Mount Diablo Group

"Muir Woods in winter"

Wednesday, January 11, 7 pm, Winslow Center, 2590 Pleasant Hill Road, Pleasant Hill (corner of Taylor Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road).

The summer crowds have gone, and the coho salmon and steelhead trout have returned. It's time to rediscover the magic of Muir Woods.

Join us at the next general meeting of the Sierra Club Mount Diablo Group for a slide presentation and talk by Ken Lavin describing "the best tree lover's monument to be found in all the forests of the world".

Muir Woods is approaching its 100th anniversary as a national monument, but John Muir's "immortal sequoias" still have some surprising stories to tell. How was this old-growth redwood forest saved for posterity while other Bay Area redwood forests fell before the logger's ax? What role did the Sierra Club play in the early days of Muir Woods?

Did you know that a 70-foot-tall Buddha was once constructed in the forest, or that early access to the park was by means of the "longest roller-coaster ride" in the world"?

How are the spotted owls doing, why do the ladybugs return each year, and what science-fiction-movie villain was inspired by the banana slug?

The presentation will also describe new scientific research on coast redwoods. What goes on in the tall canopy of a redwood forest, once thought to be a biological desert but now known to support a unique ecosystem in the clouds? How do trees towering hundreds of feet above the ground seemingly defy the laws of physics and get water to their tops? Will global warming spell the doom of these relicts of the Mesozoic era?

Join us for a new look at on old favorite, Muir Woods National Monument.

Learn what you can do to help, through volunteer opportunities in the park, including Muir Woods Earth Day and the exciting Muir Woods Soundscapes project.

Ken Lavin is an interpretive park ranger at Muir Woods National Monument.

For more information contact Ken Lavin, (925) 686-9393.