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Published on 02/03/1997 All articles from this issue

Blazing our local trails

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By Jim Thomas

Special to the Town Crier

Tony Look, 'nature's custodian,' makes a mark as pioneer

Some of his many admirers say if Claude A. "Tony" Look had been around at the time, he could have blazed the trail for Lewis and Clark in their famous trek to the Pacific Northwest. Better still, he could have guided Moses and his followers through the wilderness. Some even claim he would have helped Paul Bunyun build the Rocky Mountains. The fact is, Look, a universal and timeless man, is living right here in Los Altos.

His name is synonymous with the Sierra Club, the Boy Scouts, Save the Redwoods League and the Sempervirons Fund, the oldest ecological organization in California, which he co-founded and supervised for 20 years. His many fan clubs stretch around the world from Japan, to Scotland, to Portugal, to Switzerland, and back to California. He has dedicated his life to conserving our environment, guarding our natural resources, and enhancing nature's beauty.

As a Boy Scout leader and trail guide for adult hikers, Look has led groups through miles of rough terrain. Along the way, he has bandaged bruises, built shelters, flipped flapjacks for breakfast, stoked campfires, and spun yarns until bedtime. With his gentle manner and sincere delivery, he has spellbound children, educators, governors, statesmen, and captains of industry. He has cleared clogged streams, taught novices to plant trees, respect grasses, meadows and flowers. He has nursed injured animals back to health, splinted broken wings, and fed nectar to hungry humming birds. Look is a kind and thoughtful gentleman with a core of carbon steel.

Look, 79, was born in Eureka. His folks lived in the Bull Creek area where Look played "Cowboys and Indians" among the redwoods and madrones that covered the hillsides. The outdoor life gave him a strong physique and a love of nature. He inherited a keen mind and a disarming grin. At age 6, his family moved to Garberville where he spent endless hours along Sproul Creek learning the language of nature. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1939 as a pharmacist since the school of forestry, his first choice, was only a fledgling department at the time. Mildred Orton of Oakland, his classmate and sweetheart was majoring in nursing. They were wed in 1941. He took time out to fight in World War II by joining the Army Air Corps and rising to the rank of captain.

On their first vacation after the war, they went back home to see the folks and walk the mountains again. He was devastated by what he saw. His beautiful Bull Creek, where he had played and daydreamed as a child, was clogged with rocks and splintered limbs - the product of relentless cutting by lumbermen. His gorgeous redwoods were gone, replaced by wounded stumps. He vowed then and there to repair and protect the environment for the rest of his life.

To add insult to injury, the raging storms of 1955 and 1964 slammed into northern California and tore Bull Creek apart. With the groundcover destroyed by clearcutting, the topsoil washed into his once beautiful creek and the torrents swept its remains down the valley.

After the war, Look and his wife reorganized their lives, started a family and pursued their professions. Look was employed in many phases of his pharmaceutical business - manufacturing, dispensing and as a salesman for Parke, Davis and Co. of Detroit. He was self-employed for 20 years as owner of a pharmacy in Monte Vista, Calif. He never pursued money for money's sake. "I just felt I had to give more to life than making money out of it," Look said. "People usually get greedy at some point, and I didn't like that."

The couple reared two children; a married daughter, Andrea Elliot of San Diego, California, and elementary assistant for superintendent with the El Cajon School district, and a son, Dennis, a landscape designer in Placerville, Calif. Dennis is an author of a book on summer and winter mounteering.

For 25 years, Look volunteered his talents and energies to ecological causes. As chairman of the Sierra Club's conservation committee, he addressed issues on coastal management, the proposed California aqueduct project, public access to San Francisco Bay, and stopped the damming of the Eel River to prevent flooding of the Round Valley Indian Reservation. "Let people know what the problem is, and then show them how they can help solve it," he said.

During the past 25 years, Look, to broaden his education, took courses in natural sciences at San Jose State University. Realizing the importance of people involved through clubs and organizations, he belongs to five professional conservationist organizations, is affiliated with eight others, and has organized an additional 58 workshops for various environmental organizations. Look's involvement included a 16-year stint on the California Recreational Trails Committee. He is currently in his sixth year on the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Commission. Look has helped organize five non-profit groups dedicated to the environment in the Santa Cruz mountain area alone.

Overbooked, he soon learned he needed more time for conservation work, to raise his children, and to run his pharmacy. Like Thomas Edison, he trained himself to sleep less; he worked until 2 a.m. seven days a week and then rose at 7 a.m. to go to the pharmacy. The Looks lived modestly and did little entertaining.

"The rewards of working in the woods," Look said, "were greater than those of sitting around at a party."

His outside uniform was a Tyrolean hat, a cotton shirt, a woolen jacket, and a pair of cleated shoes. A back-pack seemed to have grown to his shoulders.

In 1965, the Sierra Club asked Look to help save Big Basin from the chainsaws. Look needed millions of dollars in a hurry. He founded and guided the Sempervirons Fund and its members on endless projects to raise money to buy land for the park. Through hundreds of meetings and countless hours of consultation over a period of 10 years, they raised $123,000 and the state kicked in $2.5 million in time to save the park.

Once the land was protected, Look turned his attention to restoring the forest which had suffered from overuse. His group of volunteers sometimes planted 1,000 seedlings in a single day. Volunteers have replanted between 250 and 300 acres of redwoods by hand and they have sold seedlings for a profit that is spent in acquiring more land. The state park system has adopted this technique throughout the 200-state park system. They have dedicated "The Tony Look Redwood Grove" to him in Big Basin.

In the meantime, he was busy with other things. With the Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Association, he helped build the 26-mile "Skyline-to-the-Sea-Trail" from Saratoga Gap through Big Basin and Waddell Creek to the ocean. He and Mildred have guided 12 hiking trips to Japan, six to Portugal and several to Norway, Switzerland and Scotland over the past two decades.

His efforts have not gone unnoticed. He has received medals and awards from dozens of national and international organizations concerned with environmental matters. Among these are the Sierra Club, The California Wildlife Federation, State Park Honor Award, and a special award from the United Nations. Last October, the American Park and Recreation Society gave Look its Meritorious Service Citizen Award for 1996.

The Seniors Hiking group of Los Altos, who is led weekly by Mildred (with Look's assistance), have dedicated a park bench to the Looks that sits on an overlook near skyline and provides a rest for weary hikers.

His current interest is promoting California Trail Days on April 23 and 24. The event began in 1969 when Look helped connect Castle Rock State Park to Big Basin with an eight-mile trail. The idea spread nationwide. National Trails Day is June 4. Its goal is to focus public attention on trails and volunteers who provide tens of thousands of hours in building new trails and maintaining old ones.

Look and his wife have arranged to be buried on the green hillside of Bull Creek surrounded by their beloved redwoods. He will leave a lasting legacy with his trails that will give pleasure to millions of hikers for hundreds of years to come.