Sespe Creek - Ecology

Ecology

The inaccessibility of the Sespe backcountry, related to the Sespe gorge and flash floods which make roads through the gorge impossible to maintain, has made the area an apparent refuge for a number of species who were extirpated elsewhere in southern California, including the California Condor, Southern Steelhead trout and possibly the California Golden beaver. In addition, the California Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) held out in the Sespe area until at least 1905, when a forest ranger reported tracks and separately hunters claimed they saw a grizzly in the vicinity of the Sespe Hot Springs and Alder Creek.

The Sespe Creek watershed is most famous for the 53,000-acre (210 km2) Sespe Condor Sanctuary created in 1947.

The Sespe is one of southern California's last free flowing southern Steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) streams.

The confluence of Sespe Creek with the Santa Clara River provides an important connection to upland systems and potential migration corridor for four endangered species: Southwestern Willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus), Least Bell's vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus), Arroyo toad (Bufo microscaphus californicus), and California Red-Legged Frog (Rana aurora draytonii). The Sespe Creek population is the largest known Arroyo Toad habitat within its current range.

The discovery of a male adult California Golden beaver (Castor canadensis subauratus) specimen collected as "wild caught" in May, 1906 (just prior to California instituting statewide protection from 1911–1925) "along the Sespe River in Ventura County" is physical evidence that Golden beaver were historically extant in coastal streams in southern California. The skull of the Sespe Creek specimen is housed at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley, California and was collected by Dr. John Hornung, of Ventura, California, who assembled a large private mammal collection of over 2,000 skulls and made major specimen donations to museums including the American Museum of Natural History. Although the California Department of Fish and Game re-introduced beaver throughout California the first documented restocking was 1923, well after the 1906 Sespe Creek specimen was collected. The authenticity of the Sespe Creek specimen is supported by the presence of a Chumash pictograph of a beaver at Painted Rock in the Cuyama River watershed due west of Mt. Pinos in the Sierra Madre mountains, about 35 miles (56 km) from the Sespe Creek headwaters. Additionally, the Hearst Museum in Berkeley has a Ventureño Chumash shaman's rain making kit made from the skin of a beaver tail and a tobacco sack. The shaman, "Somik", produced the artifact in the 1870s and resided at Fort Tejon. It "was not utilized by his descendants". In Janice Timbrook's "Chumash Ethnobotany" she states, based on linguist J. P. Harrington's interview with Chumash elder Maria Soares, that the Indians near Tehachapi and also the Chumash believed that "a willow stick that had been cut by a beaver was thought to have the power to bring water. The Chumash would treat the stick with 'ayip ( a ritually powerful substance made from alum) and then plant it in the ground to create a permanent spring of water". In addition the Barbareño and Ventureño Chumash had a Beaver Dance. Finally, the Chumash word for beaver is Chipik, spelled "č’ǝpǝk’" in Barbareño and "tšǝ’pǝk" (Timothy Henry personal communication 2011-01-23), and "č’ɨpɨk" in Ineseño (Samala). Taken together, these facts support the hypothesis that beaver ranged throughout Santa Barbara County, California and Ventura County, California.

It may or may not be a coincidence that there is a Beaver Campground on Sespe Creek. Andy Bisaccia recalls taking Boy Scouts camping there between 1938 and 1944 and remembers seeing beaver, their dams and lodges, and that they could be observed off of Highway 33 in that vicinity (personal communication with Andy Bisaccia Jan. 2011). Another eyewitness, a USFS Fire Crew Chief, James Jeffery, saw beaver dams about 1.5 miles above Beaver Camp in 1969-1970 (personal communication R. Bisaccia Jan. 2011). Alasdair Coyne reports seeing a beaver dam at Willett Hot Springs about ten miles east of Rose Valley on the Sespe, in 2000 (personal communication A. Coyne Jan. 2011).