Muir Woods National Park Travel Guide

Article Written By: MarkAdams

Coast Redwoods are the most well known species of tree located in Muir Woods National Monument. Coast Redwoods have seed cones which is one of the ways the reproduce, the seed cones are pollinated in late winter with maturation 8-9 months after. Each seed cone has 3-7 seeds which fall out when the seed cone maturates when the cone scales dry out and open.

John Muir was born in April 21, 1838 in Dunbar, Scotland; he was a son to Daniel Muir and Ann Gilrye who had seven siblings. His boyhood pursuits were fighting and hunting for bird nests so he could make notes to compare with his friends on where the most were located. In 1849 Muir's family moved to Wisconsin and started up a farm called Fountain Lake Farm which to this day is still owned by John Muir's descendants.

He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he attended his first botany class which filled him with enthusiasm for exploring the wilderness. Muir did not graduate college but instead dropped out and worked an industrial job during 1866 to 1867 then he proceeded to walk 1000 miles from Indiana to Florida. He originally planned to go to South America but contracted Malaria and decided to go to California instead.

In California they used to occupy, along with other trees, an estimated 2 million acres before the logging industry came to California. Today the trees only occupy a narrow strip located from southern Oregon to Monterey Bay because of fog. Fogs as a vital natural irrigation system for the tall trees that can't get the water to the top rely on fog which explains the location where they grew up.

In the early 20th century people started to realize that almost all of those forests were cut down, but luckily the area that would become Muir Woods National Monument still had a large area left. Coast Redwood is a very popular lumber due to its fire resistance, resistance to decay, and its distinguished color. The features of its lumber make the Coast Redwood a very profitable lumber tree in California, there are now 364,000 ha of managed second growth Coast Redwood in California.

The oldest Coast Redwood lived to be 2,200 years old, and the tallest was 380 ft tall. The oldest Coast Redwood in Muir Woods is 1,100 years old, and the tallest is 258 ft tall. There are many different types of trees in Muir Woods, but Coast Redwoods make a lot of shade which affects the ecosystem. Coast Redwoods produce a high quantity of tannin in their bark which repels insects, and the large amount of shade causes less flowers and less fruit to be produced. This has made the bird population low in Muir Woods.

About the Author

Mark Adams - Golden Horizon Travel and San Francisco Tours

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