Sunday 29 June 2014
Muir Woods National
Monument is a unit of the National Park Service on the Pacific coast of
southwestern Marin County, California, 12 miles north of San Francisco and part
of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It protects 554 acres, of which
240 acres are old growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia
sempervirens) forests, one of a few such stands remaining in the San
Francisco Bay Area. One hundred and fifty million years ago ancestors of
redwood and sequoia trees grew throughout the United States. Today, the Sequoia sempervirens can be found
only in a narrow, cool coastal belt from Monterey, California, in the south to Oregon
in the north. Before the logging industry came to California, there were an estimated
2 million acres of old growth forest containing redwoods growing in a narrow
strip along the coast. By the early 20th century, most of these forests had
been cut down. Just north of the San Francisco Bay, one valley named Redwood
Canyon remained uncut, mainly due to its relative inaccessibility. Source
