The
mighty Kings River flows down out of the Sierra Nevada onto the floor
of the San Joaquin Valley. To the south, the Kaweah, Tule and Kern
Rivers, and several smaller streams, also empty into this
mountain-surrounded basin. A ridge across the Valley north of the
Kings River keeps the waters of these rivers, except in the wettest
years, from joining the San Joaquin River on its way to the Pacific
Ocean.
The first explorers, trappers and soldiers to enter the Valley were astonished to find a series of large lakes fed by rivers running to the west and the south. Vast forests covered many square miles near the foothills and bordered the many stream channels that flowed out to form Kern Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Goose Lake, in what is now Kern County, and Tulare Lake, in what is now Kings County.
The woodland was made up of Valley oaks, willows, Fremont cottonwoods, Western sycamores, Oregon ash and alder trees. There was a dense undergrowth of shrubs and vines. Wild grapes, elderberry and California blackberry made thickets that were cover for rabbits, raccoons, foxes, skunks, opossums, and the grizzly bear.
Birds lived at all
levels in the streamside habitat. Herons had rookeries in taller
trees. Red-shouldered hawks, great-horned owls, crows, wood ducks,
swallows and four kinds of woodpeckers also nested there. Grosbeaks,
wrens, flycatchers, warblers, jays, orioles, vireos, bluebirds and
finches lived in the shrubs and smaller trees. Ducks of many kinds
raised young along stream banks, as did kingfishers. Quail were
common on the ground.
The Valley oak was the most important tree in this woodland. This long-lived tree can grow to great size and trees that were more than 300 years old were probably common when the first settlers came to this valley. Because of its deep roots, the Valley oak was not dependent on water from summer stream flows and could survive long droughts. The willows and other trees needed some stream water all year to flourish.
A single Valley oak was a community in itself. Thousands of galls on its leaves housed the eggs of tiny wasps but did no major harm to their host tree. Hundreds of other kinds of insects lived amidst the foliage of the oaks and in their bark. Colonies of acorn woodpeckers made their nests in the dead wood of broken branches. Ten other cavity-nesting birds depend on old woodpecker nests as breeding sites in these forests. Rabbits and ground squirrels had burrows among the roots. The abundant acorns, up to 1000 pounds in a good year, were important food source for rodents, insects, woodpeckers, jays, wood ducks, deer and grizzly bears.
The Native American people of the area competed with these animals for the acorns which they processed into meal and cooked as a mush. They also picked berries and dug bulbs and tubers of perennial plants in the lands along the streams.
The Valley oak was the only hardwood available to the settlers and they cut oaks for fuel, fence posts and for other construction. Since oaks were known to grow on the most fertile stream side soils, they were often the first areas cleared by settlers to plant orchards and other crops. The settlers’ domestic hogs ate the acorns and their cattle ate seedling oaks. All of these activities were reasons for the loss of many of the Valley oaks. Some scattered individuals and small groves still exist but without their companions of the original rich plant community along the streams. The rest has disappeared as water was diverted to ditches and canals for irrigation and the land was plowed and grazed.
Text and photo acquired
by: Joyce Hall
(Sources: Burt and Grossenheider, A Field Guide to the Mammals;
Wright, The Grizzly Bear, and Heizer and Elsasser, The
Natural World of the California Indians)
