 Such inhabitants, who numbered roughly two thousand overall, were hunter-gatherers, living in small, semi-permanent villages beside or near perennial streams. There were five villages on the main stem, three of which were below the Trabuco Creek confluence, and four more in other parts of the watershed, mostly on Trabuco and Oso Creeks. Their diet usually consisted of fruits, acorns, and grains, and sometimes meat, while they practiced little agriculture. Shell middens indicate that they also harvested shellfish from the coast. Although natural disasters such as floods, drought, and wildfires occurred during that time, as they do today, the Juañeno did not affect the environment of the area in either a negative or positive way. No permanent structures were built in the San Juan watershed until the arrival of the Spanish.
