By Aiko Hill

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Water, bugs and animals. That would have been an appropriate three-word description of our area when the Spanish first arrived. Ours was a vast, wild and wet land in those early days.

Although the Bay Area is now semi-arid, it was very different way back then. Water was everywhere, springs, ponds, small lakes, marshes and rivers. This abundance provided a good life for the native residents, the Ohlone, but it was difficult on the new settlers. The myriad waterways meant difficulty in navigation as the settlements moved north. Wagons got mired in the streams and mud, and establishing a discernible path was challenging. Water also meant mosquitoes. Evidently, this was one of the most significant problems faced by the explorers, and these pests (the mosquitoes) inflicted serious disease on the new arrivals.

Bugs were part of the ecosystem, though, and provided a primary food source for a range of birds. Of course, the birds were just one more link in the food chain which also included - at the high end - foxes, mountain lions and bobcats. In fact, in reading early accounts, it seems that the fox was everywhere, almost out of control from a population standpoint.

All of this was strange to the Spanish but normal to the Ohlone. The natives understood animal behavior perfectly and relied on the animals for food and some clothing. Maybe of more importance was the Ohlone’s spiritual connection with the animals. The animal spirits were the Ohlone’s gods and they shared not an adversarial relationship, but one of harmony.

The wonderful stories about the breadth of the wildlife populations sometimes seem hard to believe. Occasionally, we see a small deer, a skunk or a possum and think that we really live in the country, but the abundance is gone. At some point we decided to start filling in the bay, and the rest, as they often say, is history. With the disappearance of the water came the disappearance of the bugs, which changed the ability of the other animals to survive, so they moved on.

Water is not a concern, and most of us are probably happy about the lack of mosquitoes, but it’s a shame that the animals are mostly gone. Still, a walk in the woods or even down a side path in Los Altos Hills can provide us with a wildlife surprise every now and then!

Send comments and suggestions to aikohill@aol.com.