A shallow saltwater lake formed by accident in 1905, the Salton Sea is now a critical wildlife habitat. Drainage water from farm fields long sustained California’s largest lake, but the state’s record drought and more efficient irrigation methods have cut that flow of water, exposing the playa, or lake bed, and putting air quality, wildlife, and crops in jeopardy.

The Salton Sea spreads across 350 miles in the Coachella and Imperial valleys in southeastern California and is home to more than 400 species of birds, such as the American white pelican, and large fish, mammal, and reptile populations. It’s also a key stopover on the Pacific Flyway for migrating birds in need of wet habitats, which are scarce.

“There’s about 3,000 acres of exposed playa now, but without effective restoration programs, 65,000 acres will be exposed,” said Bruce Wilcox, environmental manager with the Imperial Irrigation District, which manages water and energy in the Imperial Valley.

Air quality is already an issue in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, where there’s a high incidence of asthma caused by high dust particular matter, generated by emissions of idling cars waiting to cross the U.S-Mexico border, industrial pollution from Mexico, and the region’s unpaved roads and agricultural tilling.

More dust can also hurt the crops, which blocks the sun for photosynthesis. Aside from the dust, the Salton Sea water also warms the cold northwestern winds that blow in during the winter, and if the water recedes, the cold air will freeze crops.

The region grows a majority of the nation’s winter crops, including broccoli, lettuce, carrots, and melons, and hay crops such as alfalfa and Bermuda grass.

The increased salinity left by the evaporating water also makes it hard for fish to thrive.

“As salinity goes up, the fish won’t reproduce, and so there will just be older fish left that will eventually die off, and this in turn is going to hurt all the fish-eating birds,” Wilcox said.

California’s largest lake was formed unexpectedly more than a century ago when engineers dug irrigation canals from the Colorado River into the valley to boost water supply to local farms. Fearing silt buildup, they decided to increase the water flow by making a cut in the bank of the river. But the outflow was so large that it overwhelmed the canals and flooded the Salton Basin for two years before repairs were made, creating the modern sea.

The Salton Sea’s already declining water levels will fall dramatically in 2018, when the IID diverts water to parched San Diego County and the Coachella Valley as part of a settlement with the state of California and other agencies.

“California has exceeded its allotment of Colorado River water for a long time, so the Bureau of Reclamation told the state to reduce water usage, and the state said the only way to do that was if the IID transfers water to areas that badly need it,” Wilcox explained.

An ambitious $9 billion Salton Sea restoration plan became a casualty of the Great Recession. The current restoration plan calls for setting up 800 acres of fish ponds and a shallow water habitat that will cover the exposed lake bed alongside geothermal energy plants.

“If we build a couple thousand acres of restoration projects, it won’t be enough to cover the entire exposed lake bed, but once we succeed with that, it will show others it’s possible to undertake a full-scale restoration,” Wilcox said.

None of the efforts will restore the Salton Sea back to its original size. But smaller habitats stacked next to one another will be able to handle more wildlife than a typical habitat with more salinity, Wilcox said.