Muir Woods National Monument

Muir Woods National Monument ( MURE) is a United States national monument managed by the National Park Service and named after naturalist John Muir. It is located on Mount Tamalpais near the Pacific coast in southwestern Marin County, California. The Monument is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and is 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco. It protects 554 acres (224 ha), of which 240 acres (97 ha) are old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests, one of the few such stands remaining in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Geography

Ecosystem The Muir Woods National Monument is an old-growth coastal redwood forest in a canyon situated on the western slope of Mount Tamalpais, which rises to 2,571 feet. Because it faces and is in close proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the forest is regularly shrouded in a thick, coastal marine layer fog in the summer, contributing to a wet environment that encourages vigorous plant growth. The fog is also vital for the growth of the redwoods as they use moisture from the fog during drought seasons, particularly during dry summers. During the winter, substantial rainfall soaks the ground, creating the damp environment these trees prefer, as they naturally flourish near rivers and streams.

Climate The monument remains cool and moist year-round with daytime temperatures averaging between 40 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (4 to 21 °C). Rainfall is heavy during the winter, and summers are almost completely dry, with the exception of fog drip caused by the fog passing through the trees. Annual precipitation in the park ranges from 39.4 inches (1,000 mm) in the lower valley to 47.2 inches (1,200 mm) higher up in the mountain slopes.

Soils and bedrock The redwoods grow on brown humus-rich loam, which may be gravelly, stony or, somewhat sandy. This soil has been assigned to the Centissima series, which is always found on sloping ground. It is well-drained, moderately deep, and slightly to moderately acidic. It has developed from a mélange in the Franciscan Formation. More open areas of the park have shallow gravelly loam of the Barnabe series, or deep hard loam of the Cronkhite series.

History

Background

The first fossils of Sequoia sempervirens, also known as Coast Redwood, can be traced back to the Jurassic period, more than 200 million years ago. Redwood forests grew throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Before commercial logging began in the mid-nineteenth century as a result of the Gold Rush, redwood forests occurred naturally, covering an estimated 810,000 ha (2,000,000 acres) extending from Oregon in the north to south of Big Sur in Monterey County, California. By 2023, only 5% of the historic range of old-growth along the coast remains, shrunk to a strip of 450 miles along the coast. Trees in the coast redwood forests are young.

Redwood Canyon Because of its proximity to San Francisco, in the mid-1880s, redwoods on Mount Tamalpais were heavily logged to build the city and later, in 1906, to rebuild it. The redwood in Muir's woods, in what was then called Redwood Canyon, on Mount Tamalpais' steep slope, were spared because they were too difficult to reach for logging.

In 1903, William Kent chaired a meeting attended by the chiefs of the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Biological Survey. The group discussed a proposal for a 12,000-acre park from the mountain to the sea, on land owned by ranchers and the Tamalpais Land and Water Company. In 1905, using money borrowed from a banker friend, the Kents bought 611 acres of Redwood Canyon within this area on the southwestern side of Mount Tamalpais to thwart logging, protect the redwood forests, and provide visitors’ accommodations. Two years later, their plan to save the primeval redwood groves of Redwood Creek was threatened when the North Coast Water Company (successor to the Tamalpais Land and Water Company) began condemnation proceedings on 47 acres of the Kents' private acreage in order to dam the creek and create a reservoir to provide a water supply for Sausalito. But William Kent learned about America’s first preservation law, the Antiquities Act of 1906: it allowed the government to accept gifts from private citizens and gave the president the ability to create national monuments by proclamation. Kent wrote to President Theodore Roosevelt and offered to donate 298 acres to the nation. Roosevelt accepted, and in 1908 Muir Woods became a national monument. Kent insisted that the park be named for John Muir, whose western explorations, political efforts, and writing had so increased our country’s awareness of its natural treasures. With later land acquisi- tions, nearly all of them Kent family gifts, the monument grew and now protects 560 acres, most of it virgin redwood forest. William Kent was elected to Congress in 1910 and served for three terms. During his time in Washington, he helped create the National Park Service. Concerns about protecting Redwood Canyon had already been raised in the early 20th century with conservationists such as U.S. Congressman, William Kent, his wife, Elizabeth Thacher Kent; a banker at Bank of California, Lovell White and his wife, Laura Lyon White; and Canadian-American botanist and conservationist, Alice Eastwood, procurator and Head of the Department of Botany, at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

By 1904, influential women from the San Francisco Bay Area had organized to purchase more forest, this time owned by the North Coast Water Company, which was under pressure from its shareholders to sell the land to another private entity. A key organizer and advocate was Alice Eastwood, who worked as a curator at the California Academy of Sciences. She and others spearheaded a drive to raise $80,000 to buy the land... The Kents purchased 611 acres (247 ha) of land from the Tamalpais Land and Water Company for $45,000 in 1905 with the goal of protecting the redwoods and the mountain above them. The deal was facilitated by White and his activist wife.

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