Lake Earl

Lake Earl is the largest lagoon in California, and a navigable body of water partly within Tolowa Dunes State Park and partly within Lake Earl Wildlife Area in Del Norte County, California and the third-most important seabird area on the West Coast after the Farallons and the Channel Islands.Lake Earl has two principal lobes separated by "the Narrows." The smaller lobe, which is also closer to the ocean and the sand bar breach site, is called Lake Tolowa or Lake Talawa by the California Department of Fish and Game. The larger lobe of the lagoon is Lake Earl. Lake Earl is mostly freshwater while Lake Tolowa has a higher salt content. As opposed to an estuary, which is typically open to the ocean and fresh water constantly, a lagoon seals up seasonally and fills with a predominance of fresh water. The lagoon, located on the coast of California about 11mi south of the border with Oregon, is manually breached when the water levels rise to 8ft to 10ft mean sea level (MSL). Though references to levels on USGS charts are made relative to Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) leading to difficulty over the management of the lake's levels. If allowed to breach naturally, the water surface would rise to 12ft to 14ft. At 10ft MSL there is approximately 4900acre of water surface in the lagoons and 4950acre of wetlands; at 8ft MSL, the surface waters area is approximately 4200acre. At 2ft MSL, the combined surface area is a mere 2191acre of open water surrounded by 2000acreof wetlands.