Anza's Dairy & the Lessons Learned

 Understanding the importance of Riparian Ecosystems & making Practical Application in Restoration of things observed

Image: Regional Conservation Authority

San Jacinto River west of Hwy 74 bridge across from  Cranston Station

Traditionally when mankind created settlements which became towns and eventually large cities, they mostly were located on the banks of rivers and/or delta outlets into the world's oceans. Their economies demanded it and they of course were in great need of available supply of fresh water. Seriously, look on any world map at all of today's present cities anywhere around the globe and view where they are mostly located. Of course in today's world of modern technological advances, it is no longer necessary for any city to be located within close proximity to such an ecosystem. Many centuries ago, the world's most well known classical rivers meandered this way or that through a dense forest of riparian woodlands. This includes the once lush green San Jacinto River Valley in which such a lush environment was actually described by those first Spanish explorers as predominantly Cottonwoods, Sycamores, etc. But we also know from other journal contributors that these woodlands held such food bearing plants as California Fan Palms with their dates, Elderberry trees, roses and Fray Pedro Font made mention of native grapes everywhere, starting in Bautista Canyon. Such an overflow of variety also filled with vast backwater marshlands on either side of the heavily dense old growth forests along the main river channel attracted a myriad of waterfowl along with large and small animals which would be lured by the abundance of natural food sources.

Image - Wikimedia

In my last post on this subject, I posed a question to the illustration here and asked, "Can anyone else picture or visualize in your mind's eye the lush San Jacinto River Valley floodplains with California Grizzly Bears fishing for Southern California Steelhead Trout as they make their way east to the South, Middle and North Fork Canyons to spawn ?" Of course anything would be possible if the climate and the natural hydrological circumstances I brought up were untouched by man. The native Southern California Steelhead Trout could spawned in the San Jacinto River, and grizzly bears may well have roamed its shores in search of food. So lush was this landscape and so unusual was it in an otherwise dry country that no doubt the river valleys were attractive to even the Native Americans long before the Spaniards set foot in these valleys land expeditionary  discovery and unfortunately proceeded to dismantle the the natural world's life sustaining mechanisms in this region which struck them with awe in the first place. 

Image: Wikimedia

Luiseño Indians Mazestone Petroglyphs, Hemet CA

Getting back to the possibility of bears roaming the riparian woodlands of the San Jacinto Valley. One thing that has peaked my curiosity recently over the last year of whether or not bears (especially Grizzly) existed in the San Jacinto Valley, comes from a documentary I viewed about a sort of new age eccentric who was often described as a self-proclaimed grizzly bear guru. A book was written about him with the title "The Grizzly Maze". He was known as the "Grizzly Man", real name Timothy Treadwell, who had a codename for the remote riparian area of Kaflia Bay which he coined the "The Grizzly Maze" because of the labyrinth of tunnels in the thick riparian underbrush made by bears who came to the area for Salmon fishing. Bears often come to the same areas year after year because it is known by them where rich food sources are dependable and reliable. Riparian areas are clearly rich sources for many types or varieties of foods. Think of all the small fruits and berries which may have existed in the rich lush San Jacinto Valley. Think also of the plethora of insects which bears love. The California Fan Palm also has one of the richest sweet tasting dates, although the flesh is minimal compared to Mid-East and North African Date Palms. I know because I use to snack on them when working in Palm Springs. Still what is it that bears love more than all other foods, isn't it Sweets ? While the priest Francisco Garcès is the only one to mention the presence of Dates as foods offered by the natives when they were close to Park Hill, clearly the others saw and ate of them, but deemed them of little worth for mentioning. Still, Bears would have had a field day with the date cluster fronds. The spread of these trees would have even accelerated by numerous seeds dispense by means of their feces everywhere. In fact throughout this valley today and especially in older neighbourhoods there are many very old examples of these trees in the landscaping. 

Image - torreto

Can you imagine getting caught in a Grizzly Maze at the wrong time ? If the Maze Petroglyph is really an annimation of an actual Grizzly Maze, I can ponder why Native Americans found other uses for fire than the popular ones propagated by fire ecologists. But seriously, could the Natives have observed and followed those same Grizzly bears to some of their favourite foraging grounds which would have also provided a wealth of food catches for themselves ? Hmmmm, so what were those Luiseño Indians of the Hemet & San Jacinto valleys really telling us in some of their petroglyphs ? Could the Hemet and Diamond Valley Mazestone petroglyphs (image above left) have been a representation of the extensive labyrinth of vegetation tunnels created by Grizzly and/or other black bears in the riparian system surrounding all sides of the river that Francisco Garcès recorded seeing in the San Jacinto Valley when he ventured through there in March of 1775 ? If you check out the image below, you can see the trail and tunnel or pathway labyrinths observed in the riparian habitat at Kaflia Bay aka "the grizzly maze" of Alaska.

Kaflia Bay aka "the grizzly maze"

Interestingly, Chaparral and Wildlife Biologist Richard Halsey has researched and studied about the California Grizzly Bear's ability to shaped and form the native chaparral vegetation habitats it once lived and thrived in. See Richard's blog link below which goes into depth on the Grizzly's chaparral tunnels.

Image: Richard Halsey

I have tried to research a bit on the meaning of such the Hemet Mazestone petroglyphs which seem to have been common in the southwest and have found a couple of interesting anomalies. Mostly they seem to be a mystery for sure, though some want to attribute them to some religious symbolism, I found that many of their locations are close to water sources and some associated with a bears paw or foot. Some however are also in the canyonland country of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, so the maze art could represent canyonland mazes, but also with bears present. But it's also interesting that many glyph sites with the canyon maze sites also have Bear's foot or an animal figure representing a large bear on the same rock face associated some of these maze glyphs. Well who knows, I am quite capable of creating my own version of a story like any of the experts with credentials, but still, some of the coincidences are uncanny. But it is nevertheless a fact that Garcès did specifically mention seeing many of the bears while journeying through the San Jacinto Valley to Mystic Lake. Bears love riparian habitats and follow traditional pathways to food sources. Many bears would be present in the warmer food rich valleys below at the winter time of year foraging for many food stuffs. They would have made the same type of exact tunnel mazes as those coined by Treadwell up in the river delta in Alaska. Now as an aside interest, one wonders about the importance of the presence of bears in Southern California riparian woodlands. Certainly the Native Luiseño Indians who were known for their petroglyphs would have used these same tunnels for their own hunting and gathering ventures. What are the positives of the Bears presence on not only chaparral and large forested ecosystems of the high country, but also floodplain riparian ecosystems ?

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library

Vaqueros lasso a grizzly bear

This is where practical application comes in. All of the wild larger animals in Southern California (Grizzly, Black Bears, Elk ???) who would have had the largest impact on riparian vegetation maintenance  have for the most part been eliminated permanently. The Spanish were the first to eradicate the bears from the very land they were determined to tame for their own personal commercial ventures and this was further exacerbated by the influx of the American Pioneers from the east looking for their own slice of the pie. What changes occurred within riparian woodlands as a result of the absence of large animals, one can only guess. They are gone and so are those forests, so research, studying and pondering our next move is greatly handicapped. Most of the riparian ecosystem habitats of the southwest in general are only a whisper of their former glory. Most of the former streams inside urban environments that we are aware of (if not concreted over) are extremely dense with lack of open spaces within them. Periodically the various government maintenance workers come in and obliterate what vegetation there is for storm channel vegetation removal purposes. What is left is as abnormal as a concrete channel. Some of this rapid dense growth may be the result of intense or excessive eutrophication (high nutrient pollution which acts as Miracle-Gro for plants) coming as a result of Human filth washed down storm drains. Often times these streams are also weed choked like other habitats with many invasives turned loose as a result of the close proximity to urban gardens and landscapes. And as a result of the human siphoning of dependable water sources, many of these riparian places now dry up and large amounts of dead vegetation results within such ecosystems. Clearly, Humans do have a responsibility when they deliberately disrupt these finely tuned riparian ecosystems once they have disturbed them. What was once finely tuned has been piece by piece dismantled of it's various system sustainable mechanisms which are incapable of any further future function. Maintenance then becomes nothing more than a year after year continual fight to maintain these sterile artificial alternatives. This is where Biomimetics comes to play. Take a look at the animated illustration I found below from the Arroyo Seco Riparian Restoration Project.

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Biomimetics and Riparian Ecosystem Designing 

image: arroyoseco.org
(Click here to Zoom larger image)

image: Riverside County Flood Control

Here is an extremely interesting idea for slowing water down by means of a floodplain detour and allowing a healthier vegetative community which in turn allows for more effient water percolation while filtering it better at the same time. It also provides greater habitats for both wildlife and people. What struck me too when I first saw this architectural drawing from the Arroyo Seco Project for creating a wider floodplain aside from the actual narrow channel of the riverbed, was that it is in miniature what I described with regards the San Jacinto River Valley on it's historical grander scale and the 1980 flooding of the city of San Jacinto from the upstream breach of the levee which shut off the natural flow of the floodplain. The San Jacinto Valley should always have had been allowed a much wider channel from the very start of development as opposed to the present forced narrow corridor it has now shoved up against North Mountain where it is today. By their very flawed human nature this was never allowed when the area was originally settled because personal speculative economic fortunes were at stake. Then of course there was all that ignorance thingy and the fact that most didn't automatically care enough to consider finding out the truth of the matter we know as pros & cons of proceeding or not with a planned rearrangement of the landscape. In fact many of the housing & other commercial interests (which is really the motive behind re-channeling to facilitate Human economic interest which brings more tax revenues) in the floodplain areas should never have been allowed in the first place. While one may view from the ground what looks to be a large flood corridor as it exists presently today in some photographs, it's actually not capable for handling the often massive waterflow capacity which charges like Spain's running with the bulls chaos out of those mountain canyons when all it's side tributaries are firing on all pistons at once. I've posted a recent study in my references section at the bottom of this post which points out the problems regarding forcing Nature's hydrological components into narrow channels even when it seems to be for the greater economic economic and human safety considerations. It basically deals with the Missouri River and what the Lewis & Clark expedition actually saw when they explored new things like these Spaniards with their own American Empire building ambitions.

The other problem with Human rearranging of river courses by means of concrete channeling is that most of the water which falls as rain in Southern California is purposefully expedited downstream quicker and is lost forever into the Pacific Ocean. I found this to be true even when I lived in San Diego County. Even when it rained lightly in San Diego County's own inland empire, most of what falls ends up as asphalt street runoff and the Mission Dam area quite often will always look like it's at major flood stage, even when there are no heavy rains. I am most certain that way back in historical times, this region (El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside valleys) didn't always flood with massive amounts of runoff with almost every single rainstorm. Even when it did rain heavy, most of the healthy vegetated topography would have allowed more of the important water percolation or infiltration into the soils which is necessary for downstream water sustenance in riparian ecosystems during the dry season by means of various springs. Water would still end up eventually into the Pacific Ocean anyway, but at a much later time frame and slower level of pace. Other system community members such as beavers and believe it or not bears would have contributed to the slowing down of water as it pursued it's ultimate path of least resistance goal to the Ocean by means of gravity and other physics. Look up most older historical topo maps, especially Thomas Bros and you'll find a common notation by means of symbols of the exact location of Springs. Many were named, but many others were not. Question is why ? Wasn't necessary, but Springs were more important to travelers in times past than today. They were the rest stops of the day. You should however know that most of these are now dried up, gone and long forgotten mostly by the cattlemen who used them. I know because in the surrounding Anza Valley area where I once lived for over two decades, I actually made a deliberate attempt to find each and every one of these on my old Thomas Guide which took a little over a decade. Most of the springs without names were fashioned into cattle water concrete and/or stone troughs from seeps other small water anomalies. Today these springs hold little importance to the modern day person and therefore omitted from all newer maps. Okay change of subject:

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Biomimetics and Hydraulic Redistribution

Image animation: DawsonLab

Okay, here I go again. Apparently I have to bring up the essentially important subject of hydraulic redistribution regarding the very foundational underground rooting network which allows everything above ground that we see and enjoy to become an ongoing perpetual  sustainable reality over countless lifetimes. This is even partially why I even created "Earth's Internet" in the first place, even though many of the subjects may seem boring to short modern day attention spans. Let's consider the illustration above for a moment. Let's pretend that this cartoon animation illustrates the huge old growth Cottonwood trees on the present normally dry sandy floor of the San Jacinto Valley floodplain. These deeper rooted old growth riparian ecosystem trees which could also include California Sycamores would have been efficient performers of that all important hydraulic descent even during dormancy, even as the #3 option in the graph illustrates. Such interesting mechanical phenomena would also have been present during drier times, maybe even prolonged macro-climate drought events where a sustained high water table untouched by any human concerns would have allowed the lush system to maintain itself. The challenge however in artificially rebuilding any type of vegetation ecosystem is education on exactly what type of  vegetation components act as the best Hydraulic redistribution mechanisms. I researched this for many years up in Anza when living within the predominantly Chaparral Plant Community up in Anza California. This actually helped in establishing pines and oaks in remote locations with little or no water available for conventional irrigation. While I found several candidates, Redshank or Ribbonwood [Adenostoma sparsifolium] and a close second by it's evil tough wildfire causing cousin Chamise or Greasewood [Adenostoma fasciculatum]. Kidding of course about the wildfire thingy, that's more about attitude and prejudice more than truth based on knowledge. In the riparian system it's easy, Cottonwoods, Sycamores, and in some cases within this region Mesquite trees. Some willows also may have value during temporary dry period years, but not always. Other trees for the San Jacinto system also may be Arizona Ash which has large populations on the valley floor as it emerges out of Bee Canyon along the Indian Creek water course and floodplain.

(Bit of a side note regarding White Alder (Alnus rhombifolia) in the San Jacinto River valley)

During the wetter years when both San Jacinto River and Bautista Creek ran all year, or even when it trickled by flood comparisons, White Alders flourished even in low regions of their valley floors where there were extremely hot temperatures. In Bautista Creek they were present even in the basin catchment behind the diversion dam. In the San Jacinto River they would often show up as far as the river flowed towards Mystic Lake. If this happened in the 1980s, then they were present back when the Spaniards came through. These trees are almost always associated with continual moisture & cooler climate conditions and that's true that they do thrive in such situations. However in there are other unique instances given surface water presence, these not so deeply rooted trees can even become  successful anywhere in the hot valleys below. For example, when during the same 1980s flooding event period when Tahquitz Creek and other Palm Springs water courses flowed year long into the main channel of Whitewater River down the greater Coachella Valley, these trees sprouted all along the water courses here and there. Even when temps topped well over 100+ degrees Fahrenheit (40+ C). I know because I was amazed when I went on my weekly visits to one of my clients at Mac Magruder Chevolet whose property sets next to the creek on Hwy 111 in downtown Palm Springs. The problem comes when the surface water goes away. For a short while they may flourish and sustain themselves from below ground water, but they eventually fry in the intense heat even when that goes further deeper into the soil. They are not deeply rooted like Cottonwood or Sycamore trees. Hence they would make a lousy candidate for establishing trees with great hydraulics potential. However, from a biomimcry point of view, if one needs to stabilize an actual streambed with permanently running water, they would be the best at holding tightly together the streambed. Only then world the shallower rooted Alder be your best choice. In Idyllwild along Strawberry Creek when water levels were low, you could see why the dominance of the White Alders was a good thing. These shallow rooted trees weave their shallow surface root systems in and around boulders and large cobblestone river rocks so tightly and close together, not even large massive floods seem to be able to budge anything about the main bed. At the same time, this physical feature also makes them a terrible candidate for lawn trees as the constant mowing shaves off the tops of these lateral roots create a pattern of burn mark outlines in the grass as the roots grow larger with age and scaring is horrible as well. But once again, these are shallow roots and need permanent water flow. Here in cool wet Scandinavia they grow on mountainsides far away from Creeks and therefore in no need of a water course.

Given these facts, hydraulic redistributing from the deepest roots of old growth Cottonwoods and Sycamores would have played the most important role in sustaining the entire system even during the drier water table fluctuating periods. The main problem I find when it actually comes to the subject of hydraulic redistribution is that you rarely if ever hear it ever discussed. Other than a handful of not well known intellectually written pieces often times behind some ridiculous Paywall, does anyone really hear about this info anywhere being discussed ? No and they should. This is where such basic fundamentals on any and all plants prior to engineering an ecosystem based on the discipline behind Biomimcry which in this case simply means having knowledge of what each riparian component is and what it accomplishes within that system is imperative and where true architectural design becomes a real success. But I'll go further. Those who sign up as volunteers for many of these land or habitat restoration projects should be required to go through an education program where they actually understand the underground system mechanisms of the above ground paradise they are attempting to save. But lets go even further, the school systems should have such subjects have as part of their science programs which would include these same basic fundamentals in regards how Earth's ecosystems work, function together and maintain over the long haul. Dump the old failed dogma of "Survival of the Fittest" and replace it with "Survival of the Mutually Cooperative". The biggest road block to all of this is these suggestions while many will agree upon, they are simply far to logical to be implemented into any government run program irrespective of the country. Sadly the world's authority just doesn't work that way under the present system. With the present disastrous water shortages in all of California, better uses of major floodplains for percolation purposes should be looked at more closely. This may even mean relocating folks, but that would be another major headache issue. Of course, then there is also the issue with regards street contamination of water which might restrict drinking water quality. At the very least, public parks and other utility usage needs could be satisfied. Take a look at the two comparable photos below of where the present San Jacinto River Channel runs close to the western end of Soboba Hot Springs Resort. 

Image: Mojave Jones (Panoramio)

Notice the main channel to the left hand side which has been forced up against North Mountain's foothills and the overflow flood channel on the right. Also notice the island of native vegetation in the middle which separates them  them ? Below now, notice the flood overflow on the right hand side becomes more apparent when full of excessive water overflow is at flooding stage. When rivers and streams are forced against the natural physical demands of how  water flow should proceed, the narrower channel creates stronger force which allows scouring and deep erosion to take place. Especially when vegetation is removed. If vegetation is still present, then it won't be for long. Keep in mind in regards to the rain photo below, this is not truly a real flood event of times past like the 1980s. This would be normal winter year, although even that seems to be changing with the climate disruption.

Image: Mojave Jones (Panoramio)

Again as you can observe in the above photo, this is now wintertime. The riparian trees are all dormant as per lack of any leaves in the photograph. Still, if there were a much larger floodplain allowed alongside the main channel with a greater vegetation content, the water speed would be radically reduced. Studies show that forced narrow channels cut, gouge and scour the physical water course and that should not be the goal in water transport which is all that is considered. No one should ever want an L.A. River Concrete monster on steroids in their own backyard. That is never an answer or option. A more natural approach would also allow for far better water infiltration and percolation into the valley's water table aquifer further facilitated by the phenomena of hydraulic descent even by dormant trees. If you view the map image below, you will notice that there are some attempts and plans to take land development use off the table and allow for the natural buffering. 

Regional Conservation Authority - Western Riverside County

"On June 24, 2009, the RCA acquired the San Jacinto River Ranchos property, totaling approximately 73.29 acres. This property is located within the San Jacinto Valley Area Plan, Subunit 3 - Upper San Jacinto River/Bautista Creek area. The property also falls within Rough Step Unit 2. The acquisition of the property is expected to help conserve important biological resources including arroyo toad, mountain yellow-legged frog, burrowing owl, Cooper's hawk, least Bell's vireo, southwestern willow flycatcher, yellow warbler, bobcat, Los Angeles pocket mouse, mountain lion, western pond turtle and slender-horned spine flower. The subject property will assist in providing a linkage for wildlife movement along the San Jacinto River and is adjacent to existing PQP conserved land to the north and east of the property. On July 28, 2009, the RCA also acquired the Meadows at Lone Cone property, totaling approximately 67.61 acres. The Meadows at Lone Cone property is immediately southeast and adjacent to the San Jacinto River Ranchos property and contains similar biological resources."

Regional Western Conservation Authority, Riverside County 

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Now, Getting down to the Bear facts as I see them

illustration: Soren Hendrich

image: Mike Cavaroc 2010

This great illustration above reveals the importance of Bears to riparian woodland systems. Black bears are omnivores with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. That seems to be universal with most bears, although we think of Grizzlies as more meat eater. Hollywood *sigh* They typically live in largely forested areas like those of the San Bernardino National Forests, but most likely they would have left those forests in search of food in valleys below perhaps in the wintertime when they were clearly abundant and observed and noted by the Spanish Explorer Journals. Notice in that illustration above the watershed ecosystem to the left has more bears, old logs and debris pile ups associated up and down the riverbed which allows for more slow water movement and meandering ? Also the one on the right has less debris and logs in the stream or riverbed in the lack of large presence of bears ? Bears have an incredible nose for food sources and can scour through a forest floors opening up the understory. As the photo above illustrates, the Bears foraging around dead logs and perhaps still standing dead trees looking for bark beetle grubs. In so doing, they further degrade the dry dead vegetation with their powerful tools which allows further more efficient decomposing which allows nutrients into the Earth only to be returned to the other living vegetation. And let's no forget the health benefits of 

Earth being a much crappier place at one time

Image: Wildfire Programs

The illustration here of a man made cleanup in a riparian understory in the  photograph is important for a number of reasons. First, in historical times winter rainy season flooding had the ability to remove and redistribute dead materials from the riparian forested understories. These floods also would have flattened grasses and other small plants to the forest floor where many microbial components could further break them down. Much the way heavy snows do in high elevations. Newer small plants come in spring and refresh the ground under the trees and the process starts all over again. This leaves bears, beavers and other animals to further rummage and redistribute the material on the ground as they need or see fit. As far as bears, they could deal with even dead standing trees by knocking these over, sometimes into the water courses themselves while foraging for grubs. Beaver could more easily acquire smaller dead branches from such bear fallen trees to utilize as construction materials inserted into the dam or other lodge projects, thus contributing to water debris piles or jams we saw in the other previous illustration above which provided the protective nursery habitat for smaller fish. The other main point to consider here is wildfire. Modern weedy vegetation chocked streams and riverbeds in Southern California are no longer a natural wet impediment to an advancing wildfire. Often times the bull doze their way through a riparian area with massive amounts of dead material ripe for wildfire consumption. Another reason better water management is necessary. The cost of mismanagement because of ignorance has been much higher in the long run.

image: logs and trees

I've selected this image here on the left to illustrate the benefits of what various logs piles and jams in just the right locations can do for a river or stream. This animation is actually taken from a website dealing with fishing for which I have linked to at the bottom of this post in the references section. It illustrates where fish prefer to lay low and hide. When I visited family in eastern Iowa in the summer months (late 60s early 70s), I'd go fishing just about everywhere and those woody debris like branches and log jams piled up in a sort of birds or rats nest were perfect places to drop a line with bait. In main river channels with large log jams, sometimes containing whole trees, it was the sucker type fishes which preferred these locations. We'd always throw sweet corn in a open hole within the jam which would attract the Red or White Horse Suckers. Put sweet corn on a hook and you'd have a catch. These fish fed on the algae growing on the logs inside the river, hence the sucking sounds we'd hear were Suckers scavenging algae on tree branches underwater. Given a similar diet with the Santa Ana Sucker who forage gravel, small rocks and boulders for the same thing, it could well be that such fish could have existed in the San Jacinto River if the channel were opened at times of higher than normal rainfall to the Santa Ana, whether or not they really did is another one of those things we'll simply have to ponder. They prefer a clear clean water, something the San Jacinto River does have when it has continual flow after winter's flood stage is finished. In any event, the speculation is fun. Here are is a link which illustrates the necessary pools for fish as provided by logs:

http://blog.nature.org/science/files/2013/08/dead-wood-twelvemile.jpg

image: Gordon Robinson

Of course then there is that nagging question that keeps haunting me, were there ever Beaver in the San Jacinto River Valley ? You know the Beaver would have flourish if they were around such shallow reedy pools, marshes and slower movement of water throughout the year would have suited their purposes wonderfully. There are no references to the Explorers  seeing and/or documenting beaver here in the San Jacinto valley, but references to them seeing native women wearing fine clothes made of Beaver skins around San Luis Obispo and one mention is of Anza receiving 30 beaver skins as a gift in San Luis Obispo by a Priest from there are recorded. If beaver were there at San Luis Obispo, then more than likely other areas of Southern California would have had them present. At best I would say any beaver in the San Jacinto Valley might be related to the Sonoran Beaver which is throughout the Colorado River Valley to Baja and Imperial Valley. Any connections to the coast would have come by way of San Felipe Creek and filtered up through the mountains. In any event, Beaver could have flourished in the slower moving waterways in and around the San Jacinto Valley areas. Also such Beaver populations could more easily become efficiently eradicated in Southern California as this was one of the main targets of human growth and agricultural needs. There is simply not enough water and what exists there is not enough even for the existence of life now as evidenced by the fact that multiple strategies have been devised to import water from other areas. The rainfall totals are far lower than elsewhere would not have supported both natural and artificial systems together.

Riverside Flood Control

"Streams the way Nature intended them to be"

Any riparian ecosystem should have a great dynamic of biodiversity in the form of multiple plant species, large & small animals, birds, fish, amphibians, and microorganism communities along with all the non-living elements such as geography, the right water chemistry, all interacting as a single functional unit. Something about the photo here of University Channel makes me think of the Harris Ranch Beef website. Can you imagine if Harris Ranch Corp had a Industrial Irrigation Construction website, what their company slogan would say, "Streams the way Nature intended them to be" ? The problem I see with most modern changes made to any ecosystem's character are the changes in it's various community members and changes in physical contexts, sometimes crossing a threshold of tolerance within the system that results in its inability to rehab back into its previous natural form. Austrian Forester Viktor Schauberger even warned about this deliberate attempt at ignoring the long term consequences in favour of the immediate financial gains when it came to re-channel natural river systems with artificial ones. The results from human intervention to force things into these sterile lifeless channels allows for the demands to be met for their commercial interests. One by one when various natural mechanical components are removed, not really noticeable at first (just like any sickness or other cancerous ailment), until finally there is a sudden crash in it's life sustaining functions. An interesting characteristic that I observed about the San Jacinto and Hemet Valleys were the difference in soil textures and types. The eastern end of the valley where the Bautista Canyon Creek and San Jacinto River canyons emerged out onto the valley floor, the materials were much more like those in the top photo of this post with large boulders and cobble stones gradually giving way to a sandy soil riverbed. 

Hydrology & River Sciences

However, the western part of the valley has much more refined soil sediment or even clay-like qualities about it which is the main reasons for the historical presence of Vernal Pools and other small lakes that often remained for many months into the drier season. Surface waters in the form of rivers, lakes and wetlands are the most readily apparent component of the hydrologic cycle, but in most areas of S.J. Valley there is a strong interaction between surface flows and groundwater. The water table is not that deep in many places, which should be great news for any landscaping planner if he knows what he is doing. This interaction in the past would have been apparent when surface flows in perennial streams continued long after the rainy season's precipitation or snowmelt runoffs from the high country. Later the Monsoonal summer events would have had a moderating effect. Groundwater is recharged by infiltration from precipitation and surface flow and, depending on the depth of the water table and subsurface geology, groundwater may be subsequently released as surface flow. The release of groundwater to surface water provides most of the base flow for many of the San Jacinto River's contributing streams (like Portrero, Poppet, etc) through periods of no precipitation, or during winter when precipitation may be locked up in the form of snow.  It should also be noted that the mass of forested vegetation, marshes and backwater lagoons written about by these Spanish explorers also would have blocked out the larger heavier sedimentary rocky materials, but would have allowed the finer nutrient richer particles to filter on through which provided the bottom seal for many of the Vernal Pools and lakes on the western side of the Valley. Mind you, we're talking about a period of 1000s of years for all of this to continue uninterrupted. Yet, it took a little over 100+ years with so-called increased brain power infused with modern enlightenment to ruin it all today.

I'll close here as I can say what more I need to say in my main and final post on the Anza Expedition post next week. Below you may want to view and enjoy bears love of water in riparian habitats. Try and imagine this scene in numerous dead riparian regions which either exist in fraction or completely altogether. As always, please make practical application of things read and observed about Nature in your own garden and urban landscape.

"All parts of the fabrication and recycling process are cleverly linked and powered largely by water. The destruction of ocean crust via subduction leads to the formation of continental crust through water-facilitated melting. The destruction of continental crust via water-driven erosion ultimately replenishes the mantle for the next round of ocean crust production. Efficient, sustainable, robust, and elegant, the system would win top honors in an industrial design competition." [emphasis mine] 

 The above quote is from Geology Prof Marcia Bornjerud who commented on the tectonic system in her book, "Reading the Rocks". The first and last sentences struck me as beautifully descriptive of a healthy riparian ecosystem when viewed as a well oiled machine. Of course I know she's talking about the Earth's Tectonic plate mechanisms, but still ? She wrote a wonderful piece a few years back on Fracking and Strip Mining which I found interesting:

A Change We Didn’t See Coming: Hydraulic Fracturing and Sand Mining in Wisconsin 

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Interesting Reading References:

California Chaparral Institute: "The Tunnels of Rancho Penasquitos"

FlickRiver: Hemet-San Jacinto Valley

Where to Fish in a River

Here is an article I remember reading several years back from the Washington University of St. Louis about how different the Missouri River is presently compared to when Lewis and Clark first journeyed on it. It was much wider then and less flood prone because of greater width. The river now is far narrower because of the work done by Army Corps of Engineers and more subject to floods than it was back in history. Go figure!

Lewis and Clark data show a different Missouri River 

Here is a further take on some geographical mechanisms which can shape, create, tear down and rebuild a natural water course and it's the example of the two water flow channels of Bautista Creek mention by Fray Pedro Font which the majority of folks presently living in the city of eastern Hemet know nothing about:

Old Bautista Creek Channel East and West side

This is a further link to a piece I wrote recently about Juan Bautista de Anza's description from his diary of when he approached the Santa Ana River valley looking just like the the San Jacinto Valley he just traveled from. Today there is no such comparison, so I provided a reverse description to illustrate what San Jacinto Valley looked like in times past. Had I not done this, there is no other way to explain it to you. 

 http://creating-a-new-earth.blogspot.se/2014/05/the-san-jacinto-river-valley-that-juan.html

Finally, this mostly has my own personal speculation as to possible historic connections of waterways to the Santa Ana River on a more permanent basis which would have allowed various other native fishes to exist, even if at times temporarily isolated:

San Jacinto River Wildlife Refuge & the wetlands potential beyond to Corona 

(Anza Expedition Part II) The Valley that was, but isn't any longer

My first impression when I first arrived in Anza was, "What am I getting myself into ?" Anyone who's been to the local Circle-K in town after sundown knows what I'm talking about. My attitude was better than Ken Dawson, who I wrote about here , back in May 2013. Ken told me when he and Linda first came to Anza to view this property in Terwilliger, he told me this was his impression when first driving through the town of Anza, "Man if Anza looks like this, Terwilliger must be a bitch."  Well, that was just the way "tell it like it is Ken Dawson", expressed himself. He really didn't mean any harm, mostly it was a joke, but Still!

Google Earth: San Carlos Pass & Cary Ranch

When I concluded my first post about the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition from central Arizona to Coyote Canyon, I left with this scene on the right of the what Jaun Bautist de Anza named the San Carlos Pass and I'll get to this area in a moment. But there are some interesting things to make note of as far as weather and climate interest. Both Anza and Pedro Font wrote in their dairy or journals of the horrible winter weather of pouring rain and intermittent sleet and snow storms they endured from Borrego Valley up through the Lower, Middle and Upper Willows of Coyote Creek turning west and moving through Nance Canyon to the San Carlos Pass. Interesting  fact, when I lived in Terwilliger, we use to call the area the Banana Belt, given that temps here were milder than surrounding areas and rain more intense to the north and the south of it's location. Even during normal years these areas do not receive that type of rainfall and/or moisture content. It is interesting that once they reach the wider valley of Nance Canyon, Anza reveals that the area was fed by various sources of running water. All very true, there are several major tributaries which converge on this valley, all of which have evidence of this wealth of water by the presence of large Cottonwoods and California Sycamore Trees which are permanent fixtures in the converging Arroyos. There are other natural anomalies or more specifically plant life features the Anza Expedition encountered up at the top of the mountain pass called Puerto San Carlos (Cary Ranch) which brought them into the  Terwilliger and Anza Valleys. Below here is a historical photograph from the Hamilton Museum which doesn't put a date on it, but given another photo published next to it which is said to be circa 1930 at the Park Valley Ranch (Lake Riverside Estates) below Cahuilla Mountain, it would be easy to assume it is around or close to the same time period. Especially as you can view the lack of any real development. This view above here is on top of the giant boulder strewn hill overlooking the San Carlos Pass and the Ranch looking westward towards the entire wild Terwilliger Valley with Cahuilla Mountain in the far distant background. 

Photo image: Hamilton Museum. (1930 ?)

(click if you want to enlarge)

Pity there weren't any modern cameras back then. I'd really love to see the colours and deeper clarity and contrast which would help in identifying plant cover even in the distance. But at least, an observant individual can see the much denser plant cover than at present. I've actually stood on this exact spot where this photo is being shot back in the very early 1980s. The land development company High Country Ranches was developing a massive amount of land behind this hill and to the north against the southern face of Table Mountain which I believe were mostly 20 acre parcels in the beginning. They actually developed this very large boulder strewn hilltop with a few building pads and lots while I lived at Dawson's place in Terwilliger. Before anything was sold, I drove up there with my four wheel drive Toyota and walked around. Something I always wanted to see were the caves and petroglyphs around and within those giant boulders. It was mentioned in many accounts that this is where Anza met some of his first Cahuilla Natives. Sure enough, most all of the caves have soot and ash stains on their ceilings where I imagine campfires were lit for cooking and just general warmth in wintertime. Some people to first explore these caves found pottery shards and whole or partial ollas. I only found pottery shards here. But that view overlooking the ranch to the west is awesome. On an interesting note, the Hamilton Museum website has a photo looking down into Nance Canyon from the top of this same hill, but while it is black and white, it is by no means an old photograph because when I first visited, none of those roads in the background existed. The only road was the one at the bottom going from right to left in the photo and there would have been only two main homes and residents down there. The large cleared land with house and Cottonwood trees and one house across the creek from that. The road at that time was hideous and no one but winter trekking Jeep clubs ever ventured down there. The guy in the large house with the clearing ran me and a friend out of there with his shotgun. Lots of Independent Survivalist residents back then. (Nance Canyon) . Now look at this present day Google Earth map I've tried to capture close to the same angle without too much distortion.

Google Earth

It really was a fun challenge to go just so far without much distortion to get almost the same exact camera angle as that original photo which I believe was probably taken some time in the 1930s. Note the lack of those large Oak trees as seen in the 1930s photograph. In fact, do you notice the general lack of large old growth of any type of vegetation when you compare both photos ? Things have changed dramatically. You can still see the barn in the picture, but many of the larger Live Oak trees are just gone. In fact I'm not sure if there are any oaks other than scrub oak now. The Cahuilla living in this area's village would have been very dependent on such a valuable food resource and I don't doubt that they were intelligent enough to replant and reseed many of these plants as a food resource near their food preparation areas where the metate were located. The entire length of this valley drains this direction all the way from Burnt Valley via Hamilton Creek and out this pass below. Mostly now, there is never enough rainfall for that to even remotely happen. Take note of where the barn is and cleared land. Also take note of the boulders to the left of that barn and another clearing. Violet Cary told me that when they first moved there they planted a large orchard of peach, plum and apricot trees. She said the water table back then was so very high and the sedge grasses even grew up the hillside there. They never had to irrigate until the late 1960s when Agri-Empire moved in and farmed potatoes which require a fair amount of water and lowering the water table by means of their industrial sized irrigation well head pumps. She hated Jim Minor and Agri-Empire. Never had a nice word about him each time I met her. But back then there were several of those people who were at odds with what they believed was the Evil-Empire. Hmmm, Mr Wheeler who lived on Cahuilla Mountain comes to mind. Take a look at the next photo I created from Google Earth which gives a greater view of the area in question above. You'll see the High Country Ranch lot development at the lower right where I parked my truck and explored and the actual San Carlos Pass which the Anza Expedition came through.

Eastern end of Terwilliger Valley and the San Carlos Pass

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 Diary of Juan Bautista de Anza - Second Expedition: 

Tuesday, December 26. 1775 -- 

Today having dawned fair, at the regular hour the sun came out bright. For this reason and because the mother was better and had the pluck to march, we prepared to break camp, and at a quarter to nine set forth, ascending the valley which has been mentioned, going west-northwest. Having traveled along the valley for about three-quarters of a league, at a place where it narrowed greatly we left it at our left and immediately climbed a small ridge. This was followed by two other smaller ones, by which we arrived at the pass or opening of San Carlos , having traveled in all only about two and a half leagues in four hours, because of the stops which it was necessary to make. Here we halted for the night because it has been raining ever since nine o'clock, although very lightly, since this rain, if it should become harder, might injure the woman who was delivered night before last, and since the march although short has been for the most part up and down. With this march the sierra or cordillera which runs to and ends at Baja California is now overcome or passed. Rain continued until half past four in the afternoon. After it began to get dark a heavy, distant thunder was heard, and this was followed by an earthquake which lasted four minutes. -- 39. From Tubac to the Puerto de San Carlos, 163 leagues. 

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Diary of Pedro Font: 

December 26. 1775 -- 

We set out from the dry gully at a quarter past nine in the morning, and, about two in the afternoon, halted in a bottom near the rocks that form the pass of the Sierra Madre de California, called the Puerto de San Carlos, having travelled some three long leagues to the north-northwest, and climbed the slope as far as the summit, a distance that must be about one league. At about five in the afternoon we felt a shake, with phenomena of earthquake, which lasted but a very short time and was accompanied by an instantaneous and loud noise.

Below here are the footnotes from the Translation of the Dairies into English from Spanish which were published back in 1930. The descriptions given in the above from Anza and Font are  observations of the same event on the same day and written in their respective journals and a interpretation below of both of these and the area in question along with the 1930s photograph of the old Fred Clark (now Cary) Ranch posted below. 

ANZA'S CALIFORNIA  EXPEDITIONS   VOLUME III 

  THE SAN FRANCISCO COLONY ,  DIARIES OF ANZA, FONT, AND EIXARCH, AND  NARRATIVES BY PALOU AND MORAGA 

  TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL SPANISH  MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITED   BY  HERBERT EUGENE BOLTON   PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND   DIRECTOR OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY   UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA     UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS   BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA   1930 

Archive.org: Anza's California Expedition 

An Archive of Anza's Journal and Footnote Commentary 

1. Puerto de San Carlos was the pass at Fred Clark 's corral, at the east end of Cahuilla Valley. Above the Upper Willows some three or  four miles the canyon forks, with Horse Canyon on the right (ascending), Nance Canyon in the middle, and the main canyon (Tule) at  the left. Passing the mouth of Horse Canyon, Anza climbed the ridge between Nance and Tule and camped at the fine springs in the  flat just before reaching Fred Clark 's corral. The flat is in Nance  Canyon where it swings around to the trail again. Anza gives the  distance as two and one-half leagues, and Font as three leagues,  which is more nearly correct. Font's description of the route is excellent: The road follows the principal arroyo of the dry canyon, which gets much narrower until the foot of the ridge is reached, which now has some rather bad spots. The ridge is divided into two stretches; the first is rather bad and long, the second less so, and  between the two there is a fairly level stretch. From the highest point one descends a rather narrow, dry arroyo, and on reaching some  large round rocks one descends a gentle and short slope to the flat  where camp was made. The two ridges and the arroyo are clearly recognized by one following the trail today, and the large round rocks are still plainly to be seen. A superb diarist was Font. 

Photo image: Hamilton Museum (Fred Clark Ranch)

This view appears to be looking north towards Thomas Mountain with Mount San Jacinto in the background. The foreground vegetation is the common Silver Sagebrush (Artemisia cana) which is everywhere up in those high elevation valleys. Now I want to mention that beyond these plants and the willows in the foreground, no doubt there were massive meadows of various Sedges, as the water table would have been extremely high and much closer to the surface back then on all these valley floors. When I first visited here in the middle of the 1978-1984 heavy El Nino climate wet period which seemed to almost mirror the climate pattern Anza and Font wrote about, the Cary Ranch as I stood there getting a grand tour around the place was loaded with sedge meadows, some large patches even extending north out into the large grassy plain which you can see to the left of the Barn in the above older and newer photographs of the ranch. When Anza and Font speak of the Trek from San Carlos Pass to the area of Tripp Flats having great travel difficulty because the extremely heavy moisture content which made the ground very miry, and I can certainly vouch for that. In this photo here in this Link , I was once driving out across this plain to visit an elderly native Cahuilla and his wife. This was around 1981 on a clear sunny day and the road looked clean, fine and dry with two dirt tracks with sedge grasses on either side and in the middle. Just following the worn tire tracks I noticed that I started losing power to the vehicle and couldn't figure out what was wrong.  It became worse until suddenly I stopped and couldn't go any where further. I got out and noticed that the vehicle had sunk up to the frame in that muck. This soil here is extremely fine and miry as Anza described. The old Cahuilla gentleman walked out across the Prairie with what seemed 20+ dogs and told me they never drive anywhere in Wintertime. Only a Farm Caterpillar creating the new potato field north of that yellow Pin point I put on the Google map could pull me back out to the dry dirt road towards lower Bautista dirt Road. 

Calphotos/Berkeley - Sedge Grasses

When I first met and spoke to  Violet, Art Carry even had cattle grazing in the lower lush green sedge meadows which were dense and heavily covering there along those willows going back south to the left hand side of the picture heading back down towards Nance Canyon. The newer Satellite photos indicate none of these plants presently exist there. You can pull up Google Earth and view this area yourself. That's really sad and terribly revealing about the dramatic way water has been heavily used and how the climate has change radically. It's also sad because I have seen this with my own eyes as an eye witness to what it was once like and now it's simply gone. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that this far eastern stretch of Terwilliger Valley, all the way stretching westward to Lake Riverside Estates wasn't all sedge meadows at one time exactly the way western Garner Valley is today and there are a number of clues why I believe this from the observational notations given by both Font and Anza in both of their dairies. I'll point some of these clues out in the photograph below and associate them with a few facts of today. On the trek from San Carlos Pass to an area called Cañada de San Patricio, known locally today as Tripp Flats which is an area described as the headwaters of the river canyon we now call Bautista Canyon which leads down to Hemet California below. I am not going to dwell much on this location in this post as I'll take it up next time in Part III. I am mainly concerned with the center of Anza Valley itself and the evidence for a far richer vegetative environment that once existed than it does at present. Many notes jotted down by both Anza and Font in the dairies give some interesting clues which I find have never been explored before nor thoroughly thought through in anyone else's writings.

image: Mango Traveller

Hurkey Creek spilling out onto the Garner Valley floor near Lake Hemet. Terwilliger Valley through lower Anza Valley to Cahuilla Mountain may well have looked very much like this scene here when the Anza Expedition passed through. Through an entire day's time, they trekked from San Carlos Pass to Trip Flats and complaining about the difficulty of  traveling over terribly wet miry ground and footing. This would indicate an extreme wealth of surface waters for which sedges and other water loving plants like rushes would thrive.

Below here, I'm going to quote Anza's first visit in 1774 with his first hand observations and the relevant material as far as natural history perspective. Then I'll quote Pedro Font's very much expanded dairy the winter trek after (1775) and his impression of the natural world's landscape. As the 1930s, as the translator of the Anza Expedition revealed, Font was a much more superb Dairist with his greater eye for detail. This is actually one of the things that I really appreciate most. When you have a written record of the same event by different individuals, you can view a more complete accurate overall view of the expedition, but with personal details that caught the eye of each individual who was awe struck by different features or aspects of the trek. The different notations of some physical aspect along the trail don't conflict, but rather compliment one another. Well, if that makes any sense. In both cases, the writings of both I can appreciate more fully than most because of having lived there for over 20+ years and having a keen interest (okay obsession) with the area they wrote about and the natural world which at one time existed, but is no longer existing in today's unfortunate reality. People should also note that this is the same story with most locations on Earth.         

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~Juan Bautista de Anza, 1774 journal entry describing the first scenes of the trek through San Carlos Pass.

Tuesday, March 15, 1774.– 

Two hours before daybreak we set forth up the arroyo, which in general runs north-northwest, dividing the large mountain chain through which it flows. [Footnote 108] The floor of the valley is very even and of considerable width for four leagues, where in various places running water is found. Two more leagues were traveled where the valley is narrower, and then, leaving it at the left, we climbed a ridge [Footnote 109] which did not cause the animals the greatest fatigue, and at whose crest we camped for the night in a place with good pasturage and water.–From Tubac to the Puerto Real de San Carlos, 227 leagues. 

Right here there is a pass which I named the Royal Pass of San Carlos. From it are seen most beautiful green and flower-strewn prairies, and snow-covered mountains with pines, oaks, and other trees which grow in cold countries. Likewise here the waters divide, some flowing this way toward the Gulf and others toward the Philippine Ocean. Moreover, it is now proved that the sierra in which we are traveling connects with the sierras of Lower California. In the course of the journey made today we have seen an improvement in the country in every way, and have concluded from its moisture that it may be suitable for seasonal crops and the planting of fruit trees, and that there are pastures sufficient for maintaining cattle.

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There are a couple of important points here about Anza's first trip through the Spring of 1774. Notice the area coloured in orange above. Indeed, in times of heavy rainfall when I lived there, this area in the Spring is rich in heavy greenery, which Anza and Font both noted would be perfect for pasturage for Cattle industry. This area through Terwilliger Valley towards Anza Valley is also one of the richest wildflower areas in all of Riverside County's high mountain valley regions. Anyone who has actual first hand experience living there for a few decades would also recognize this incredibly beautiful feature that Anza actually took the time to note down. Indeed the higher surrounding hills of the prairie floor are rich in Gold Fields and Owl's Clover, along with numerous other annuals like Chia as the photo below of Cahuilla Reservation reveal. Here is a wildflower picture link to the Goldfield Wildflowers at Carrizo Plain by Simon Sun. It is illustrative of what much of Anza and Terwilliger Valleys were once like. Seriously, how could Anza and Font have passed through here and not mention a word about such beauty ? I'll have more pics next time of the famous Gold Fields down in the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley which can actually be blinding in full sun as they can so thoroughly blanket or carpet an immense are or region. Most of these areas in Hemet Valley are long gone and developed over. 

image: Deborah Small

Chia or Thistle Sage (Salvia carduacea)

I'll have more pics later, but please book mark and read Deborah small's extremely interesting blog on Ethnobotany, much of which deals with the Anza areas. Now take another look at this next clue which I highlighted in green from Anza's 1774 journal account.

"Likewise here the waters divide, some flowing this way toward the Gulf and others toward the Philippine Ocean." 

For me this is very intriguing, as he speaks of the separation of the natural hydrology of the landscape up there in Anza. Anza sped through here rather quickly on his first and second trips. Mostly about a days walk. There would not have been much time to determine and figure out which direction waters moved on the surface especially if the climate and weather circumstance were as they exist today. The very idea that surface water was running this far down from Thomas Mountain and heading either to the Pacific Ocean (he calls Philippine Ocean) and the Gulf  (referring to Sea of Cortez) is a testament to the great wealth of surface water existing back then which no longer exists today. There are only two large water courses which would have come this far, the first being Hamilton Creek and the second Cahuilla Creek. Both actually do split off exactly as he describes if they were actually running with water. Hamilton Creek is the hydrological feature which has always filled up that shallow lake depression while I lived up there and which Anza described. Here is a map below from Google Earth which illustrates the separation of the stream flows as he would have seen them first hand.

Google Earth

This is a similar but much closer up view of the link I gave above about my Car mucking experience. Cahuilla Creek comes directly out of Thomas Mountain with it's head waters at Old forest Road. It crosses the Highway 371 near the old Kellogg Ranch, but looks more like a giant badly eroded agricultural irrigation runoff ditch which is in fact what it is most of the time anyway. On the far right in the dry looking area, this is where Anza's mystical Laguna Del Principe was once located. This area is almost totally destroyed when I last viewed it this past Spring 2013. The Cahuilla Indian Reservation back when I first came to Anza, had never ever really developed their land for anything other than range cattle. That has all changed now. Agri-Empire has diverted and channel much of the lower Hamilton Creek drainage to flow towards the west, but during heavy rains or flashfloods, some still makes it to the east towards the lake bed. Take a look below at how it appears today from the highway, though I highly doubt that most residents up there know exactly what this old stream bed actually is along highway 371 just west of Anza. Also take note of Agri-Empire's redirecting Hamilton flow towards the west, with only a slight veering to the left.

Google Earth. 

Cahuilla Creek draining down from off Thomas Mountain. Most modern maps won't even reference these facts any longer. This overpass had at one time signage listing it as Cahuilla Creek but they are now totally removed. Whatever.

It's remarkable when you sit back and ponder the reasons for both of these creeks running heavily all the way down the the valley bottom. Both creek beds have run at times before when I lived there, but only during times of Monsoonal flash flooding, although both did trickle a little during the heavy 5 year El Nino event in the last couple of years, with Hamilton Creek even flowing with enough water to fill that mystical disappearing and reappearing lake which was once more of a permanent landmark than today. Hamilton Creek as well has the same story. But if you think back to a time as where no one had as yet sunk any wells or redirected any water and where the vegetation system was a much more heavily forested cover of not only pine, but of Live Oaks, these stream banks would have been heavily wooded with riparian species and their meandering course more foundationally established as to facilitate the water's easier surface movement over greater and farther distances than exist today, which is for the most part, totally bone dry. Once again, the water table everywhere would have been much closer to the surface for such an ecosystem to have once existed.

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Wednesday, March 16.– 

Because it rained and snowed, like the night before, we were not able to take up the march during the forenoon. But at two in the afternoon we set forth, immediately climbing some small hills, where a fair-sized vein of silver ore was found. [Footnote 111] From these hills we continued west for a distance of three leagues over good terrain, halting for the night, because it threatened to rain, on the banks of a large and pretty lake, to which we gave the name of El Príncipe. It is surrounded by flower-strewn and pleasant valleys and by several snow-covered mountains, by which it is filled with water. In the hills nearby were found several springs of very agreeable water, independent of the lake.–From Tubac to the Laguna del Príncipe, 230 leagues.

I previously wrote separately about Hamilton Creek and the evidence for Violet Cary's forceful insistence that the eastern and northern portions of Anza Valley being heavily forested with the predominant tree being that of giant oak trees. You can follow that account Here . Hamilton Creek with a large drainage area of almost all of the top of Table Mountain which certainly been heavily forested and the entire Burnt Valley along with other contributing tributaries joining further on down from Thomas Mountain would have kept that mysterious lake rather more permanent with a southeasterly outflow heading towards San Carlos Pass, which in turn would have kept that surface miry as noted in the dairies. And Cahuilla Creek again, bone dry today,  but more permanent surface flow over 300+ years ago draining from much of the western face of Thomas Mountain through OLD FOREST Road canyon area, just simply sheds more light on what the area once looked like in history. The bottom line here is this, we're not talking 1000s of years ago as is popular to story tell, we're talking a little over a couple of hundred years ago. It may take 1000s of years for a system to develop and mature into a sustainable ecosystem, but it's only taken 150 years of supposedly greater scientific enlightenment and technological innovative development to destroy it all and send everything into the Cesspit. Clearly, something is radically wrong with the understanding of many of these areas. This should start ringing Climate Change bells inside some important Somebodies brains, but will they listen. 

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Wednesday March 16 -

From these hills we continued west for a distance of three leagues over good terrain, halting for the night, because it threatened to rain, on the banks of a large and pretty lake, to which we gave the name of El Príncipe. It is surrounded by flower-strewn and pleasant valleys and by several snow-covered mountains, by which it is filled with water. In the hills nearby were found several springs of very agreeable water, independent of the lake.–From Tubac to the Laguna del Príncipe, 230 leagues.

I can only imagine Anza being so impressed about the amount of greater surface water everywhere independent of the large Lake between Terwilliger and Anza Valley. One of these great surface water resource areas if he sent scouts to investigate, would have been up by the old Stanley Swanson Tree Farm where I once resided for a time. This not only part of a western branch of the greater Hamilton Creek drainage flow, where a wealth of water near has always been nearer the surface, but during the time of the El Nino event and for several years afterwards, all wells on that property which had old windmill towers bubbled to the surface and overflowed from all the well heads. Sedges and Rushes were in large spread on the lower acreage, and they were all the way to the present Diner 371, or the Old Chaparral Restaurant. So the potential for massive amounts of surface water flow would have been huge, especially in supporting a much greater forested ecosystem. 

Google Earth

Well, many residents will recognize this location. This is where in 1982 a massive wall of water down Highway 371 with 6 to 8 foot high rapids from shoulder to shoulder blitzed all the way down Kirby Road to this point during an hour long Monsoonal Thunderstorm event. The Nazarine/Lutheran Church is at the upper left with Hill Street jct above that. Where the barn, other outbuildings and the Mobile Home are moving left towards that Church building are the remnants of an extremely large Cahuilla Village, but not many people know of this. There are several large flat granite bedrock areas, which may be covered over with soil fill (Stan never wanted anyone to know about them for fear of being forced to do an archaeological study) where huge Metate Grinding holes still exist. The area no doubt would have been far more wooded at the time with large oak trees which would have provided one of their main staple foods, acorns.

Google Earth

This is the entrance that most people up there drive past. To the left here I believe is the antique shop owned by the gal who bought my old place. It's actually a separate parcel for which the owner would never sell out to Stanley. On the right as you drive in is the ancient village site right about where you see the small Coulter Pines and to the right of them. Like most Native American pantries, Prickly Pear Cactus and Mexican Elderberry are present here as well, or at least they were when I was there. Take a look at the small independent Metate grinding stones above. I actually found one of these and it's hand grinder stone at this large location. I had since moved and had my own place. I created a garden up on table mountain, but the soil there was mostly coarse decomposed granite and I wanted bottomland soils. I asked Stanley, who lived in Orange County if I could take some of the black (no doubt Biochar) soils from around the large granite metate areas which food preparation and campfires no doubt happened for countless generations. Beautiful soil, but there was this one large rock that my shovel kept hitting, so I dug and pried it loose just to get the thing out of the way so that the soil was easier to shovel and load into my pickup truck and the result was almost identical to the metate you see there in the middle, but it was upside down looking like just any other rock. What a pleasant surprise this was. I almost forgot about the reason I was there. I also found many black beads with holes drilled through them for a necklace. I still don't know how they did such things. Underneath was the hand held grinding stone (called manos) looking very much like the lighter coloured one in the photo above, but made totally of bright white quartz. It was perfectly shaped like a white bar of Ivory soap, but only much bigger. I always wondered how much time it took for those natives to make such an incredible masterpieces. Shows what a human can do with lots of time on their hands and none of the modern day distraction. 

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image: Deborah Small

Below here is the expanded more detailed parts of Fray Pedro Font's Dairy of the 1775 Expedition as he observes drastic changes in the landscape coming up through the pass of San Carlos. I'm only quoting the relevant passages as these relate to the Natural World seen then first hand. He used a Spanish word, "Hediondilla" , which refers to the common desert Creosote Bush. 

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Tuesday December 26 -

A little before we entered the narrow part of the canyon a fine sleet began to fall, and lasted until after we had halted. The day and the night continued very wet and cold, but the mother recently delivered had the spirit to continue the journey. The hediondilla, shrub of evil augury, for it can live only in such bad country, which is appropriate to it, lasted to the top of the ridge. Then at once I noted the change in the landscape, for now we saw some scrub live oaks and other small trees; and they said that in the sierra in this vicinity there were pines with pine nuts, though I did not see any.

This place has a spring of water and a small arroyo nearby, with plentiful and good grass; and the sierra hereabout appears to be very fertile and moist, quite in contrast with the former, which appeared to be rather mountains of boulders and rocks than a sierra. In this flat we found an abandoned Indian village, [Footnote 163] and from the signs it was evident that as soon as they sensed our coming they left their huts or warrens and fled, judging from their fresh tracks. Being so savage and wild, when they saw the cattle which went ahead, God knows what they thought they were. And so we were not able to see a single Indian. It must have been about five in the afternoon when we felt a tremor of very short duration that appeared to be an earthquake, accompanied by a short, sharp rumbling. After a short time it was repeated very distinctly.

Pedro Font speaks of the abrupt change in landscape as the trek through Nance Canyon and Through San Carlos Pass where the native peoples abandoned their village at the fright of seeing cattle which they had never seen before. He also speaks about the areas richness in water which makes me wonder about old Carl Long's 200 acre parcel which has an Artesian Spring to this day which flows from rocks and where he kept those last wild horses he wrote about. The location for Carl's Ranch and Artesian spring is very near to that San Carlos Pass boulder strewn area described in the journals. Well, who really knows for sure if these are a part of that description. Still, it is interesting.

 Wednesday December 27

Here the country is better than the foregoing, for after leaving the Pass of San Carlos this country completely changes its aspect, in contrast with that left behind on the other side. From a height near the place whence we set out, formed by large stones, rocks, and boulders, through which the road runs and which form the Pass of San Carlos, as if the scenery of the theater were changed, one beholds the Sierra Madre de California now totally different —green and leafy, with good grass and trees, in the distance looking toward the South Sea, whereas in the distance looking toward the California Sea it is dry, unfruitful and arid, as I have said

As soon as we reached the top of the rocky pass of San Carlos we entered level and good country, from which one sees to the north-northwest and northwest the same Sierra Madre, very high and white with snow; and this Sierra Nevada continues beyond the mission of San Gabriel. After going a league we entered a valley, which the last time they called Valley del Príncipe, [Terwilliger] formed on the right by the Sierra Nevada which I have mentioned, with others, and on the left by another spur of mountains, very high and full of pines, which appears to run toward San Diego. All the valley has plentiful and good grass, with shrubs and fragrant herbs.

After leaving this valley we entered a growth of low brush and then we came to the canyon, which is very narrow and is formed by the same hills and branches of the Sierra Madre. Near the camp site we found three small huts of Indians with many shucks of acorns, which constitute their food, but we did not see a single Indian. In the canyon we saw many pretty and fragrant plants, and at the camp site there were many rose bushes, the first ones which I have seen in those lands. Their roses are small and have only five petals, but they are very fragrant, although at this season they were withered, and they had only the red seed pods. I ate some of them and they had a rather agreeable taste. There are also live oaks and other trees. Today the weather was fairly good.

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Comb's Peak south of Terwilliger (2003 Coyote Fire)

As the 1930s translator of the dairies stated, Font had a much more detailed account of the area's natural features. He describes the mountain on both sides as being full of pines and oaks. The Bucksnort Mountains and Beauty Mountains would have been on the left as he describes these heavily wooded areas as running towards San Diego and then what calls the Sierra Nevada to the north which would have been Thomas Mountain and the Santa Rosa Mountains to the north and East. There is no doubt in my mind that this area was more heavily forested in the mountains and with numerous pockets of woodlands on the valley floors. The richness described of water sources like springs and streams independent of the main bodies of water would certainly have fed just such a rich ecosystem. Certainly a far cry from the present sorry condition one would physically find this place if they visited today. For the most part, the Bucksnort Moutains to the south of Terwilliger have no more forest to speak of. What remnants that were left were almost completely destroyed by that 2003 Coyote Fire which took almost everything to the edge of the Lost Valley Scout Camp. There is so much more to say, but so little attention span from most readers. Most want nothing but photos followed by short quips, so they can move on the the next bit of local or world News. Still there is so much more to say. But my Spring 2013 trip over there was extremely disappointing. 

Driving down Terwilliger Road, I notice that the land on the eastern side of the Cahuilla Indian Reservation where traditionally the largest untouched chaparral and Scrub Oak woodlands once existed are almost completely destroyed and removed for apparent industrial agricultural purposes. It needs pointing out that this was one of the exact areas summer monsoon clouds developed over and  much of the first seasons rainfall took place. I'm sure this has even changed now. I remember approaching some of the more militant activists on that side (I won't say who) of the Rez about possibly volunteering to put together a project on the reservation like we had done at Ken Dawson's place . Absolutely and totally not interested, even if I paid for the trees myself. I got an ear full of Indian Activism and a story line about it's all the white man's fault and the government should be the one to put things back the way they were, not us. Whatever! You know, I'm as much or more sympathetic as the next person about what was done to the Native North Americans, maybe even outraged, but at some point numerous generations later (irrespective of whatever past ancient culture got the shaft on Earth), you get over it and move on and make the improvements yourself. These folks have the best land up there and unfortunately it's becoming ruined physically just like the surrounding properties. In the long run as I've stated in previous posts, there is really no differences in ALL human beings once you remove the cloak of costume and cultural customs. Underneath everyone is equal to everyone else and this is sadly evident in the way the land has been mismanaged up there in Anza and Terwilliger. 

In the third part, I'll write about the landscape between Tripp Flats all the way down to Mystic Lake near Moreno Valley. That will be as far as I can go with regards knowledge and personal experience of these areas which Anza and his Expedition traveled through. I'll also post another article on Hamilton Creek Canyon which I've found interesting, but didn't have the time to document. The creek bed use to be much higher in elevation than at present and there is a wealth of physical evidence to bare this out. Keep also in mind that the main message here is not so much about the people past or present, as it was the natural world that once exist but no longer does and what humans can learn from how ecosystems were once put together and constructed. All the genetic information within all living things is still buried deep within every living thing. How they work, function and cooperate together still exists if only humans will unlock the secrets and put things back the way they once functioned. Although human interference has disrupted and perhaps caused the genetic informational content within all these living things to express themselves less efficiently, these can nevertheless be put back together like a well oiled machine. The main hindrance to all of this of course is human behavior and that is something science and technological innovation has no answer for. Humans have to want the change.

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Further Reading References:

(Part 1) Juan Bautista de Anza's Journal sheds light on a past Extinct Ecosystem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Bautista_de_Anza_National_Historic_Trail

http://www.anzahistorictrail.org/visit/explorer?x=-115.8398&y=32.8224&z=10&base=bingstreets&layers=anza_rec_trail%2Canza_histtrl%2Canza_campsites

http://www.solideas.com/DeAnza/TrailGuide/Riverside/

http://archive.org - DIARIES OF ANZA, FONT, AND EIXARCH, AND NARRATIVES BY PALOU AND MORAGA TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL SPANISH MANUSCRIPTS AND EDITED

http://anza.uoregon.edu/archives.html

http://deborahsmall.wordpress.com/