Trees in Paradise: A California HistoryTrees in Paradise: A California History. Jared Farmer . 2013. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY Acknowledgements; maps, figures, photographs; appendix of common and scientific names of species; further reading; not

2014·4.9 MB·English

by  Paul F Starrs

Madrono, Vol. 61, No. 4, pp. 407-410, 2014
REVIEW
Trees in Paradise: A Cal- in press tours and interviews. Yet as a reviewer,
ifornia History. ByJared I’m given to repeat an adage that I heard one
Farmer. 2013. W.W. Nor- of my teachers, James E. Vance Jr., chuff in
ton & Company, New aggravation when the reviewer ofa book Jay had
NY
York, Acknowledge- recently published went on in excruciating and
ments; maps, figures, pho- self-aggrandizingdetail about how he, the review-
tographs; appendix of er, would have taken on the subject: a book
common and scientific review best assesses an author’s success or failure
names of species; further with the topic as written about, ratherthan teeing
reading; notes; index, 552 offat length about how the reviewer might have
pp. ISBN 978-393-2. $35.00, chosen to approach the theme. And in bits and
hardcover pieces throughout Trees in Paradise, Farmer does
a goodjob oflaying out the reasoning behind his
decision to consider trees that brought a different
This sizable book, well-written and nicely
kind ofprosperity, and in particular a distinctive
researched, stoutly bound and illustrated with
look and feel, to California.
four sizable galleries of photographs printed To Farmer’s way of thinking, trees connote
in black-and-white, is an admirably recounted the California Dream, and the visions ofan ideal
“natural and unnatural history of California
landscape that colon—ists coming into California
ptriecekse”dw(ipl.lcxhxa)f.etIhneovsietmabolsyt,knthoewlesdubgjeeacbtlespaebcoiuets brought with them though presumably, he is
California botany and forest history who will concerned mostly with occupiers of a northern
dispute the trees that author Jared Farmer, a European stripe, perhaps American-British most
prize-winninghistorian, chooses to write aboutin of all. These settlers were not, he suggests,
Trees in Paradise: A California History. As enamored of a setting relatively bereft of trees.
Fanner notes in a concise preface, California It wouldn’t be hard to argue that Farmer’s
includes the oldest, tallest, and biggest trees in the predilection for certain trees is bound up in a
UsinnigtleesdouSttat—es.euTcahlryepets,ofcittrhues,faonudrpvaalrmiesti—es ahree lSoptaniofsh-pMreexciocncaenptioornigsi.n,Afwthero aclla,mesetttloersAltoaf
exotics; only the redwood and giant sequoia are California in 1769, were actually very much used
nativetoCalifornia, andeventhosearesometimes to a dehesa of oaks so characteristic of south-
described as refugial species, survivors ofa more western Spain and Portugal, and Mexico has the
beneficent climate and habitat of long ago. This largest variety of Quercus L. species anyplace on
engagin—g read ofeight chapters has two for each earth (Campos et al. 2013). Farmer claims,
“tree” one looking at the nineteenth century, “[p]ost-Gold Rush settlers did not feel content
the second concerned with the later twentieth with the existing landscape subtly modified by
century up through today, an organization that Indians, Spaniards, and Mexicans. It looked
adds background and currency to each study. deforested. It looked unfinished” (p. 117). Grass-
hisTtohreyfoafctCails,iftohirsnibaotohkanisirtaitshearsmtoudryeoafcsupletcuirfailc clhaanpdasrraablo.unAdsedt;hesaoutdhiodrcosuagsgtea—sltss:hrub lands and
trees, and Farmer is interested in the reshaping Fromroughly 1850to 1950— California’sfirst
with exotic species ofthe state’s landscapes in the hundred years as a state American horti-
interest of a triumvirate of causes: aesthetics culturists planted innumerable trees in former-
(eucalypts), economics (citrus, almost solely the ly shadeless locales. To use an old-fashioned
navel orange), and semiotics (palms with their term, they emparadisedthe land. They import-
Southern California symbology) (p. 432). ed a profusion ofornamental and commercial
Madrono readers may pause, no doubt species and varietals and created moneymak-
consumed by the same sorts of doubts that ing orchards and picturesque tree-lined streets.
afflicted me in considering Farmer’s choices. In short, tree planters staged a landscape
What of the bristlecone pine, witness to revolution. By the mid-twentieth century,
10,000 yrs of rigorous climate change? Or ofthe eucalypts defined the look oflowland Califor-
California bay, or the buckeye? And of the nia, oranges dominated Southland agriculture,
wMhoantt?erAeyndpihnoew,orestpheeciasllaym,ecoreuglidon’vsariceydpreasnsd, and palms symbolized Los Angeles, (p. xxviii)
signature oak species not feature among Califor- Certainly, as the Spanish-Mexican era gave
nia’s select trees? No doubt Farmer has faced way to the “American,” parts of the California
these challenges and occasional sputters ofdoubt landscape underwent a deliberate and profound
MADRONO
408 [Vol. 61
Aremneorviactiaonn;forIestwomualndagseimmepnlty ansiodtee, etihgahtt,dNeactaidevse H(pu.mb97o)l.dTtheCoMunAtyX’XsAcMultuerrea woifthprthoedulcoeorimsimn”g |
of Hispanic presence, use, and coexistence figure of Charles Hurwitz, the demise of Pacific |
transpired before Anglo-Americans aggressively Lumber and the company town at Scotia, the |
began trying to undo a Mediterranean landscape. usurpation of selective logging by clear cutting, j
That is a quarrel, though maybe more of a nit- the arrival of EarthFirst!ers and the ascent of j
pick. Certainly Farmer’s work deserves a com- tree-sitter Julia “Butterfly” Hill into the redwood j
mentary for how he treats each of the four named Luna, are each part ofthe late twentieth-
I
“trees” chosen. — century story. And as Farmer notes, times
Redwoods and the giant sequoia coastal change, sometimes startlingly: “[o]n the North j
THC
and galleryorriparian forests, and tho—sefromthe Coast, America’s nerve center, cannabis
edges of the west-central Sierra were a now rivals redwoods as the region’s leading
formidable challenge for axe-wielders and indus- export” (pp. 104-105).
trial foresters, once an enormous amount of Various species of eucalyptus were brought |
clean, near-perfect, and hugely durable wood was into California, though principally the Tasma-
recognized as a resource after 1848. Removing nian Blue Gum that accounted for about 90% of
those trees and protecting some remnant ofthem California’s eucalyptus plantings. While Farmer
posed two separate challenges dealt with admi- doesn’t emphasize it deeply, the introduction
rably in this book. In fact, new techniques in came in no small measure because of active |
loggingand timbermovement had to be invented, sharing between Australia and California during j'
just as novel means of preservation and legal the Gold Rush years, and the eucalyptus was so
I
protection would develop across a century, from prevalent in Tasmania and Australia that adding
1870’s to 1970’s. Nonetheless, a hunger for wood trees to California, especially in moist areas [
and for the trophy rounds that could be sawed where eucalypts, with their volatile oils, was j
from the giant sequoia brought down many a considered virtuous and health-giving. That j
tree, including some name-plaqued and com- turned out to have more to do with the vast
memorated by earlier colonizers in the Sierra amounts ofwater taken up and transpired by the
foothills. As a good history should. Trees in thirsty trees, drying out a seasonally soaked
Paradise offers up no shortage of facts. For landscape, but nonetheless, the eucalyptus was
example, from the Sierra east of Fresno 1890- foratimeconsidered a hero in nineteenth-century
1910, “loggers felled roughly one—-quarter of all battles against malaria in the Sacramento and
mature sequoias in California that is, the San Joaquin valleys. And the trees did in their
—world,” movingtimberbywayofamassive flume own way become nearly universal. Several frames
54 mi long and dropping 4200 ft in elevation, from the famed “Migrant Mother” sequence of
that earned Sanger at the terminus of the flume photographs taken by Dorothea Lange during
in the San Joaquin Valley the title of “Flumeo- the Depression actually show a sizable eucalyptus
polis of the West” (pp. 44, 43). Lauding the grove behind the shanty where mother and
size oftrees and scale ofharvest was not without children are sheltered, leftover from a speculative
creepy undertones: the turn of the twentie—th plantation. Much ofthe intent behind e—ucalyptus
century was high season for eugenici—sts planting was the creation ofwoodlots and so
foresters, fellers, and scientists included and many were planted, in such density, that trees are
the language of race improvement and prodigal- still prominent on the California scene. Specula-
ity was much a part ofthe redwood revelry. That tive investor Frank Havens from 1910-1913
would take a drastically different turn after purchased sections ofthe Berkeley-Oakland hills
World War II, when technology made it easier and started a plantation there as part of his
to remove some of the very largest coastal Mahogany Eucalyptus and Land Company. It
redwoods, and hijinks of the financial services went broke and back into public hands not long
industry took stock resources, including unhar- after, but eucalyptus species and Monterey pines
vested coastal redwoods held carefully in reserve still carpet the East Bay Hills (pp. 143-144), a
by select-harvesting companies, and sought major management quandary for the East Bay
to cash out by clear-cutting entire groves of Regional Park District and the University of
the tallest and oldest trees. The galvanizing California, Berkeley, which now control much of
effect of the Redwood Summer of 1990 and the the property and are attempting a return to
Headwatersconflictearns acharacteristic Farmer native species. Leland Stanford, a former gover-
remark: “[i]n th—e minds of the ‘Freedom Riders nor and railroad magnate, decided to plant part
for the forest’ white people easily identified of his Palo Alto Stock Farm to eucalyptus
by countercultural accouterments like Afric—an species, but the plan hiccupped with delays until
talking drums and crocheted Rasta beanies 1916, when a couple of groves of Eucalyptus
the rights of wild trees seemed analogous to the globulus Labill. were installed, to be amended
rights of black southerners” (p. 96). But “[o]ld- by other varieties, and “[i]n the mid-twentieth
growth protectors were generally tone-deaf to century, university arborists added many other
2014] BOOK REVIEW 409
types of gums to the sprawling [Stanford Bernardino mountains” (p. 243). Even today,
University] campus; an arboreal census in 1984 growers in the San Joaquin Valley speak in
counted ninety-four Eucalyptus species” (p. 162). near-reverential tones about the California Fruit
The campus of UC San Diego on Torrey Pines Growers Exchange, about Sunkist as a marketing
Mesa was established on a former eucalyptus and quality-control arm for the citrus industry,
plantation (p. 161), and UC Berkeley’sWest Gate and they know all the principals of their local
is marked by enormous trees, planted 100+ years packing houses. Farmer, however, is interested in
ago when eucalyptus was considered a boon to what was, and what was lost: the formation of
the eyes and a benison to the sense ofsmell. The irrigation colonies (technically, “mutual water
trees brought good and bad. The good was companies,” p. 232), the ways that orange culture
fundamental: “[t]hat most Californian of mod- drew settlers through three or four genera—tions
ern-day activities, driving alone on a highway, of Southern California land and life, and in
windows down, approaches perfection with the a lovely phrasing, marked “the transition from
help of a blue gum canopy. The light is tree culture to horticapitalism” (p. 269); in the
breathtaking, the smell invigorating. Who requirements for climate modification in citrus
A
wouldn’t wish for a convertible?” (p. 217). culture in the Southland; workers were crucial to
downside was the 1991 Berkeley-Oakland Hills citrus, less for cultivation than for setting up
fire, which I witnessed: “[f]reezes, droughts, and smudge pots that would moderate the effects of
dry downslope winds occur naturally in the East frost or even the rare hard freeze on oranges.
Bay. Not true ofblue gum, which covered some Finks drawn between the lighting of 3.3 million
20 percent of the burned area [1520 acres; 2500 Southern California smudge pots inJanuary 1932
single-family dwellings; 25 lives lost] and contrib- and a risingconcern about airpollution, allergies,
uted an estimated 70 percent of the fuel load” and maladies afflicting field worker are not
(p. 179). As Farmer notes, fear of fire, and a original, butFarmerartfullyconnectsagricultural
marked distaste for exotics, blossomed in late excess to urban quality of life concerns. In the
twentieth-century California into a kind of 1950’s, high school football teams from Redlands
“botanical xenophobia” (p. 207), and in a place and San Bernardino played for the smudge-pot
so militantly pluralistic (and rich) as Marin trophy (p. 317). Equally daunting are horror
County, which would never consider an anti- stories about changes wrought: Riverside was the
immigrant movement, there are regular efforts to richest city in per capita income in the United
purge eucalypts—, brooms, and other exotics from Statesin 1895;bytheearly 1970’s, asorangeswere
the landscape surely species-ism, ofa sort. all but gone from the scene, it was the “smog
About citrus there is so much in print that capital ofthe world” (p. 309). Pests abounded in
Farmer has his hands full, and having written at the groves, and required extraordinary counter-
length about the economics and symbolism of measures. Farmer recounts a 1916 attempt to
California orange groves 25 yrs ago (Starrs 1988), extirpate a scale insectusinghydrocyanicacid gas
I found this the least inspiring quarter of the (HCN) that consumed 4 months, eleven work
book. I was partly given pause by the author’s gangs, the tenting of383,500 trees on 4250 acres,
emphasis on a specific time and place: he’s most and 11 railroadcars ofcyanide(p. 286). These are
interested in the Southland from the 1870’s into tales not oflove, buttheirtone ofexcess and peril
the 1940’s, and not nearly so curious about the does leave room for admiration, and Trees in
movement north into the San Joaquin Valley of Paradise rightly singles out the magnetic pull of
citrus in the early twentieth century, establishing orange groves, drawing visitors, then boarders,
groves of navel and Valencia oranges in Porter- and eventually, permanent residents to Southern
ville, Exeter, Orange Cove, Navelencia, Tulare, California who would swell town numbers, and
and all through fertile soils on bench lands in the reduce the possibilities of tree-crop agriculture
eastern San Joaquin Valley. His is a porthole until humanshaddisplaced treecrops as a feature
perspective, with those other sites largely left onthe land. The 1974film Chinatown, directed by
aside (except as home to a startling array of Roman Polanski from a script by Robert Towne,
agricultural maladies). The star is Southern charted a fictionalized version of the transition,
California, where oranges were the economic and whether on film orbound page, the results of
and cultural crop of choice, and palms the land use change and urban water seizure were
symbol of Mediterranean success. Orange culti- anything but pretty.
vation has Classical roots, in the Garden of the Eighteenth-century Franciscan friars brought
Hesperides, and orange culture was suggestive as date palms with them from Spain and Mexico to
an earlier and more blessed world where, in the missions of 1700’s California, in part to
Farmer’s calculation, “[s—]ociology mirrored ge- guarantee a supply of Palm Sunday fronds for
—ography. The Citrus Belt in effect, the wealth cashiered soldiers, clerics, and Indian peons
of Southern California occupied the broad, tilling and ranching along the chain of coastal
inclined alluvial fans (known locally as ‘benches’ missions. Palms were then, and remain now,
or ‘mesas’) beneath the San Gabriel and San symbolic features. When Henry Huntington
MADRONO
410 [Vol. 61
wanted to embellish his estate in San Marino barnyard—and outbuildings) may not even exist
after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he anymore but th—e palms, or at least a suggestive
had two Canary Island fan palms moved whole number of them announce what was once a
from San Francisco. There has long been, it turns symbol ofrural pride and investment in place.
out, a land-office business in freighting entire Humor can give life, even to a serious book.
palms from one site to another, in no small There is hardly a better moment in Trees in
measure because palms are not “trees,” as the Paradise than Farmer’s discussion of Randy
term would conventionally have it, but monocots Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” with its allusions to
in the order Arecales Bromhead that can be driving, watching, and diversity in the Southern
exhumed and relocated with relative ease. Most California landscape (pp. 404^05). That album
palms in California are single-stemmed, many of by the multiple Grammy- (nine nominations, five
them Washingtonia H. Wendl., and part of their wins) and Oscar-winner (13 nominations, three
story is an aggressive messiness, throwing off wins) is titled Trouble in Paradise (1983), and a
fronds, harboring any variety of rats, bats, and satirical Newmanesque spirit resounds through
insect pests, encouraging vandalism when un- the best moments of Trees in Paradise. Two short
trimmed, and requiring no small amount of selections may help round out Farmer’s story:
management and cleanup. Yet to many Califor- “[o]fthe myriad kinds oftrees propagated by the
nians, palms are beloved, and symbolic of million in nineteenth-century California, euca-
difference. Vocabulary is one of the wonders of lypts, citruses, and palms had the most signifi-
this book. There are “scouts” or “spotters” cant, long-lasting effects” (p. 432). Trees, in his
whose job is locating desirable and available reckoning, embody a view that “[t]he pith ofthe
palm trees for transplanting; “palmskinners” California Dream is the idea that the Golden
adept at moving the trees; the “palmification” State is different, special, unique, unprecedented”
opifoanelearn,dsWcialplei;s aJnedpsboont)anwishtos (iinnctlhuediirngdiBsedrakienlfeuyl t(pr.eexsxiisx)p.osWshibillee, qtouidboblsiongmiagbhotutnotthebesewliescet.ioTnhiosf
v“ainetwipoaflmipsatlsm”s(paps. 4“1s0k,yb3u9s6t,er4s0”5, w4e2r3,e 3s62t)a.unAcsh ibsyasgpoenoddintgellsinogm,eanqdualrietaydertsimceouwlidthleaFrannuaerl’ost
Farmer notes, “[a] California palm is not just a narrative of arboreal landscape change as a
plant. It is a signpost” (p. 408). Though here, handmaid or telltale ofcultural history.
again, I would note some provincialism in the
author’s take on palms. As with citrus (oranges), —
hSiosutfhoecruns Ciasliofnorntirae.esThionsea wvehroy hsapevceifitcravaerleea.d sityPaofulNeFv.aSdtaa,rrRse,noD,epMaSrt0m1e5n4t,oRfenGoe,ogNraVph8y9,55U7n-0i1v5e4r.-
[email protected].
the state more widely recognize a crucial role that
palms, many dating from the late —nineteenth Literature Cited
century, play in rural life in the state or even
along shaded streets in such successful Ag centers Campos P., L. Huntsinger, J. L. Oviedo, P. F.
Starrs, M. DIaz, R. B. Standiford, and G.
AasndMotdhersotuog,h aSgarcircualmteunrtaol,reVaicshaelsiao,fatnhedsCtaotleusaar.e oMaokntweoordola(nEdDS)l.and2s0c1a3p.es:MeddeihteesrarsanoefanSpawionrkainndg
thousands of homes, set back from a county ranchlands ofCalifornia, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
road, whose presence is announced by a two- Starrs, P. F. 1988. The Navel ofCalifornia and other
abreast echelon of palms leading from public oranges: images ofCaliforniaand theorangecrate.
road to private manse. Sometimes the house (and California Geographer 23:1-41.