1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



79 



The Bigtrees of California. 



Description of the Groves which Congress has been Asked to Preserve from 



the Energy of Lumbermen. 



Before the glacial period, the genus of 

 big trees called Sequoia flourished widely 

 in the temperate zones of three continents. 

 There were many species, and Europe, 

 Asia and America each had their share. 

 But when the ice-fields moved down out 

 of the north, the luxuriant vegetation of 

 the age declined, and with it these multi- 

 tudes of trees. One after another the dif- 

 ferent kinds gave way, their relics became 

 buried, and when the ice receded, there 

 were left in all the world, just two species 

 of the genus. Both grew in California, 

 each separate from the other, and each oc- 

 cupying, in comparison with its former 

 territory, a mere island of space. As we 

 know them now, the Redwood {Sequoia 

 setnpervirens] lives only in the Coast 

 ranges and the region of the sea fogs, 

 along a narrow strip, ten to thirty miles 

 wide, from the Oregon line to the Bay of 

 Monterey; the Bigtree {Sequoia ivash- 

 ingtoniana) lives only on the west slop^ 

 of the Sierra Nevada, in small groves 

 scattered over a length of two hundred and 

 fifty miles. The utmost search reveals 

 but ten main groups ; it is hardly extrava- 

 gant to limit the total number of sizeable 

 trees to figures in the thousands ; and it is 

 the plain truth that all the specimens put 

 together which are famous for their size, 

 they do not exceed five hundred. 



The Bigtrees are unique in the world 

 the grandest, the largest, the most grace- 

 ful of trees; and if it were not enough to 

 be all these, they are among the scarcest 

 of known species, and have the extreme 

 scientific value of being the best living 

 representative of a previous geologic age. 

 The tree has come down to us through the 

 vicissitudes of manv centuries because it 

 has had superb qualifications. Its bark is 

 often two feet thick and almost non-com- 

 bustible ; the oldest specimens that have 

 been felled were still sound at the heart; 

 and fungus is an enemy unknown to it. 



Yet with all these means of maintenance, 

 the Bigtrees have apparently not increased 

 their range since the glacial epoch. On 

 their own little strip of country, where the 

 climate was locally favorable, they have 

 just managed to hold their own. 



As the situation stands to-day, the only 

 grove of consequence, which is absolutely 

 safe from destruction, the Mariposa, is far 

 from being the most interesting. Most of 

 the others are either in process, or in 

 danger, of being logged. The very finest 

 of all, the Calaveras, with the biggest 

 and tallest trees, the most uncontaminated 

 surroundings, and practically all the liter- 

 ary and scientific associations of the species 

 connected with it, is bonded to a lumber- 

 man who came into full possession on 

 the first of April, 1900; the Sequoia and 

 General Grant national parks, which are 

 supposed to embrace and secure a large 

 part of the remaining Bigtrees, are eaten 

 into with a saw-mill each, and valid pri- 

 vate timber claims amounting to a total of 

 1172.87 acres; and for the rest of the 

 scanty patches, they are in a fair way to 

 disappear -- in Calaveras, Tuolumne, 

 Fresno and Tulare counties they are dis- 

 appearing by the axe. In brief, the 

 majority of the Bigtrees of California, 

 certainly the best of them, are owned by 

 people who have every right, and in many 

 cases, every intention, to cut them up into 

 boards. 



These are the main facts of the case. 

 To realize more fully the loss we are 

 likely to suffer is a matter for imagina- 

 tion. One must remember the history of 

 these trees, their individual age, their size, 

 their fame, their beauty. A notion of 

 their wonders may be got from John 

 Muir's Mountains of California. No one 

 describes the Sequoias more vividly 

 than he : 



" So exquisitely harmonious and finely 

 balanced are even the mightiest of these 



