The San Joaquin Valley Bioregion in the heart of California is the state's top agricultural producing region, sometimes called “the nation's salad bowl” for the great array of fruits and vegetables grown in its fertile soil. The bioregion is bordered on the west by the coastal mountain ranges. Its eastern boundary joins the southern two-thirds of the Sierra bioregion, which features Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks.

Location, Cities, People
Eight counties comprise the San Joaquin Valley bioregion, including all of Kings County, most of Fresno, Kern, Merced, and Stanislaus counties, and portions of Madera, San Luis Obispo, Tulare counties. This growing bioregion, the third most populous out of ten, has an estimated 2 million people, according to 1990 census data. The largest cities are Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto, and Stockton. Some of California's poorest cities are in Fresno, Kern, and Tulare counties. At its northern end, the San Joaquin Valley bioregion borders the southen end of the Sacramento Valley bioregion. To the west, south, and east, the bioregion extends to the edges of the valley floor. Native people of the bioregion include the Mono and Yokut Indians. Native lands include the Tule River Indian Reservation in Tulare County, Cold Springs Rancheria, and Table Mountain and Big Sandy Reservations in Fresno County, and Santa Rosa Rancheria in Kings County.
Interstate 5 and State Highway 99 are the major north-south roads that run the entire length of the bioregion. Other main routes include State Highways 33, 41, 43, 65, 132, 140, 178, 180, and 198.


Tourist Attractions, Industries

Summer fruit

The San Joaquin Valley is California's leading agricultural producing bioregion, and five of its counties -- Fresno, Kern, Tulare, Merced, and Stanislaus-- rank among the state's top 10 counties in farm production value. Oil and gas also are important industries in the San Joaquin bioregion. The deepest wells and about half of the largest oil fields are found in Kern County, as is the Elkhorn Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve. Lemoore Naval Air Station west of Visalia also is in this bioregion.

Climate and Geography
Well-suited for farming, the bioregion is hot and dry in summer with long, sunny days. Winters are moist and often blanketed with heavy fog. The broad, flat valley is ringed by the Diablo and Coast Ranges on the west and the Sierra Nevada foothills on the east. Habitat includes vernal pools, valley sink scrub and saltbush, freshwater marsh, grasslands, arid plains, orchards, and oak savannah. The growth of agriculture in the Central Valley has converted much of the historic native grassland, woodland, and wetland to farmland.
The major river is the San Joaquin, with tributaries of the lower Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, and Fresno rivers. The California Aqueduct extends the entire length of the bioregion. The southern portion of the bioregion includes the Kings, Kaweah, and Kern rivers, which drain into closed interior basins. No significant rivers or creeks drain into the valley from the Coast Range.


Plants and Wildlife
Historically, millions of acres of wetlands flourished in the bioregion, but stream diversions for irrigation dried all but about 5 percent. Precious remnants of this vanishing habitat are protected in the San Joaquin Valley bioregion in publicly owned parks, reserves, and wildlife areas. Seasonal wetlands are found at the Kern National Wildlife Refuge west of Delano, owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It attracts a variety of ducks, shorebirds, and song birds, as well as peregrine falcons.

Red Tailed Hawk