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Muir Woods Park

Muir Woods National Monument is a United States National Park on the Pacific coast of southwestern Marin

County, California, 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It protects 559 acres (226 ha), of which 240 acres (97 ha) are old growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests, one of a few such remaining in the San Francisco Bay Area. Due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the forest is regularly shrouded in coastal fogs, contributing to a wet environment that encourages vigorous plant growth. The fog is also vital for the growth of the redwoods as they use moisture from the fog during the dry summer. One hundred and fifty million years ago ancestors of redwood and sequoia

trees grew throughout the United States, and before the logging industry came to California, there were an estimated 2 million acres (8,000 km²) 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. Congressman William Kent purchased 611 acres (247 ha) of uncut land in a valley named Redwood Canyon just north of the San Francisco Bay, and in 1907 donated 295 acres (119 ha) of the redwood forest to the Federal Government, thus preventing a local water company from damming and flooding the valley. In January 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the land a national monument. The original suggested name was the Kent Monument but Kent insisted it be named after naturalist John Muir, whose

environmental campaigns helped to establish the national park system. In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed and park attendance tripled. Scientist Dr. Will Rodman took his chimp surrogate son, Caesar, to Muir Woods for the first time when he was three years old. For the next five years it became his favourite place to play and spend time in a

habitat more natural to him. After leading a mass breakout of gentically altered apes from the San Bruno Primate Shelter, the Gen-Sys Laboratories and the San Francisco Zoo, Caesar tried to take the apes to freedom in the Muir Woods redwood forest across the Golden Gate Bridge. Seeing only rampaging wild animals, the San Francisco authorities tried to corral the apes on the bridge and massacre them, but after a battle and many deaths on both sides, most apes survived and reached Muir Woods. (CE: Rise of the Planet of the Apes)