Sespe Creek
Encyclopedia
Sespe Creek is a stream
, some 61 miles (98.2 km) long, in Ventura County, California
, in the United States
. The creek starts at Potrero Seco in the Sierra Madre Mountains
, and is formed by more than thirty tributary
streams before it empties into the Santa Clara River
in Fillmore
. Thirty-one miles of Sespe Creek are designated as a National Scenic Waterway
, and are untouched by dam
s or concrete
channels. It is one of the last wild rivers in southern California.
, 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 53000 acres (214.5 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 (56.3 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 Willets Hot Springs about ten miles east of Rose Valley on the Sespe, in 2000 (personal communication A. Coyne Jan. 2011).
boundary near the City of Fillmore
.
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
, some 61 miles (98.2 km) long, in Ventura County, California
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The creek starts at Potrero Seco in the Sierra Madre Mountains
Sierra Madre Mountains (California)
The Sierra Madre Mountains are a mountain range in northern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. They are a portion of the Inner South Coast Ranges, representing the southernmost part, which are themselves part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America. The Sierra Madre Mountains...
, and is formed by more than thirty tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
streams before it empties into the Santa Clara River
Santa Clara River (California)
The Santa Clara River is approximately long, located in southern California in the United States. It drains an area of the coastal mountains north of Los Angeles. The Santa Clara is one of the largest river systems along the coast of Southern California and one of only a few remaining river...
in Fillmore
Fillmore, California
Fillmore is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 15,002 at the 2010 census, up from 13,643 at the 2000 census.- History :...
. Thirty-one miles of Sespe Creek are designated as a National Scenic Waterway
National Wild and Scenic River
National Wild and Scenic River is a designation for certain protected areas in the United States.The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was an outgrowth of the recommendations of a Presidential commission, the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission...
, and are untouched by dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s or concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
channels. It is one of the last wild rivers in southern California.
History
The name Sespe can be traced to a Chumash Indian village, called Cepsey or Sek-pe in 1791, in a California land grant called Sespe or San Cayetano in 1833.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 CondorCalifornia Condor
The California Condor is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. Currently, this condor inhabits only the Grand Canyon area, Zion National Park, and coastal mountains of central and southern California and northern Baja California...
, Southern Steelhead trout and possibly the California Golden beaver. In addition, the California Grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
(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 53000 acres (214.5 km²) Sespe Condor Sanctuary
Sespe Condor Sanctuary
Sespe Condor Sanctuary is a wildlife refuge in the Los Padres National Forest. The United States Forest Service established the sanctuary in 1947 for the California condor, which is an endangered species and the largest living bird in North America...
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
Willow Flycatcher
The Willow Flycatcher is a small insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family.Adults have brown-olive upperparts, darker on the wings and tail, with whitish underparts; they have an indistinct white eye ring, white wing bars and a small bill. The breast is washed with olive-grey. The upper...
(Empidonax traillii extimus), Least Bell's vireo
Bell's Vireo
The Bell's Vireo is a small North American songbird. It is 4-3/4 to 5 inches in length, dull olive-gray above and whitish below...
(Vireo bellii pusillus), Arroyo toad
Arroyo toad
The Arroyo toad, Anaxyrus californicus , is a stocky, blunt-nosed, warty-skinned species of toad, between 5 and 7.5 cm long. It has horizontal pupils, and is greenish, grey or salmon on the dorsum with a light-colored stripe across the head and eyelids...
(Bufo microscaphus californicus), and California Red-Legged Frog
California Red-legged Frog
The California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii, is a moderate to large species of frog. It is known under the scientific name Rana draytonii, after being long included with the northern red-legged frog The California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii, is a moderate to large (4.4–14 cm) species...
(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
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
" 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
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
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
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
. Although the California Department of Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
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
Cuyama River
The Cuyama River is a river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara County, and northern Ventura County, in the U.S. state of California. It joins the Sisquoc River forming the Santa Maria River...
watershed due west of Mt. Pinos in the Sierra Madre mountains, about 35 miles (56.3 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
Fort Tejon
Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon area of Tejon Pass along Interstate 5, the main route through the mountains separating the Central Valley from Los...
. It "was not utilized by his descendants". In Janice Timbrook's "Chumash Ethnobotany" she states, based on linguist J. P. Harrington
John Peabody Harrington
John Peabody Harrington was an American linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the native peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, most of which has remained unpublished: the shelf space in the Library of Congress dedicated to his work...
's interview with Chumash elder Maria Soares, that the Indians near Tehachapi
Tehachapi, California
Tehachapi is a city incorporated in 1909 located in the Tehachapi Mountains between Bakersfield and Mojave in Kern County, California. Tehachapi is located east-southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of...
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
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, on the Pacific coast. As of 2010 the county had a population of 423,895. The county seat is Santa Barbara and the largest city is Santa Maria.-History:...
and Ventura County, California
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
.
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
California State Route 33
State Route 33 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California. SR 33 replaced part of U.S. Route 399 in 1964 during the "great renumbering" of routes. In the unincorporated sections of Kern County it is known as the West Side Highway...
in that vicinity (personal communication with Andy Bisaccia Jan. 2011). Another eyewitness, a USFS
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
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 Willets Hot Springs about ten miles east of Rose Valley on the Sespe, in 2000 (personal communication A. Coyne Jan. 2011).
Sespe Creek watershed
The creek remains free from major habitat modifications and is noteworty for its lack of dams. After originating above 5000 feet (1,524 m) in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the northwest corner of the Ojai Ranger District, about 75 percent of the Sespe Creek subwatershed is characterized by numerous rugged slopes and canyon walls of the southern Pine Mountains. It flows intermittently but is characterized by a series of permanent deep pools. Major tributaries include the Lion Canyon, Hot Springs Canyon, Timber, West Fork Sespe and Little Sespe Creeks, although over 30 creeks and springs nourish it. Sespe Creek receives most of its rainfall between January and April, and furnishes 40% of the water flowing in the Santa Clara River.Conservation
Much of Sespe Creek is protected. The approximately 219700 acres (889.1 km²) Sespe Wilderness Area encompasses 31.5 miles (50.7 km) of Sespe Creek. Established in 1992, the Wilderness Area contains a 53000 acres (214.5 km²) Sespe Condor Sanctuary. Approximately 10.5 miles (16.9 km) of upper Sespe Creek have been designated as Wild and Scenic. Furthermore, the stream is designated as a Wild Trout stream from the Lion Camp area in the upper subwatershed downstream to the Los Padres National ForestLos Padres National Forest
Los Padres National Forest is a forest located in southern and central California, which includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Monterey, extending inland...
boundary near the City of Fillmore
Fillmore, California
Fillmore is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 15,002 at the 2010 census, up from 13,643 at the 2000 census.- History :...
.
See also
- Fishes of Sespe Creek, CaliforniaFishes of Sespe Creek, CaliforniaSespe Creek winds over thirty-one miles through valleys and sometimes very narrow canyons in the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County, California....
- Sespe Condor SanctuarySespe Condor SanctuarySespe Condor Sanctuary is a wildlife refuge in the Los Padres National Forest. The United States Forest Service established the sanctuary in 1947 for the California condor, which is an endangered species and the largest living bird in North America...
- California Fur RushCalifornia Fur RushBefore the 1849 California Gold Rush, American, English and Russian fur hunters were drawn to Spanish California in a California Fur Rush, to exploit its enormous fur resources...
- California CondorCalifornia CondorThe California Condor is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. Currently, this condor inhabits only the Grand Canyon area, Zion National Park, and coastal mountains of central and southern California and northern Baja California...
- Matilija CreekMatilija CreekMatilija Creek is a major stream in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. It joins with North Fork Matilija Creek to form the Ventura River. Many tributaries feed the mostly free flowing, creek, which is largely contained in the Matilija Wilderness. It then forms the reservoir behind...
- Ventura RiverVentura RiverThe Ventura River is a river in Ventura County, California. The river forms at the confluence of Matilija Creek and North Fork Matilija Creek, upstream from the Pacific Ocean...