Jack London and more history on Eucs

I just read an interesting article in Eden magazine--the Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society--titled Jack London's Ranch of Good Intentions.  It is a lengthy retelling of London's life with an emphasis on his love of the land, his extensive and acquisitions in Glen Ellen and the trials and tribulations of building and losing to fire his "Wolf House".  It is available to members on their website at www.cglhs.org, but I want to highlight the bits about eucalyptus trees in California.  The piece notes:

To improve his bottom line London participated in the sweeping introduction of an Australian tree, the genus “Eucalyptus.” From the mid nineteenth century and well into the twentieth the planting of Eucalyptus was a near mania. President Theodore Roosevelt and his chief forester Gifford Pinchot declared a “hard wood famine” in America, issuing government bulletins on methods of cultivating select species for greater yield. The fast growing, aromatic tree became an urgent cause especially in California. Beginning with the La Motte property London planted tens of thousands of trees in waves. Ultimately, he planted a total of five groves, some 140,000 seedlings.

The impoverished old vineyard property along Graham Creek was destined (or as it turned out ill-fated) to become London’s future ‘cash crop. Jack planted the recommended species, E. globulus, E. viminalis, E. tereticornis. E. camaldulensis, E. rudis. However, it was found as early as the 1910s that the maturity of the wood—decades, if not centuries— was the key to financial success. Many of the Eucalyptus growers throughout California arrived at the same conclusion and many groves were abandoned thereafter.

The hundreds of thousands of trees planted from the gold rush era into the 1920s were abandoned up and down California, and left to acculturate themselves into a different soil, a different continent, and a different hemisphere. Several mature Eucalyptus trees remain in Jack London State Historic Park and can be seen on walking trails on the northside of the Ranch.

I'm told our Big Boys on ECR that were planted by McLaren are the E. globulus variety.  One wonders if they might not take centuries (plural) to truly reach maturity.  I guess that except for the Lucky 9%, we will never know.  Here's Jack at work at his outdoor desk in Glen Ellen from Eden magazine.

Comments

[Joe]

More Eucs biting the dust:

El Camino Real Closures on Monday
June 26, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Hillside Drive to Mills Avenue and Edgehill Drive to Palm Drive

Caltrans has just announced that El Camino Real from Hillside Drive to Mills Avenue and Edgehill Drive to Palm Drive will have separate full closures on Monday, June 26, to facilitate safe tree removal from recent weather events. The closures are necessary due to the size of trees and equipment needed to safely complete the work.

Closure Hours:
Hillside Drive to Mills Avenue 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Edgehill Drive to Palm Drive 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM

The public is advised to avoid the area and use alternate routes. Detours will be in place utilizing local streets. Crews will assist residents with access as needed. Please note that all work is weather dependent.

For real-time traffic information, click here: http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/

For questions call Alejandro Lopez at Caltrans at (510) 385-6856.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

This is great Topic.
Golden Gate Park, Hetch Hetchi, Chrystal Springs Reservoir, as well as many others. All were "Connected" to Mr. Mcclaran. Pretty interesting Bio. He was also an intern with the person who developed Central Park, NY.

[Jennifer Pfaff]

Frederick Law Olmsted, maybe...Good point.

[HMB]

https://trees.stanford.edu/ENCYC/EUCnotes.htm for some interesting reading about eucs to the south of us

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

Thank you for the informative article R.