Muir Woods Monument - The Redwood Forest

Location of Muir Woods

Muir Woods National Monument is located in Marin County, California and managed by the National Park Service. It has its popularity by locating near to major cities around the bay area including San Francisco. It has been providing outstanding scenic atmosphere and hiking/biking trails to people those who love coast redwood trees. Out of 611 acres that initially purchased by Kents, 295 acres of forest that is mostly occupied by redwood trees became the monument. ^[2] The trees in the Muir Woods and other living creatures are growing relatively fast because they are constantly influenced by fog belt, which is formed by the Pacific Ocean that is only 2 miles away from the forest. Frequent fog in this area is critical to the growth of redwood trees because the Muir Woods is located area that has Mediterranean scrub biome where it gets very dry during summer and fog belt can provide constant moisture not only to redwoods but other living creatures. ^[3]

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Muir Woods - historic

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The land was originally owned by William Kent, the local businessman who later became U.S. Congressman and his wife Elizabeth Thacher Kent. They had purchased this one of few old-growth redwood forests remained along the pacific costal line to protect the trees. Later, they left the land to the federal government for further protection of redwoods and president Theodore Roosevelt acclaimed it a national monument in 1908.

Muir Woods and lands of the surrounding canyon were originally part of native Indian Coast Miwok people's homeland before Europeans established their settlement at peninsula in the nineteenth century. ^[1]Even though there is just little evidence that show it was their habitat, some archaeological remains show that the forest provided some degree of means of subsistence to Coast Miwok people. ^[1]

Muir Woods - present

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Muir Woods is the nation's tenth national monument that is comprised of old-growth coast redwoods forest, Sequoia semperirens. Coast redwoods are one of two types of redwoods that exist in the U.S. and the other one is sierra redwood, better known as the world's largest tree Sequoia. ^[1]Muir Woods Monument occupies a small part of all coast redwood forests that are distributed along the Pacific coastal line from southwest Oregon to central California. ^[1] The oldest tree in Muir Woods is approximately 1,500 years old while most trees are about 500 to 600 years old and they can grow over 300 feet. ^[1]

Human Impact on Muir Woods

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During the Reagan administration, about half of all redwoods were cut and today, only 2% of privately owned and 2% federal trees are remaining in U.S. When Kent purchased land of Muir Woods, he and John Muir - one of the most outstanding figures in naturalist and conservationist in late 80’s who devoted his life to conserve nature and to establish park system - had same goal: to preserve the forest. Even though many redwood trees are gone now, those remaining trees are being well preserved and protected in Muir Woods Monument, Redwood National and State Parks, and some California and Oregon State Parks. Basically, almost all activities such as picnic, lodging, camping, and fishing are prohibited in Muir Woods except biking route and 1.5 miles of wheelchair accessible paved hiking trails. ^[3]

Redwood trees in Muir Woods are adapted to fire, which helps trees thrive in the long run. In order to be germinated, redwood seeds need to get into the soil after it is cleared from bacteria and fungi by burning. Also, fire leaves lots of nutrients that are necessary for tree growth and helps animals to find food. Now, the National Park Service puts fire regularly to promote the forest’s health but before 19^th century, there used to be naturally occurring fire every 20-50 years. ^[2]

For better Muir Woods

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The graph above shows that the Muir Woods monument is relatively smaller than other redwood forests in California. Despite its small scale, Muir Wood counts the highest number of visitors among other redwood parks in California. [4]

As far as I concerned, there will be no severe damage to this area in the future if it is kept safely as it is now. Although it has the highest visiting count among redwood forest parks, the National Park Service has done an astonishing job to preserve The Muir Woods safe. There will be no logging or construction going on this area because the government manages it. ^[4]

California State is trying to close 70 parks starting in July 2012 because of State parks budget deficit. Out of 70 parks, only 5 of them are closed now and remaining parks can stay open using funds and services from many sources such as National Park Service, local governments, nonprofit agencies, and volunteers until July 2013. ^[5]Thus, it is possible that we will have few or no chance to enjoy the tallest trees in the world. Before we think what we can do to improve our impacts on Muir Woods Monument, we should work on keeping it open to public.

My pictures taken at Muir Woods 2008

References

[1] John Auwaerter and John F. Sears, “Historic Resource Study for Muir Woods National Monument: Golden Gate National Recreation Area.” Olmsted Center for Landscape preservation, National Park services, Boston, Massachusetts, 2006

[2] National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

<http://www.nps.gov/muwo/hisoryculture/stories.htm>

[3] “Muir Woods 100^th Anniversary 2008.” National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Monument California < http://www.nps.gov/muwo/upload/unigrid-muwo.pdf>.

[4] Redwood Hikes – A guide to old-growth redwood trails, <http://www.redwoodhikes.com>

[5] Scott-Goforth, Grant. “Local state parks likely to remain open; cuts to camping, hours may mean less tourism dollars” The Times – Standard

27 June 2012: < http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_20948363/local-state-parks-likely-remain-open-cuts-camping>