Christopher_Lanman

BEYOND THE BACK GATE FILOLI’S “WILD GARDEN”

WRITTEN, DESIGNED, AND PHOTOGRAPHED

BY CHRISTOPHER WINGATE LANMAN 1

DEDICATION TO MY PARENTS, WHO HAVE BEEN TAKING MY FOUR OLDER BROTHERS AND ME TO FILOLI EVERY YEAR FOR MOTHER’S DAY, SINCE I WAS BORN.

TO MY FATHER, DR. RICK LANMAN WHO OPENED MY EYES TO THE WORLD OF NATURE.

COPYRIGHT © 2013 BY CHRISTOPHER LANMAN LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR. ISBN 978-0-615-25133-2 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FIRST EDITION

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THE LANMAN FAMILY ON FILOLI’S BACK TERRACE IN 1999... THE AUTHOR IN HIS FATHER’S ARMS BEDECKED IN RAINBOW TROUT SWEATER AND YELLOW SNEAKERS.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THIS BOOK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT MY FATHER AND MENTOR, DR. RICK LANMAN. I WANT TO THANK HIM FOR INSTILLING IN ME A LOVE OF NATURE. HIS INSIGHT INTO BIOPHILIA, AND HIS PASSION AND LOVE OF NATURE SHARED OVER THE PAST SEVENTEEN YEARS ARE NOW A PART OF ME. LOVE AND THANKS TO MY FATHER, MOTHER, AND FOUR OLDER BROTHERS WHO ALWAYS ENCOURAGE ME TO PURSUE MY DREAMS. A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO MY FRIENDS AT FILOLI, ELAINE BURNS, NATURE EDUCATION DOCENT, HAROLD (HAL) B. TENNANT, CHAIRMAN OF THE BUILDING, GROUNDS AND TRAIL COMMITTEE, ALSO KNOWN AS THE “RED BANDANA BRIGADE”, AND ALEXANDER FERNANDEZ, MANAGER OF HORTICULTURAL OPERATIONS. THEY SHARED THEIR ENTHUSIASM, KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF FILOLI AND THE “WILD GARDEN”.

MANY THANKS TO CYNTHIA D’AGOSTA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FILOLI AND CHRISTINA SYRETT, PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATE FOR FILOLI, WHO WELCOMED ME AND ALLOWED ME TO MAKE THIS BOOK AND DOCUMENTARY FILM ABOUT FILOLI AND FILOLI’S “WILD GARDEN”.

THANK YOU TO ROBERT A. LEIDY Ph.D., ECOLOGIST, WETLANDS REGULATORY OFFICE, UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, FOR HIS EXPERTISE IN STEELHEAD (RAINBOW) TROUT AND THEIR HISTORICAL ECOLOGY. THANKS TO JANET M. SOWERS, Ph.D., GEOLOGIST, FUGRO CONSULTANTS, FOR HELPING US FIND THE 1868 EASTON MAP SHOWING THE HISTORICAL NAME OF LAGUNA CREEK. THANK YOU TO THE BOURN FAMILY FOR CREATING THE MAGNIFICENT FILOLI AND PRESERVING THE PRISTINE ACREAGE THAT SURROUNDS IT. THANK YOU TO THE ROTH FAMILY FOR DONATING THE ENTIRE FILOLI ESTATE TO THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS TO ENJOY ITS BEAUTY. THANKS TO MY TEACHERS AT FREESTYLE ACADEMY WHO PROVIDED INVALUABLE GUIDANCE ON THIS PROJECT. 4

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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ............................................................................8 INTRODUCTION .................................................................10 CHAPTER I ............................................................................15 CHAPTER II ...........................................................................24 CHAPTER III .........................................................................31 CHAPTER IV .........................................................................42 CHAPTER V ..........................................................................46 CONCLUSION ......................................................................54 PHOTO LIBRARY .................................................................56 ENDNOTES ...........................................................................76 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................78

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FOREWORD The name Filoli evokes adjectives like “grand”, “opulent”, and “elegant”, but these words have connotations associated with the works of man. There is another side of Filoli, literally 40 times larger than the house and formal gardens, where man is but an intermittent interloper. Since the end of the nineteenth century Filoli’s nature preserve has been an almost untouched wilderness, nestled within the protected watershed of the Spring Valley Water Company (now the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)). This wilder side of Filoli is critically important because it harbors remnants, still undisturbed, of the historical flora and fauna of the San Francisco Peninsula. It is a treasure to the historical ecologist, who seeks to study and discern the fruitful environment that sustained the Ohlone, a people who had struck a balance with nature. For Filoli’s protection we owe a deep debt to William Bowers Bourn II and his wife Agnes, who chose this country spot for their final home in 1915, and to the estate’s second owners, William P. Roth and his wife Lurline. Both families protected and preserved not just the house, but also the wild lands that stretched from historic Laguna Creek to the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Mrs. Roth lived on at Filoli after her husband’s death in 1953, and in 1975 bequeathed not just the mansion and gardens, but the entire 654 acre nature preserve to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Guardianship of this great wild garden, carefully conserved by the Bourns and Roths, is a legacy that now passes on to each and every one of us.

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WILLIAM BOURN

AGNES BOURN

LURLINE ROTH

WILLIAM ROTH

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INTRODUCTION Every year since I was born, my four brothers and I were coaxed into going to Filoli on Mother’s Day to see the historic 1917 manor house and gardens built by William Bowers Bourn II and his wife, Agnes. The Bourns’ 43 room, 17 fireplace, 36,000 square foot house never failed to awe us. The impressive entrance beckoned us with a two-story hanging Wisteria vine (Wisteria sinensis) and Yellow Lady Banks Rose (Rose banksiae ‘Lutea’), floral waterfalls that drew our eyes from the ground to the MY BROTHER, CONNOR, AND I IN THE SHADE OF THE OLD CAMPERDOWN ELM. rooftops. Inside, my brothers and I would make quickly for the kitchen, to hide in the walk-in safe where the silver was kept. Then we walked, as briskly as the docents would let us, through the dining room, drawing room, reception room, and library, until we got to the dark oak-paneled study, where we competed to be first to open the concealed Prohibition-era liquor cabinet. The grand ballroom was always our last stop and favorite room. Circling the cavernous room, we gazed at the great nature scenes – Ernest Peixotto wall murals - illustrating views of Upper and Middle Killarney Lakes. These were the views to and from Muckross House, the Irish estate that the Bourns bought for their only child, Maud, and son-in-law, Arthur Vincent, to live in. My mom asked us to imagine the great formal dances that were held there but my imagination ran to wondering if we could install basketball hoops at both ends of the ballroom.

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After 16 years of Mother’s Days, we had taken to calling the house and garden tour “Filoli Boot Camp”. Once in the formal gardens, my brothers and I would sprint to our secret hiding place under the aged Camperdown elm (Ulmus glabra ‘Camperdownii’), a gnarled old tree whose contorted arms formed thick curtains around us. Beneath that ancient tree I found myself looking over the fence beyond the back gate, tempted by a sign that said “Closed Area – Authorized Personnel Only”. I gazed into a quiet wilderness, which my father said stretched all the way to the ridge of the mountains. When I asked what was back there, he urged me to imagine what it was like 100 years before Filoli, and my mind’s eye envisioned a herd of elk pursued by grizzly bears. From then on, I wondered about the wildlife hidden in Filoli’s “back forty”, and what Filoli was like before William Bourn built his private estate in the woods. Author Laura Cunningham, in her book, State of Change, says that anyone can challenge themselves to observe nature and ask questions that lead to re-discovery of the historical ecology of a place.1 What is the natural legacy of Filoli and could I help decipher what it originally looked like? This book shares my journey of study and discovery in the secret untamed places beyond the garden fences and locked gates, in what has come to be known as Filoli’s “Wild Garden”.

LEFT - CAMPERDOWN ELM AT THE WEST END OF THE BOWLING GREEN RIGHT - ENTRY TO THE “WILD GARDEN”.

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THE AUTHOR VISITING FILOLI ON MOTHER’S DAY, 2006.

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I What Drew Bourn to Filoli?

After William Bourn made his fortune in gold and silver mines, the Bourns looked for a spot to build a country home outside of San Francisco. They wanted a bucolic location similar to Muckross House, the Irish country estate the Bourns purchased for their daughter and son-in-law, Maud and Arthur Vincent, in 1910.2 As President of the Spring Valley Water Company, Bourn had to look no further than the pristine lands just south of the Crystal Springs Reservoirs, in the San Mateo Creek watershed. Almost all of the lands in the upper watershed were owned by the water company, and trespassing upon them was forbidden so that the waters would remain unpolluted. The property Bourn chose for his family was vast, 654 acres that extended from the valley floor all the way to the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Bourn named his new estate ‘Filoli’, a contraction of his motto “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”3 Construction began in 1915 and although the Bourns moved in September 1917, it would take another five years to complete the 16 acres of formal gardens.

RIGHT - NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION MARKER.

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During this time period, San Mateo County was rural, but the site of Filoli was in the wildest possible place as it was hidden in the midst of the untouched Spring Valley Water Company lands.4 Filoli’s three streams flowed to the upper reservoir, then called Spring Valley Lakes, and they contained the purest drinking water. I wondered why Bourn chose this spot, so far from his friends in bustling San Francisco and can only conclude that he was drawn to its unspoiled nature. Bourn situated his house so that he could look out over grassy meadows and then over the lake itself. Wildflowers and wild animals must have been abundant in these untrammeled lands free from hunters. Was Bourn trying to conquer and urbanize this wild place or enjoy its natural legacy?

American biologist and Harvard University Professor E. O. Wilson defines ‘biophilia’ as “the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes”.5 Wilson points out that “From infancy we concentrate happily on ourselves and other organisms. We learn to distinguish life from the inanimate and move to it like moths to a porch light.”6 It is only natural that human beings would be attracted to nature, since we evolved to carefully study nature, so as to extract sustenance by knowing the locations and seasonal habits of edible plants and animals. But Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis proclaims “a human dependence on nature that extends far beyond the simple issue of material and physical sustenance to encompass as well the human craving for aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual meaning and satisfaction”.7 We need nature, not just as a hunting ground, but to satisfy an innate, almost emotional need. It brings peace. After years of hard work building his fortune, Bourn enjoyed the pastoral life when he visited his daughter at Muckross, and found it again at Filoli.

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The evidence for the biophilia hypothesis is all around us. We bring flowers into our homes to be closer to nature’s beauty. We keep pet dogs, cats, or birds without any utilitarian purpose other than the fact that they comfort us. Our families picnic in local parks and plan trips to national parks to “get outdoors”. These nearly universal human actions have nothing to do with nourishment of our stomachs, but rather nourishment of our souls.

I think it was the same for Bourn. He grew up spending many happy days at his childhood country home, Madroño, which included wide open ranchlands and vineyards in northern Napa Valley near St. Helena, California.8 As a child, his father had taken his family on trips to the Sierra Nevada as well as the parks and natural places all around the Bay Area. Bourn celebrated when one of his favorite haunts, Yosemite, was made a national park in 1906. . When the City of San Francisco wanted to dam the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley in the north end of the new Yosemite National Park, Bourn was a staunch opponent.9 17

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FILOLI VISITOR MAP 19

At Filoli, Bourn created extensive gardens that made it easy for him to comfortably access the beauty of flowers and greenery. Inside, he had Filoli’s 70-foot-long ballroom painted with wall murals of the woods and lakes of the Irish country estate, Muckross House.

Bourn was the consummate businessman, but he resisted profiting from development of his 600-plus acres. In fact, he “de-developed” his property, moving Cañada Road off the estate to a new site located to the east. The ultimate evidence of Bourn’s conservationmindedness was his gift in 1932, of the 11,000 acre Muckross estate to Ireland to form that country’s first national park, today’s Killarney National Park.10

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Just as biophilia drew Bourn back to the countryside, and surely drew the Roths after them, it drew my family to Filoli. When we visited on Mother’s Day the house was filled with flowers, even the kitchen was stuffed to overflowing with little pots of rhododendrons. My mother loved the house and the flowers and my father loved the formal gardens. Not until my mid-teens was I bitten by the biophilia bug, as the “Closed Area” sign drew my eyes magnetically to the quiet woods behind Filoli’s formal gardens.

Bourn knew those woods, but it was not until I was seventeen and was allowed into the lands beyond the gate, that I got to see Filoli’s vast preserve, what the nature docents there have appropriately christened Filoli’s “Wild Garden”.

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“NATURE HOLDS THE KEY TO OUR AESTHETIC, INTELLECTUAL, COGNITIVE AND EVEN SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION.”

-E.O. WILSON

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II Clues to Filoli’s Historical Ecology

More than 250 years ago, and almost 150 years before William Bourn started construction at Filoli, the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà discovered San Francisco Bay. Since that discovery, the abundant native flora and fauna of the Bay Area have changed dramatically. Malcolm Margolin, in his book, The Ohlone Way, wrote in 1978: “The environment of the Bay Area has changed drastically…Some of the birds and animals are no longer to be found here, and many others have vastly diminished in number.”11 In contrast, Captain de Lapérouse described California in 1786 as a land of “inexpressible fertility”.12 The Baltic German explorer-naturalist, Otto von Kotzebue, who had circumnavigated the world in 1824, said that in California he “had never seen game in such abundance…deer, large and small, are to be met with all over the country, and geese, ducks, and cranes, on the banks of the rivers. There was such a superfluity of game, that even those among us who had never been sportsmen before, when once they took the gun in their hands, became as eager as the rest.”13 John Bidwell, whose Bartleson– Bidwell Party was the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada in 1842, described tule elk (Cervus Canadensis) herds in Napa and Santa Clara valleys as numbering in the thousands.14 Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) had not yet been extinguished from the Bay and grizzly bears (Ursus arctos californiensis) still roamed the forests. Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) migrated up San Mateo Creek to the cool waters beneath the redwoods in what Portolà called the Cañada de San Francisco, which later became the Cañada de Raymundo, the valley in which Filoli lies. These past accounts of the landscape and the organisms that lived upon it can 24

be studied via a scientific discipline known as historical ecology. This discipline can help us discern the San Francisco Peninsula’s landscape as it existed before the colonization by Europeans and Americans that began two and a half centuries ago.

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Understanding the balance of living things that evolved over millennia can provide us with clues to restoring our landscape, to getting our ecosystem back into a healthy condition that can sustain itself. However, studying the historical ecology of California poses special challenges. America did not possess California until 1848, and except for the California missions most of the state remained thinly settled before then. There were no California museums with zoology collections until after 1904. There was an earlier collection at the California Academy of Sciences founded in 1874, but the entire zoology collection except for a single cartful of specimens were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.15 The local native people, the Ohlone, had no written language and very few of their people and very little of their culture survives. So to understand the historical ecology of Filoli, we rely on the relatively sparse historical record, as written by the first European visitors. We studied the 1769 Portolà expedition, through the period of rapid development after the American occupation and Gold Rush when the natural landscape becomes significantly altered.

Laura Cunningham argues that we do have another tool to understand our historical ecology - our own powers of observation - “...the Old World has its Roman ruins to look back on in awe; Californians have a natural legacy of equal interest, much of it similarly in ruins, awaiting careful students to gaze up on it, get closer to it, imagine it, restore it to beauty”.16 She challenges us to be “citizen observers”, who use our own senses to study the remnants of our historical landscape and discover what the natural world was before urbanization and development. Cunningham invites everyone to participate, “Anyone can do this – you do not need a degree, nor do you need to be a scientist, and your observations can be very important to future observers…observing the natural world focuses the senses, develops patience, heightens environmental awareness, and increases a sense of place and belonging.”17 This encouraged me to work with my father, Dr. Rick 26

Lanman, to study Filoli’s natural areas and ask questions about what it was like before Bourn and the Americans came. What better laboratory could there be for studying the historical landscape of the San Francisco Peninsula than the relatively untouched, unspoiled lands encircling Filoli’s mansion? If any place would hold clues to our local ecology it would be here!

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“AND THIS, OUR LIFE, EXEMPT FROM PUBLIC HAUNT, FINDS TONGUES IN TREES, BOOKS IN THE RUNNING BROOKS, SERMONS IN STONES, AND GOOD IN EVERYTHING.”

-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

But before we could learn more we would have to get beyond that “Closed Area” sign on the back gate…

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III Nature Docents Lead Us Beyond the Back Gate Filoli’s nature preserve is carefully protected. Getting beyond the back gate involves signing up for a tour with a trained nature education docent. The nature docentled hikes usually take 4th-8th grade school groups on weekday tours, and adults on certain weekend days. When my family and I were escorted beyond the fence and manicured gardens, we were to meet three very special people who introduced us to the natural preserve. They shared their knowledge generously and freely. My father ventured beyond the “Closed Area” before me. He is an historical ecologist by avocation, and was, no doubt, a subtle instigator of my curiosity about the pristine natural preserve around Filoli. In 2012, we had only just discovered that nature docents had been leading trail hikes through the preserve since 1984. My

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father asked which nature docent knew the most about the wildlife and that’s how we came to meet Elaine Burns. Elaine, like many of the over 100 nature docents, was highly educated and volunteered her time to lead hikes at Filoli. She had taught psychology at Cañada College, and proved to have extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna in Filoli’s meadows and woodlands. Elaine said that she became a nature docent because she also wanted to see the lands beyond the closed gates, lands that she and the nature docents referred to as Filoli’s “Wild Garden”.18 In addition to her deep knowledge, Elaine had something special: an open mind, an eagerness to learn, and a desire to share everything she knew about the “Wild Garden”. A humble person, she said that all the nature docents were like her, eager to add to Filoli’s nature lore. Elaine was one of Cunningham’s “citizen observers”, an untrained naturalist who was using her own powers of observation and study to re-discover Filoli’s natural legacy.

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WESTERN BLUEBIRD

ELAINE BURNS, NATURE EDUCATION DOCENT

Elaine treated my father to her interpretation of nature as they crossed meadows alive with western bluebirds (Sialia Mexicana) and stopped at a great valley oak (Quercus lobata). They traipsed the woodlands and saw Filoli’s three creeks: Fault Creek, Spring Creek and Orchard Creek.

My father was in heaven and resolved to have Elaine bring me back. He asked many questions.

Some Elaine had answers for and some she had not heard before. What was the original name of Orchard Creek? It certainly was not a Spanish name and seemed likely to have been named by Bourn, when he planted his orchard next to it. How far down from the mountain slopes did the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) range?

Did they extend across the valley floor? Could redwood and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees have produced fog drip and prevented ground evaporation that would have increased the flows in the creeks?

Although the oaks seemed to have died in many places, probably from Sudden Oak Death disease, many Douglas fir trees had sprouted down onto the valley floor and up along the foothills, all the way up to Interstate 280 and into Edgewood County Park. The Bourns’ private cemetery was surrounded by conifer saplings, the woodland clearly transforming from oak chaparral to Douglas fir forest. Was Orchard Creek once a perennial stream instead of a seasonal one that mostly dried up in the summer and fall? Do rainbow trout, the landlocked form of steelhead trout, run up Filoli’s creeks from Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir?

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Elaine explained that most of these questions were new but that she would query her colleagues and find out for us.

When I joined my father on his second guided nature hike through Filoli, Elaine shared her experiences as we retraced the trails they had previously trod. When she asked other docents if there were rainbow trout in the creeks, they were skeptical, but Elaine remained curious. Then, just a couple weeks later after a big rain, Elaine and other docents spotted some foot-long rainbow trout below the bridge over Fault Creek. A couple weeks after that a very large trout was found impaled on a branch in front of the mansion itself, as if a raptor had been startled and dropped it. My father and I wondered if it could have been the bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) which had just returned to nest at the confluence of Upper San Mateo Creek and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir in March, 2012 – the first pair of nesting bald eagles in San Mateo County since 1915. This story is a great example of observing nature and asking questions that lead to more discoveries.

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RED INDIAN WARRIOR

WHITE MILKMAIDS

BLUE PACIFIC HOUND’S TONGUE

After crossing the meadow to the great valley oak, the trail crosses Fault Creek, whose waters course along the San Andreas Fault. Here, Elaine explained that a group of retirees, the Red Bandana Brigade, had built the bridge over Fault Creek. She added that once we reached the Nature Center, she would introduce us to Hal Tennant, the group’s current chairman. We walked on, taking in what Elaine described as the red, white and blue wildflowers blooming in Filoli during February [red Indian Warrior (Pedicularis densiflora), white Milkmaids (Cardamine californica), and blue Pacific Hound’s Tongue (Cynoglossum grande)]. We passed Pacific madrones (Arbutus menziesii) whose bark peeled off to reveal smooth copper trunks, so cool to the touch that we learned to call them “refrigerator trees”. Then we reached Old Cañada Road, which Bourn had officially rerouted off the estate to what became the current Cañada Road northeast of the property.

Old Cañada Road had been used until very recently as an equestrian trail by Woodside 35

residents when fears sparked by 9-11-2001 led to its closure. As my father and I crossed the road, we saw Fremont cottonwoods (Populus fremontii), which explained the bright splashes of yellow fall color that we had noticed for years as we drove past Filoli in the autumn. Then we arrived at the Sally McBride Nature Center and Red’s Barn, the former home of Mrs. Roth’s favorite horse, “Red”.

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OLD CAÑADA ROAD

Hal Tennant met us in the grassy meadow by the Nature Center. A retired civil engineer, Hal had worked on water and utility projects in the western United States. Now he volunteered his time and expertise to building and maintaining the trails and bridges of Filoli’s “Wild Garden”.

Hal explained that the Red Bandana Brigade was made up of about a dozen retirees, former doctors, bankers, a rocket scientist, “and a lot of engineers”. Officially known as the Building, Grounds and Trail Committee, they have worn red bandanas since their founding by Jim McBrian in 1985.19 When the Nature Program was started by Sally McBride in 1984, a need was created for trails, bridges, interpretive signs and native plant restoration.20 The Red Bandana Brigade filled the gap with few resources but nevertheless built over seven miles of trails. Besides their time, their tools, and their expertise, they recycled old fence posts and gates to build the bridges. Hal explained, “once you retire you end up with quite a collection

HAL TENNANT, RED BANDANA BRIGADE

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FAULT CREEK TRAIL BUILT BY THE RED BANDANA BRIGADE

of tools in your garage, so we put them to good use out here”. They converted Red’s Barn into a classroom. Like Elaine, Hal became a volunteer so that he, too, could get out into nature. (Hal also mentioned that he was also happy to get out of his wife’s way at home, post-retirement.) Hal was an enthusiastic observer of nature.

He described having just spotted a coyote (Canis latrans) running past his car, and delighted in the surprise. Biophilia was at work in this woodsman.

After meeting Hal, we ascended along Spring Creek, a beautiful babbling brook that is shadowed by large, secondgrowth redwoods. Then we came to the wooden flume and pond that Bourn had built to secure ample water supply for his gardens in summer. The pond was filled with California newts (Taricha torosa), numbering in the hundreds at least. We hoped to see endangered California redlegged frogs (Rana draytonii) and Pacific Tree (Chorus) frogs (Pseudacris regilla), both known to inhabit the little reservoir

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in the redwoods. Elaine explained that this was a good place to look for animal tracks, as the water source attracted thirsty animals like Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus), raccoons (Procyon lotor), garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.) and wood ducks (Aix sponsa). The abundance of prey also attracted puma (Puma concolor), erroneously called mountain lions. (True lions are in the genus Panthera and can roar.

In the United States the only true lion is the jaguar (Panthera onca) and although jaguar can roar, puma cannot.)

We crossed down from the mountainside and passed the house and formal gardens to the orchard, sprawling with 1,200 fruit trees of all varieties with old fruit still spoiling on the ground. We had come to see Orchard Creek, a creek that still held many questions for us, and to meet Alex Fernandez, who became Manager of Horticultural Operations for Filoli right out of graduate school in 1994, almost twenty years ago. He lives in a house in the “Wild Garden”. Alex shared that the “gentlemen’s orchard” was restored six years ago and includes 150 surviving trees from the original orchard. As we circled the grove we came to a large pool in Orchard Creek. It was here that Alex’ son, Lorenzo, had first discovered large rainbow trout swimming over shallow gravels.21 He had known for years that the trout were here.

Alex explained that you had to know the right time of year (after a big winter rain) and the right place (the deep pools where they survive in the summer, 40

ALEX FERNADEZ, MANAGER OF HORTICULTURAL OPERATOINS

when the rest of the creek runs dry) or else you would never notice them. Alex, too, was a keen observer of nature, and although he spends his days supervising more than a dozen horticulturalists in the formal gardens22, his eyes sparkled when he recounted the story of his son and their discovery of the rainbow trout.

We had made three new friends in Filoli’s “Wild Garden”, all of them loved nature and its wildlife. They were all generous with their time and knowledge. My father and I hoped to repay them in kind by making and sharing additional discoveries.

SPRING CREEK BRIDGE

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IV Discovering the Historic Name of Filoli’s Orchard Creek Between Alex Fernandez, Elaine Burns, and the nature docents we had reliable observer records and even photographs proving that rainbow trout frequented Filoli’s creeks. We wondered what past trout populations might have numbered, but when we consulted historical trout studies we could not find any mention of Orchard Creek, the largest of the three.23, 24 In addition, Orchard Creek did not appear on contemporary United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps. It became clear that we would have to identify the historical name of Orchard Creek before we could hope to find any older studies of fish populations there. We could see a blue line on the maps indicating Orchard Creek, but when we emailed the USGS, they said the creek’s name, present or past, was unknown.

We were puzzled.

Historical ecology literally marries the study of history with the study of ecology.

To find clues to the creek’s name, we started by reading the first historical accounts of exploration of the Bay Area, beginning with the discovery of San Francisco Bay by the Spanish Gaspar de Portolà expedition from what is known today as Sweeney Ridge, on October 31, 1769.25 Miguel Costansó, an engineer on the expedition, described the journey of Portolà and his men from the new settlement of San Diego. They strove to make their way north along the shoreline to establish a presidio or fort in Monterey. Because of fog the Portolà expedition passed Monterey without realizing it, and advanced so far up the 42

coast that they reached present-day Pacifica. The explorers had no idea how close they were to the still undiscovered Golden Gate, the entrance to San Francisco Bay. However, from Pacifica they could see Point Reyes and the Farallon Islands, both then known to Spanish navigators, and perceived that they had gone too far. Before turning around, Portolà sent scouts up Sweeney Ridge, where the heights of the Santa Cruz Mountains were lower. From the ridge they spied the great estuary, and San Francisco Bay was discovered.

UPPER CRYSTAL SPRINGS RESEVOIR

Deciding to explore the Bay side of the ridge, the Portolà expedition descended along San Andreas Creek, a tributary of San Mateo Creek, to the valley Costansó refers to as the Cañada de San Francisco. Continuing southeast, they crossed San Mateo Creek, and camped along a lake, which they called “Laguna Grande” on November 5, 1769. A California Historical Marker describes the historical campsite today, “NO. 94 PORTOLÁ 43

EXPEDITION CAMP - The Portolà Expedition of 1769 camped on November 5 at a ‘laguna grande’ which today is covered by the Upper Crystal Springs Lake.” Laguna Grande was bisected by a creek, which they called Laguna Creek. The Portolà expedition proceeded up this stream crossing through the lands where the Filoli estate now lies.

Portolà and his men continued southeast, descending along West Union Creek, whose waters flow ultimately to San Francisquito Creek. Laguna Creek lies in a straight line with West Union Creek, since both creeks follow the San Andreas earthquake fault line.

It seemed a natural enough route to take, and because of the fault, would have been relatively flat all the way to the break in the foothills where San Francisquito Creek would lead them to their next campsite at the then twin giant redwoods called “El Palo Alto”, in present-day Palo Alto. Could Laguna Creek have been the historical name for Orchard Creek? The historical account seemed clear.

LAGUNA CREEK

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Trying to contain our excitement, we sent the historical account of the Portola expedition to the USGS for listing on their Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), but they responded that it was insufficient just to find an historical account. To list the name in GNIS and on the USGS maps, they required an official U. S., California or San Mateo County map with the Laguna Creek place name on it. After much searching,

1868 EASTON MAP LEGEND

an expert on mapping Bay Area watersheds, Janet Sowers, Ph.D., helped us find Laguna Creek clearly labeled on an 1868 government map, the A. S. Easton map of the County of San Mateo.26 The USGS promptly updated their information system, mapping Laguna Creek’s source in Edgewood County Park and its mouth in Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir.

The original creek mouth would have been at Laguna Creek’s confluence with San Mateo Creek but the construction of Old Crystal Springs Dam, now crossed by Highway 92, had submerged historic Laguna Creek and Laguna Grande, in 1877.27 My father and I had re-discovered the historic name of Orchard Creek, which now officially became Laguna Creek!

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V “Filoli Trout”

The historical records are clear, both steelhead trout and coho salmon made their way up lower San Mateo Creek, seeking cool, shaded waters under the redwoods in the headwater streams of its tributaries. Had Laguna Creek been one of them? We consulted the historical records again, but although we found records of trout in upper and lower San Mateo Creek, we could find no mention of Laguna Creek, just as there was no mention of Orchard Creek. Although no California museums have coho salmon specimens from San Mateo Creek, we were tantalized to read that coho salmon had been collected from the creek in 1860 by Professor Alexander Agassiz.28 These salmon specimens still reside in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. If we could not find historical records of trout (or salmon) in Laguna Creek, then we could at least consider whether the habitat was suitable for them.

After spawning, trout spend two years growing larger in the stream, before outmigrating downstream to larger bodies of water where oversized predators dwell.

Successful spawning and early development, for both trout and salmon, requires cool waters year-round which in the Bay Area can be facilitated by the shade of large redwoods.

We searched for historical evidence of redwoods not just on the mountainsides but down in the valley of Filoli’s “Wild Garden”. In a historical guide to San Mateo County’s early sawmills, two historic lumber mills were described just southwest of the intersection of Spring and Fault Creeks.29 The historic “Smith Mill” on Fault Creek was destroyed by fire in 1854. “Pinckney’s Mill” on Spring Creek, was built in 1855. Hal Tenant told us that the Red Bandana Brigade had found evidence of lumber mill components in the vicinity. This 46

supports the hypothesis that the redwood forest may have historically extended down into the valley floor itself, but had been logged off in the mid-nineteenth century. In an 1878 book of lithographs of early San Mateo County properties, the ranch and house of Michael Casey is depicted looking southeast over the Rancho Cañada de Ramondo (sic, should be Raimundo or Raymundo), the 1840 Mexican land grant, which includes the lands around and south of historic Laguna Grande.30 These lands later became Filoli. The entire valley was barren of trees, including the coastal mountains. When the Bourns’ daughter, Agnes Bourn Vincent died in 1929, her father had a private cemetery built on what is described as a five-acre grassy knoll west of Filoli, “where trees had not grown back in this logged area”.31 The lithograph, the Bourn records, and the history of mills indicate that there once were redwoods down to the valley floor that had been logged off. However, we did not know if Laguna Creek (Orchard Creek) once resided further out into the valley and if the forest also shaded the creek.

We started looking at Laguna Creek more carefully and were surprised to see a large twin redwood tree towering above the oaks 47

on the creek’s banks between Filoli’s lower parking lot and the north bridge on the entrance road. This suggested to us that the redwood forest may have historically extended not just

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1878 LITHOGRAPH OF CASEY RANCH OVERLOOKING UPPER CRYSTAL SPRINGS RESERVOIR AND THE LOGGED OFF LANDS THAT BECOME FILOLI

1868 EASTON MAP

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into the valley, but past Filoli to the creek itself. As we drove home on the interstate that day, we spotted a redwood tree in Edgewood County Park, even farther to the northeast, all the way across the valley in the foothills. On subsequent trips, we also saw Douglas fir growing in Edgewood County Park as well as along Laguna Creek. As mentioned earlier, the forest has returned to the Bourn cemetery. It is now surrounded not only by oaks, but also by Douglas fir saplings. The oaks likely provide just enough shade for the conifers to seed, an example of forest succession.

Based on these observations, we now believe that a mixed redwood-Douglas fir forest grew along Laguna Creek. The coniferous forest would have cooled the ground and the creek’s waters.

Giant fallen trees would have slowed water flows and increased percolation into the ground, raising the water table.

In California’s dry seasons, a high water table can keep a creek flowing, so it is possible that Laguna Creek may LONE REDWOOD ON LAGUNA CREEK have once been perennial instead of seasonal. Our hypothesis was that Laguna Creek used to provide a year-round nursery for young trout, and probably salmon. However, since the creek was now seasonal, we wondered if baby trout could survive in the rainless seasons when the only water in the creek is in perennial pools.

We called Robert Leidy, Ph.D., of the San Francisco Environmental Protection Agency, the foremost authority on steelhead (rainbow) trout in the Bay Area and their historical 50

ecology. The question we asked was whether rainbow trout could still be successfully spawning in Laguna Creek. He met Alex Fernandez and us at the creek in late October, 2012, ready to see if we could find rainbow trout. We planned to use a technique called electrofishing, which involves briefly stunning and netting the fish. Finding the creek dry as a bone, we were crestfallen. Dr. Leidy encouraged us to hike up the creek bed along Filoli’s property and eventually we came across a persistent, perennial pool not much bigger than a mud puddle. Applying an electrical shock to the pool, we had one to two seconds to net whatever we found. Imagine our surprise when we netted a oneyear-old rainbow trout! Further up the creek, we found a deeper pool and when Dr. Leidy tested the temperature it was ice cold. To our excitement, this pool yielded two-yearold rainbow trout. Even though Laguna Creek ran dry in summer and fall, we now knew that rainbow trout could survive their critical first two years in the creek’s perennial pools. As Filoli’s forest gradually returns, we expect flows DR. ROBERT LEIDY SAMPLING FISH LAGUNA CREEK to improve for the trout.

We learned something else important about these trout from Dr. Leidy. Because downstream migration to the Bay is blocked by Crystal Springs Dam, Laguna Creek’s two-year-old trout, called smolt, head to Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir. The reservoir has never been stocked with hatchery trout, so these “Filoli trout” contained the original native trout DNA! Specially adapted to the area’s dry seasons, they could be used to stock other San Francisco Peninsula streams that are currently bereft of trout or populated 51

with hatchery trout that have weaker, non-native DNA.32,33 As the owner of the Spring Valley Water Company, William Bourn had ironically dammed Laguna Creek (inundating Laguna Grande and forming Upper Crystals Springs Reservoir) and then dammed San Mateo Creek, forming Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir in 1888, but in Filoli he had also created a refuge for our native wild trout. The dams ended the coho salmon runs. Some day in the future, the dams may become obsolete and be taken down. When that happens, Filoli’s rainbow trout will out-migrate to the sea and become steelhead trout, and then seagoing trout and even coho salmon, may return and spawn again in Filoli’s Laguna Creek.

RAINBOW TROUT

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Conclusion Revival of interest in Filoli’s “Wild Garden” began with the Nature Program in 1984, the Red Bandana Brigade in 1985 and the Sally McBride Nature Center in 1988. Harvard’s Professor E. O. Wilson’s concept of biophilia is personified in Filoli’s volunteers, the nature docents and the Red Bandana Brigade, and its long-time professional staff. For these individuals, as for my own family, interest in Filoli’s nature preserve started subtly. Initially we were enamored of the grand country mansion and awe-struck by the incredible colors and greenery of Filoli’s formal gardens. However, one by one, we looked beyond the gate and were drawn to Filoli’s “Wild Garden”.

The volunteers are teaching nature interpretation to the next generation of students, and soon that generation will become parents educating their own children. As appreciation of Filoli’s nature preserve deepens, enthusiasm for re-discovering Filoli’s historical ecology will continue to grow. New questions will be posed and others will add to our understanding of this pristine landscape. Remarkably this work is patiently carried forward by volunteers who are self-taught observers of nature. Their efforts are critical to understanding how the “Wild Garden” should be restored and maintained.

They are living proof of Laura Cunningham’s thesis that every one of us has the capacity to re-discover the ecology of a place through careful observation and inquiry.

I am still a high school student, but I see a different Filoli now. William Bourn created something very special, a balance of country estate and nature preserve, an equilibrium between the worlds of man and nature. Mrs. Roth guaranteed that the entire property would be preserved for future generations. My visits to Filoli never fail to inspire me, as 54

do the new friends I have made there. I hope that you, too, will look “beyond the back gate” into Filoli’s “Wild Garden” and see what you can discover.

“ONE OF THE FIRST CONDITIONS OF HAPPINESS IS THAT THE LINK BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE SHALL NOT BE BROKEN.” -LEO TOLSTOY

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Photo Gallery

“LOOK DEEP INTO NATURE, AND THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING BETTER.”

-ALBERT EINSTEIN

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Filoli’s Formal Gardens

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Filoli’s “Wild Garden”

“COME FORTH INTO THE LIGHT OF THINGS, LET NATURE BE YOUR TEACHER.”

-WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

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AUTHOR AND HIS FATHER, DR. RICK LANMAN

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Endnotes Cunningham, Laura. State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California. Berkeley, California: Heyday Publications, 2010. Print.

2 Egan, Ferol. Last Bonanza Kings: The Bourns of San Francisco. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 1998. p.

289. Print.

3 Burns, Elaine M. Personal interview. 20 Feb. 2013.

4 Hynding, Alan. From Frontier to Suburb, The Story of the San Francisco Peninsula. Belmont, California: Star Publishing Company, 1982. p. 15. Print.

5 Wilson, Edward Osborne. Biophilia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. p. 1. Print.

6 Wilson 1.

7 Wilson 20.

8 Egan 65.

9 Egan 179.

10 Egan 248.

11 Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley, California: Heyday Publications, 1978. p. 9. Print.

12 Comte de Lapérouse, Jean François de Galaup. Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786: the Journals of Jean François de Lapérouse. Berkeley, California: Heyday Publications, 1989. p. 24. Print.

13 Von Kotzebue, Otto. A New Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol II. London: Colburn & Bently, 1830. p. 53. Print.

14 Hunt, Rockwell Dennis. John Bidwell, Prince of California Pioneers. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1942. p. 75. Print.

15 Lanman, Richard Burnham, Heidi Perryman, Brock Dolman, and Charles Darwin James. “The historical range of beaver in the Sierra Nevada: a review of the evidence.” California Fish and Game 98.2 (2012):65-80.

16 Cunningham 15.

17 Cunningham 218.

18 Burns, Elaine M. Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2013.

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Tennant, Harold B. Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2013.

20 “Sally McBride Nature Center.” Filoli. n.d. Web. 24 March 2013. http://www.filoli.org/explore-filoli/the-naturepreserve/sally-macbride-nature.html 21 Fernandez, Alexander. Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2013.

22 Endicott, Katherine Grace. “Filoli at 30 / Landmark garden continues to blossom in its anniversary year.” San Francisco, California: San Francisco Chronicle. 25 February, 2006. Web. 24 March, 2013. http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/ article/Filoli-at-30-Landmark-garden-continues-to-2540711.php 23 Smith, J. J. “Summary of fish sampling results for the streams of San Francisco Water Department’s peninsula watershed lands (near Crystal Springs reservoirs).” San Francisco Water District. 1991. Print.

24 Leidy, R.A., G.S. Becker, B.N. Harvey. “Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California.” Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration, Oakland, CA. 2005. Print.

25 Costansó, Miguel. The Diary of Miguel Costansó. Web de Anza, University of Oregon, 1770. Web. 24 March, 2013. http://anza.uoregon.edu/costanso.html 26 Easton, A. S. Official Map of the County of San Mateo County, California. San Mateo, California: San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, 1868. Print.

27 Hynding 75.

28 Leidy, Robert A., Gordon Becker, Brett N. Harvey. “Historical Status of Coho Salmon in Streams of the Urbanized San Francisco Estuary, California.” California Fish and Game 91.4 (2005): 219–254. Print.

29 Stanger, Frank M. Sawmills in the Redwoods: Logging on the San Francisco Peninsula, 1849-1967. San Mateo, California: San Mateo County Historical Association, 1967. p. 46. Print.

30 Moore, Edwin S. and George M. DePue. Moore & DePue’s Illustrated History of San Mateo County, California, 1878.

San Mateo, California: G.T. Brown & Company, 1878. p. 48. Print.

31 Egan 241.

32 Leidy 148.

33 Smith 1.

19

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Bibliography Burns, Elaine M. Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2013.

Cunningham, Laura. State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California. Berkeley, California: Heyday Publications, 2010. Print.

Comte de Lapérouse, Jean François de Galaup. Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786 : the Journals of Jean François de Lapérouse. Berkeley, California: Heyday Publications, 1989. p. 24. Print.

Costansó, Miguel. The Diary of Miguel Costansó. Web de Anza, University of Oregon, 1770. Web. 24 March, 2013. http://anza.uoregon.edu/costanso.html Easton, A. S. Official Map of the County of San Mateo County, California. San Mateo, California: San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, 1868. Print.

Egan, Ferol. Last Bonanza Kings: The Bourns of San Francisco. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 1998. p.

289. Print.

Endicott, Katherine Grace. “Filoli at 30 / Landmark garden continues to blossom in its anniversary year.” San Francisco, California: San Francisco Chronicle. 25 February, 2006. Web. 24 March, 2013. http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/ article/Filoli-at-30-Landmark-garden-continues-to-2540711.php Fernandez, Alexander. Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2013.

Hunt, Rockwell Dennis. John Bidwell, Prince of California Pioneers. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1942. p. 75. Print.

Hynding, Alan. From Frontier to Suburb, The Story of the San Francisco Peninsula. Belmont, California: Star Publishing Company, 1982. Print.

Lanman, Richard Burnham, Heidi Perryman, Brock Dolman, and Charles Darwin James. “The historical range of beaver in the Sierra Nevada: a review of the evidence.” California Fish and Game 98.2 (2012):65-80.

Leidy, Robert A., Gordon S. Becker, Brett N. Harvey. “Historical distribution and current status of steelhead/rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in streams of the San Francisco Estuary, California.” Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration, Oakland, CA. 2005. Print.

Leidy, Robert A., Gordon Becker, Brett N. Harvey. “Historical Status of Coho Salmon in Streams of the Urbanized San Francisco Estuary, California.” California Fish and Game 91.4 (2005): 219–254. Print.

Margolin, Malcolm. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley, California: Heyday Publications, 1978. p. 9. Print.

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Moore, Edwin S. and George M. DePue. Moore & DePue’s Illustrated History of San Mateo County, California, 1878.

San Mateo, California: G.T. Brown & Company, 1878. p. 48. Print.

“Sally McBride Nature Center.” Filoli. n.d. Web. 24 March 2013. http://www.filoli.org/explore-filoli/the-naturepreserve/sally-macbride-nature.html Smith, J. J. “Summary of fish sampling results for the streams of San Francisco Water Department’s peninsula watershed lands (near Crystal Springs reservoirs).” San Francisco Water District. 1991. Print.

Stanger, Frank M. Sawmills in the Redwoods: Logging on the San Francisco Peninsula, 1849-1967. San Mateo, California: San Mateo County Historical Association, 1967. p. 46. Print.

Tennant, Harold B. Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2013.

Von Kotzebue, Otto. A New Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol II. London: Colburn & Bently, 1830. p. 53. Print.

Wilson, Edward Osborne. Biophilia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. p. 1. Print.

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