provide future supplies.

San Francisco Bay remained the focus of a railway network extending north and south until Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway completed a transcontinental rail link to Los Angeles and San Diego in 1885. Eastbound rail shipment of citrus began in 1890. Petroleum was discovered in 1892, and the first offshore drilling occurred at Summerland Oil Field in 1896.[4] Hollywood's film industry and shift of the United States Navy Battle Fleet home port to San Pedro in 1919 accelerated growth of southern coastal cities to 36% of the state population by 1920.[2]

A majority of Californians live, commute, and work in the hazy web of Southern California freeways.

As California petroleum production peaked, the United States Highway System of 1925 included routes paralleling older transportation corridors.

great American streetcar scandal. Southern California cities were home to 51% of Californians when the Interstate Highway System arrived in 1959, while 26% lived around San Francisco Bay. Lincoln Highway became Interstate 80, Route 66 became Interstate 40, and Interstate 5 extended from San Diego through Los Angeles and north up the rain shadowed western side of the Central Valley and the eastern end of San Francisco Bay.[2]

Modern commuter rail service includes Bay Area Rapid Transit, Caltrain, Muni Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, San Diego Trolley, Sacramento Regional Transit District, VTA light rail, and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner and Capitol Corridor. In 2010, 9 million Californians (24% of the population) lived around San Francisco Bay and 21 million (57% of the population) lived in the southern coastal cities.[6]

Water transfers

Main article: Water in California
The Salton Sea is an endorheic basin of evaporating irrigation return flows.

Unsuccessful gold prospectors soon recognized California's agricultural potential and their mining equipment began adjusting timing and location of stream flows to increase food production. Mono Lake and Tulare Lake shrank as flows were diverted to irrigation.[7] Little Lake was drained to form the town of Willits, California in 1874,[8] and Laguna de Santa Rosa was drained to bring rail service to Sonoma County.[9] The Klamath Project drained large shallow lakes for conversion to cropland in 1905. The Potter Valley Project diverted water from the Eel River to the Russian River in 1906 to provide hydroelectric power to Ukiah, California; and Lake Pillsbury was formed behind Scott Dam in 1922 to increase summer flows allowing irrigation of Potter Valley.[10]

Hetch Hetchy Valley. The 1922 Colorado River Compact allowed completion of the Colorado River Aqueduct to Los Angeles in 1941.[11]

wetlands. The Central Valley Project continued with Folsom Dam on the American River, Trinity Dam on the Trinity River, and Oroville Dam on the Feather River. Construction of the California Aqueduct has been completed to Southern California except for a Peripheral Canal which might restore pre-dam delta salinity concentrations.[11]

A major fraction of water transferred to southern California is used for production of food. Irrigation

New River may contain pesticides and elevated concentrations of dissolved minerals, and may accumulate in endorheic basins like Kesterson Reservoir. The Salton Sea was enlarged by diversion of water from the Colorado River.[12]

New environments

Cat eating a house sparrow.
Raccoon and skunk eating cat food in a Hollywood back yard

Aside from simple agricultural environments, water transfer has created a unique southern California

European starling and gulls fly between isolated habitat segments, while raccoons, opossums, skunks and rats travel under bridges and through culverts and storm drains. Animals killed during unsuccessful crossing attempts are a food source for scavengers also seeking garbage or food intended for pets or wild birds and squirrels. Domestic cats and dogs kill small animals for recreation and have established feral predator populations. Coyotes prey on these smaller predators.[13]

Legislation


Organizations

Climate change

Main article: Climate change in California

See also

References

  1. ^ Heizer, Robert F. Handbook of North American Indians, volume 8, California (1978) Smithsonian Institution pp.22-23
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-9602544-0-4
    pp.9-19
  3. ^ "THE GREAT CALIFORNIA FLOOD OF 1862". Fortnightly Club of Redlands. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  4. ISBN 0-8229-5663-2
    p.30|pages
  5. ^ "Environmental History Timeline". Radford University. Archived from the original on 2011-02-05. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  6. ^ "CA County Population". California State Association of Counties. Archived from the original on 2011-05-12. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  7. ^ "Tulare Lake basin hydrology and hydrography: a summary of the movement of water and aquatic species" (PDF). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 2011-05-04.
  8. ISBN 978-1-884995-14-9
    p.168
  9. ^ "New Life for the Laguna". Bay Nature. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  10. ^ Baxter, Don J. Lakes of California (1972) Pacific Gas & Electric Co pp.33-34
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-9602544-0-4
    pp.142-145
  12. ^ "Salton Sea". National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  13. ^ Wolch, West and Gaines Transspecies Urban Theory from Satiety and Space 1995. volume 13, pages 735-760

External links

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