GIANT REDWOOD RECLINES : MONARCH'S DEMISE CAPTIVATES TOURISTS.Byline: Larry D. Hatfield San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. Joyce Kilmer Alfred Joyce Kilmer (6 December 1886 – 30 July 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a might see it somewhat differently, but a giant fallen redwood now on the floor of Muir Woods National Monument Muir Woods National Monument: see National Parks and Monuments (table). Muir Woods National Monument National woodland, northern California, U.S. in California is just as lovely as an erect tree. ``It's all part of the life and death of the forest,'' Mia Monroe, park ranger A park ranger is a person charged with protecting and preserving protected parklands, forests (then called a forest ranger), wilderness areas, as well as other natural resources and protected cultural resources. , said of the 800-year-old, 200-foot-tall, 12-foot-around forest monarch that fell with a roar Monday morning. About 50 awe-struck tourists and park employees watched the big tree make its dive at 10:30 a.m. after about an hour of cracking and leaning. ``Everyone thought it was awesome, the kind of natural forest they came to the national park to see,'' Monroe said. The tree - a Sequoia sequoia (sĭkwoi`ə), name for the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and for the big tree, or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), both huge, coniferous evergreen trees of the bald cypress family, and for extinct related species. sempervirens, the tallest trees in the world - was just to the left of the United Nations plaque honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt in the majestic Cathedral Grove about a half-mile from the visitors center. ``It's such a dramatic spot,'' Monroe said, saying the fallen giant had become an instant tourist attraction Noun 1. tourist attraction - a characteristic that attracts tourists attractive feature, magnet, attractor, attracter, attraction - a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts; "flowers are an attractor for bees" . ``People are just fascinated by the processes of nature, including these huge old monarchs falling to the ground. And it smells so good. . . . the heartwood heartwood, the central, woody core of a tree, no longer serving for the conduction of water and dissolved minerals; heartwood is usually denser and darker in color than the outer sapwood. is bright red.'' Rangers and silviculturists say a variety of factors contributed to the felling of the tree, which toppled gracefully up slope between neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. giants, causing no damage and requiring no cleanup. ``The factors that contributed to this tree falling have been going on for centuries,'' Monroe said. It was at the base of a fairly steep slope, and although it had an extensive root structure, it had extensive scarring at its base from normal processes of nature and had ``not a lot of above-ground support.'' Monroe said the theory was that the heat wave last week had dried the tree out and caused cracks in its base. It was also at its maximum annual foliage, so when the heavy fog returned to the coast Sunday and Monday and settled on the tree, the weight could have collapsed it. ``It was a whole accumulation of things,'' Monroe said, saying that some years no trees fell, and in others 10 or more did. ``We had no idea it was going to fall. There were no warning cracks, and there hadn't been any leaning.'' It was the eighth mature redwood to fall on the floor of Muir Woods this year. Foresters surmise that the abnormally wet and windy winter probably hastened the toppling of the trees. The downed tree will remain where it is in the 560-acre monument, providing nutrients to the soil, nesting for birds, bedding for plants and water for everything. ``Its first life is as a living tree in the forest,'' Monroe said. ``Its second life is as a log on the forest floor, continuing nature's cycle.'' |
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