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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE CALIFORNIA'S FIRST FUEL CRISIS AND EUCALYPTUS PLANTINGS A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography by G~yle M. Groenendaal January 1985 The Thesis of Gayle M. Groenendaal is approved: Dr. Wi ll i am Emboden Department of Bioloqv Dr. Eugene Turner Department of Geography Dr. Ell'iot Mcfntire Department of Geography Chair California State University, Northridge DEDICATION To my loving husband, Ronald A. Groenendaal, fro~ a very appreciative wife. / iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation to the following people who have encouraged me, advised me, and contributed either to this work or to my intellectual growth during the long years it has taken me to finish this research. I am especially grateful to the members of my thesis committee who have borne with me all these years, Dr. Elliot Mcintire, Professor of Geography, Dr. Eugene Turner, Professor of Geography, and Dr. William Emboden, Professor of Biology. A very special thanks goes to Dr. Mcintire, the chair of my committee, who has become a very valuable friend as well as an excellent advisor. Also I would like to give special thanks to my "unofficial" committee members, Dr. Mildred Mathias, Professor Emeritus, Department of Botany, UCLA, Dr. Jonathan Sauer, Professor of Geography, UCLA, Dr. Frank Almada, Director of Research, California Academy of Sciences, June (Rocky) Carroll, Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth Sciences, LACC, and Dr. Hildegard Bender Johnson, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Macalester College. They first stimulated my curiosity and taught me .. good scholarship as an undergraduate, and who over the years have remained friends and advisors, some reading my work several times and giving me very good scholarly advice on how to improve iv it. This work has been greatly enriched by the help of other scholars, chief among these, is Tom Brown, landscape historian, Berkeley, who gave valuable aid on the early introduction of plants to California. Also adding valuable aid and references were the following: Elna Bakker, author, Los Angeles, who read the first draft and gave me very good editing advise; A. B. C. Whipple, author, Old Greenwich, Connecticut, whose speciality is sea Captain Robert Waterman; Mr. and Mrs. Everett G. Hager, authors, San Pedro, who in their search of historical references on Los Angeles, sent me many good items on eucalyptus; Mr. Remi A. Nadeau, author, Santa Barbara, who shared his research sources with me plus giving me valuable information about his great, great, great grandfather, Remi Nadeau; Mrs. Nancy (Banning) Call, Pasadena, great, great, great granddaughter of Phineas Banning, who shared family lore with me; Mrs. Christine (Vale) Shirley, Pasadena, Historian for the Banning Museum, who shared references and resources with me; and Dr. Carey Stanton, Santa Cruz Island, who referred me to many of his friends who are members of the settling families of California. If I learned nothing else from this exercise, I learned that historical research can not be carried out without the aid of the most value group of people in the world, the librarians. Many good librarians across the country helped v by sending articles to me, xeroxing material for me, or answering my questions. I would like to thank those who were "above" the call of duty: Dorothy Marsden, Vallejo Museum and Library; Joan DeFato, of the Plant Science Library at the Los Angeles County Arboreta and Botanic Gardens; Irene Moran and Richard Ogar, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; Peter A. Evans, Fore s t r y L i b r-a r y , Un i v e r s i t y of C a 1 i for n i a , B e r k e 1 e y ; Donald Kunitz, Head of Special Collections, University of California, Davis; Mary E. Johnson of the Forest History Library, Santa Cruz; and Jayne MacLean of the National Agricultural Library, Washington, D.C. Last, but not least, I thank my husband, Ronald A. Groenendaal, who has been a constant source of comfort and moral support while putting up with my long work days, working weekends and holidays. I would have never made it without his understanding. A person who spend many long hours helping me with "grunt" work was my nephew, Michael Mizuno. He helped xerox thousands of pages of old newspapers, made files for them, typed note cards and helped collect some of the original data for three consecutive summers for very little pay but a lot of love. Standing by my side and encouraging me was my friend, Ms. Joan M. O'Brien, who has endured my bad temper and short deadlines for years, and yet, she still remained cheerful and supportive through it all. To Raul Rodriguez, I give vi special thanks, not only for the maps he did for this work, but also for remaining a good friend through the years. I would also like to thank my friend and boss, Dr. J. William Schopf, Director of the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origins of Life, UCLA, who has given me the freedom, encouragement, and support to continue my research. There are many more people who have helped me over the years, and I give my thanks to you, one and all. I have learned that the greatest resource in any research is the human resource, those people who are willing to teach, guide, advise, direct, share their own research, and give scholarly and moral support along the way. I could have never finished this work without these people. I thank you all. Gayle M. Groenendaal Los Angeles, California November, 1984 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Dedication iii Acknowledgments iv Abstract X 1 Introduction 1 2 Spanish Exploration and Settlement 15 3 Natural Vegetation of Southern California 28 San Diego Area 30 Discussion 36 Los Angeles Area 37 Discussion 44 Santa Barbara Area 46 Discussion 49 San Luis Obispo Area 51 Discussion 56 Summary 57 4 Natural Vegetation of Northern California 63 Salinas Valley and Monterey 63 Discussion 72 San Francisco and the Bay Area 73 Discussion 78 Sacramento Area 79 Discussion 83 Summary 84 5 The Gold Rush 89 Gold Fever 90 Population 94 Settlement Patterns 96 Economic Disruption 99 Summary 102 6 The Timber Problem 105 Destruction of Timber in California 108 International Timber Shortage 116 National Statistics 117 Solutions to the Timber Problem 119 Summary 123 7 Ornamental Introduction of Eucalyptus 129 Ornamental Horticulture 129 Eucalyptus Introduction 133 viii Chapter 7 Introduction to California 135 The Early Ornamental Plantings 140 Summary · 145/ 8 The Commercial Eucalyptus Plantings 152 Introduction 152 Beginnings of Agriculture 152 Forest Plantings 157 First Commercial Eucalyptus Plantings 159 Other Commercial Plantings 163 Northern California 167 San Francisco and the Bay Area 167 Sacramento and the Central Valley 173 Salinas Valley Area 175 Southern California 176 Santa Barbara Area 176 Los Angeles Area 179 San Diego 185 San Luis Obispo Area 187 Summary 190 9 Past, Present, and Future of Eucalyptus 199 Past 199 Fuel Consumption 203 California's Solution to Fuel Crisis 205 International Use 207 Present 208 Eucalyptus for Timber 209 Future 211 Bibliography 214 Maps Map 1 20 Map 2 29 Map 3 34 Map 4 94 Map 5 164 Photographs Photo 1 169 Photo 2 170 Photo 3 186 Appendices 227 ix ABSTRACT CALIFORNIA'S FIRST FUEL CRISIS AND EUCALYPTUS PLANTINGS by GAYLE M. GROENENDAAL MASTER OF ARTS IN GEOGRAPHY The following work contains research on the development of California's first fuel crisis, a shortage of fuel wood. To understand what caused the shortage of fuel wood in California, data gathered from the existing literature describing the landscape are analyzed for timber resources before 1849 and a comparison is made to the resulting landscape after the gold rush of that date. The large population influx during the gold rush placed further strain on the timber resources. Within ten years of the arrival of the first miners to California, all timber resources were threaten. Concerned citizens began to experiment with different tree types to find one that would be suitable to reforest California. One genus, Eucalyptus, seemed to have the necessary traits. Endorsed by the leading scientists and influential citizens, people began to plant eucalyptus, mainly E. globulus, in forest plantations. Remnants of this crisis are still very visible features of California's landscape today. X CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This thesis examines the cultural and physical factors which led to a serious shortage of wood for timber and especially for fuel in the late nineteenth century in California and responses to that crisis, in particular, the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees. It has gained breath due to concepts and definitions of geography by several historical geographers. Emmanuel de Martonne defined geography as the study of the "distribution on the surface of the earth of physical, biological and human phenomena, the causes of this distribution, and the local relationships of these phenomena." 1 He further points out that if the "geologist must be a chemist, physicist, and zoologist, and if the physicist himself can not do without mathematics, the horizon of the geographer is especially vast and extends at the same time toward the physical, biological and social sciences." 2 Especially important to this thesis is the principle of causality, originating in Alexander von Humboldt's work, which subsequently led to the creation of botanical geography.3 The principle of causality cautions the researcher to "never be content with the examination of phenomenon without trying to go back to the causes that determines its extent and without investigating its 1 2 consequences."4 Paul Claval adds the third important concept to the methodology of the following work.