The valley elderberry longhorn beetle is a rare sight these days along the banks of the Stanislaus River.

It is arguably more elusive with than the riparian brush rabbit.

If you have never heard of either, that’s because the removal of more than 90 percent riparian woodlands throughout much of the San Joaquin Valley over the past 150 years has taken them from once being as plentiful of the herds of Tule elk that roamed the valley that’s served as meals for the California Grizzly Bear that — when standing on its hind legs  — could stretch almost 10 feet and weighed upwards of 830 pounds.

The odds are California Grizzly Bears also dined on riparian brush rabbits, valley elderberry longhorn beetles and the berries of the namesake shrub of the insects.

The California Grizzly Bear was once king of the heap in most of the geographic boundaries that today define California. That was until the Gold Rush came along. The bears — along with Tule elk and other game — became a way to feed the tens of thousands of people, who rushed into California. But their demise was the result of the “real” rush to harness the valley’s endless grasslands to raise cattle.

The grizzly bears had “easy” meals in cattle. Ranchers could ill afford their herds to be decimated. That lead to what was the largest creature in California for endless centuries that had no natural enemies to be the target of focused hunts designed to make sure they never returned to ranches.

Cattle ranches literally dominated the valley back then. The biggest of them all was the 22,000 square mile ranch Henry Miller once owned in the late 1800s that extended along the eastern San Joaquin Valley and was headquartered in Los Banos 55 miles slightly to the southwest of present-day Manteca.

The hunts were so effective the last verified sighting of a California Grizzly Bear was in 1924 in the San Madre Mountains near Santa Barbara.

Just 78 years earlier the creature was so powerful and prevalent that it became the symbol of those seeking independence for California hence the 1846 Bear Flag Rebellion.

The massive mammal that once was estimated to number 10,000 and typically lived to a ripe old age in their early 20s given they had no predators is now extinct. The only known California Grizzly Bear to be stuffed is kept in a temperature controlled room at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

That specimen dubbed “Monarch” was the model for the California Grizzly Bear that graces the state flag adopted in 1911. The California Grizzly Bear has been part of the state seal since 1850. In 1953 — some 29 years after the last of the species was sighted — it was adopted as the state’s official mammal.

The Tule elk almost met the fate of the California Grizzly Bear that once feasted on them. Tule elk herds were so plentiful they numbered in the hundreds and inspired the naming of Elk Grove in Sacramento County. They  were classified as an engendered species in the 1970s as their species had dwindled to a precious few hundred.

Today Tule elk are a showcase example of conservation efforts. No longer endangered with 3,000 or so head found in the wild they are still a protected species. The most prolific spot to see the herds are at Point Reyes National Seashore, Coyote Ridge in Santa Clara County, and between Bishop and Lone Pine in Inyo County.

There are a number of protected and endangered species not just in our own backyard but literally where we live.

The City of Manteca found that out when environment work conducted in 2019 for the McKinley Avenue/120 Bypass interchange expected to break ground in the next few years came across adult California tiger salamanders along with the near threatened spadefoot toad.

More than 250 of the threatened salamanders that spend near a quarter of their lives underground were captured and relocated to the Clements/Ramirez Preserve north of Stockton. Overall the city spent $278,000 on what could have been a $1.4 million cost if they had to create their own replacement habitat.

The riparian brush rabbit that was once widespread are now known to exist in very small numbers in three spots. The largest concentration is found at Caswell State Park along the banks of the Stanislaus River south of Manteca and west of Ripon. They can also be found at the San Joaquin Valley National Wildfire Refuge just a few miles of the southwest along the San Joaquin River.

The third area they’ve been spotted but in minuscule numbers are on Stewart Tract in Lathrop. It is why Cambay Group, the developers of River Islands, undertook efforts to preserve and expand habitat suitable for the small-sized rabbit subspecies.

Now Ripon is dealing with the need to protect an endangered species.

It is the valley elderberry longhorn beetle. While it doesn’t project a mighty image in one’s mind as the California Grizzly Bear would, appear as majestic as Tule elk, or look as cute as a bunny as the riparian brush rabbit, the adult male beetle is striking nonetheless with orange wings accenting a black body.

They are about an inch to an inch and a half long from the front of their head to the rear with a pair of antennas that are almost that long as well.

They are found on or near their host shrub, the elderberry bush that happens to be found next to a dirt path along the Stanislaus River. The City of Ripon would like to replace that dirt path with asphalt as part of a 1.8-mile bike trail that will cost $498,000 to build.

The numerous elderberry shrubs found along the dirt path are protected under environmental law as well.

Ripon is using $9,100 in Measure K sales tax to pay for a beetle assessment.

Finding signs of the beetle is not an easy task. They typically bore into branches an inch or larger in diameter. It is there they lay eggs that can be in the larva stage for up to two years.

Depending upon the findings, it could force a change in bike path plans, add significant costs, or end up being a mere speed bump.

The City of Porterville has been blessed — or cursed depending upon one’s perspective — with being in an area where the endangered species can be found. Over the years they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars addressing beetle issues to the point a seven acre preserve was created that they pay the Sequoia River Trust just over $35,000 annually to maintain.

To give you an idea of the potential costs, when Porterville went to widen the Jaye Street Bridge in their city, they had to replace 60 of the protected elderberry bushes they needed to remove with new ones on the preserve at $5,000 a pop or $300,000.

The bid to save the elderberry longhorn beetle was much more expensive and deadly in Yuba County.

It was there along the Feather River levee in 1986 when a habitat mitigation project for the beetle near Arboga delayed levee work and ended up undermining flood protection. Two people died, thousands of homes were damaged, there was nearly $100 million in property losses, and 6 feet of water ended up flowing through the Peach Tree Mall in nearby Linda.

And it was all due to a small beetle that was so numerous at one time that the infamous Great Flood of 1861-62 that inundated nearly 6,000 square miles of the Central Valley with water up to 30 feet deep couldn’t kill them off.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com