THE GREAT NATURALIST John Muir said only a mountain could listen to the howl of the wolf objectively. Most humans are too excitable, too eager to turn a profit or too bent on gaining some social toehold to understand the greater ramifications of how they are systematically destroying the Earth.
I doubt any of us will ever be able to listen like a mountain, but staring up at a 200-foot California coast redwood, I wonder if some people might at least gain the perspective of an ancient tree like this. I'm sure a few readers are thinking to themselves that being deaf as a rock or blind as a tree trunk is precious little to aim for. But maybe these seemingly senseless objects filter out the daily ruckus and hear and see only the important things.
Think about a tree's perspective on automobile exhaust. Driving down the street behind a fume-belching car, we make an effort to pass it, leave the stench behind and quickly forget about it. A tree next to a road endures those cars day in and day out, unable to move away. One could liken it to being chained to an easy chair while an idling car in your living room slowly smothers you. Perhaps because of its immobility and longevity, that roadside tree sees, better than any of us going about our busy lives, what exactly it is we are doing. One might say trees see the things most worth seeing and rocks hear the things most worth listening to.
Waxing philosophical comes naturally in a place like the Muir
Woods National Monument, just outside San Francisco. A plaque
mounted next to the trail quotes former UN Secretary General of
the United Nations Dag Hammarskjord: "Persons who love nature
find a common basis for understanding people of other countries,
since the love of nature is universal among men of all nations."
Sadly, the love of nature is not universal among all the men of each nation. This is the last intact stand of ancient redwoods in the Bay area. The rest have been cut at one time or another. This forest would also have been milled long ago if not for the vision of Congressman William Kent and his wife Elizabeth. Together they spent $45,000 in 1905 (a legitimate fortune then) to buy 295 acres of this forest. They wanted to develop tourism in the area, but when the forest was threatened by the construction of a dam, they gave the land to the Federal Government and in 1908 it became the seventh National Monument.
William Kent insisted the park be named after John Muir, who had a huge influence on creating the conservation ethic in the United States.
At 367 feet, a coast redwood is the tallest living organism on the planet. In this grove one of the trees reaches 252 feet and another is 14 feet across. During the reign of dinosaurs, redwoods spanned across much of the Northern Hemisphere. Today only 150,000 acres of redwood forests remain, with half of that acreage protected by national or state parks. The scientific name of the coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, translates to "always living Sequoia." With pressures on old growth forests throughout the northwest, one wonders if these trees will live up to their name.
At least this small section has continued growing. The monument encompasses 560-acres and lies within the much larger Golden Gate National Recreation Area. A host of trails winds in and out of the monument and around the recreation area. The mile-long main trail loop near the visitor center takes about a half hour to hike and passes by Redwood Creek and some of the largest trees. Of course, this is the most popular route and you will have plenty of company no matter the hour or day of the week. However, once you get off the main loop, a more solitary forest experience can be had.
A Muir Woods map and guide to trails, plants and wildlife, available at the visitor center for a buck, shows all the hiking trails in the area. With this you can plan a day of poking around giant trees and grassy hilltops with Pacific views. Along with the main loop, the mini-guide contains descriptions of seven other hikes in the area with distances and approximate hiking times.
The popularity of this magnificent forest has caused it no small harm. In a section called Cathedral Grove there used to be a "walk-through" tree under which thousands of tourists milled through and around over the years.
For their immense size, redwoods have surprisingly shallow roots, reaching only about 10 feet underground. Most redwood roots radiate out from the trunk at an even shallower depth. The soil near the tree was compacted by so many footsteps, water could no longer reach the roots and in 1971 the 225-foot tree toppled over dead.
The 600-year old tree, which had weathered fires, storms, pests and earthquakes died from a horde of rubber soles.
The National Park Service then decided to fence in the main trail in the monument to help protect the fragile roots of the other trees. As tempting as vaulting the fence for a better picture may be, remember the story of the walk through tree and refrain.
"Any fool can destroy trees," Muir wrote. "They cannot run away. It took more than 3,000 years to make some of the trees in these western woods--trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests.... God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but He cannot save them from fools--only Uncle Sam can do that."
At the time of this writing, the Republican Congress continues to refuse funding for plans to expand our own Saguaro National Park into the X-9 Ranch along Rincon Creek. This stretch of property is a critical conjunction of riparian and desert habitat, certainly doomed for development before long. Watching this story unfold, it raises the question of Muir's quote: What happens when fools are manipulating Uncle Sam's strings?
For more information call (415) 388-2595, or write Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, CA 94941.
