Revisiting a redwood friend

Season 5, Episode 8: HELLO, FRIEND.

English (US)

SPEAKERS

Monica Carcamo-Binetti (host)

Maria Mowrey (archive clip)

Kourtney Boone (archive clip)

Rahsaan McFarland II (archive clip)

Daisy Prado (archive clip)

Dr. R. David Rebanal (archive clip)

Rizelle Jugarap (archive clip)

Riley Dunn (archive clip)

Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley (archive clip)

[Intro music]

[00:00:07] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Hello everyone. I can’t believe I’m saying this. This is the final episode of season five. We’ve talked to so many incredible people throughout this season. But today? Today’s episode is a little different. I want to take you to meet someone who’s been part of my story long before I ever held the mic for this podcast. I’d like to bring you with me to visit a friend. There’s a tree that I visit often, one that I’ve talked about on this podcast several times, but never actually introduced you to. A tree that immediately felt like a friend. So, today you’re coming along with me to spend some time with my tree.

[Backpack zips]

Let’s go.

[Car door opens]

[00:01:00] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Okay. Snacks? Check. Recording equipment? Check. Backpack? Double check. And of course, coffee. We can’t start a road trip without coffee.

[Seatbelt click]

[00:01:14] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

All right, you ready? Let’s go say hi to an old friend.

[Car ignition beeping, car starts, car drives away]

[Intro music continues]

[Car on the road]

[00:01:31] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

When I start getting ready to go on a trip to visit my tree, it’s a lot of planning because I leave really early, and there’s a lot that goes into that. All of the buzz of the week is still with me as I’m doing all of this right, and whatever’s been going on in my life with work or just, you know, in general, it all starts kind of drifting away as I start driving from my house, and I leave that on the road in the same way that I leave whatever angst I have when I’m hiking, I leave all of those thoughts and ideas on the trail.

But when I get there. Oh, and I open my car door and I breathe in that air. Oh, it just feels so good and so quiet and so relaxing. And all of those things that I’ve left behind are gone. And it’s just me and my tree and me and the trails, and that’s what I chase. That feeling is what I’m after and why I always, always will keep going back for more.

[Car pulling into a dirt parking lot]

[00:02:38] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

I’m here! We finally made it.

[Car engine turns off]

[Slow footsteps on trail]

[00:02:51] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Hello, friend. Boy, do I have so much to tell you. You will not believe the season I’ve had. The people I met. The stories I heard and the things I’ve learned. There’s a lot to catch up on. Let’s chat?

[Music Break]

[00:03:17] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

I wanted to record the episode here with my tree, as I’ve been talking about my tree all season long, and as I mentioned, the resilience that my tree has and how that represents in my everyday life, it was important for me that this tree that has been on this journey with me, it’s kind of like the guest on this episode, really.

My tree has always been behind the scenes, encouraging me along and pushing me into these new spaces that maybe in the beginning I wasn’t fully comfortable, but because I had my tree by my side, I really felt that I could do it. So, it felt fitting for me to come back to this place that I’ve always felt so grounded and centered by, as I recorded this last episode.

On this journey you’ll hear the voices that stayed with me. Little constellations I carry now whenever I’m under these giants. We’ll start with a sensation Maria named for me. A courage Kourtney handed me. And a reminder from Kirstie about who we’re caring for when we care for these places.

[00:04:21] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

When we visited Samuel P. Taylor State Park for the kickoff of California State Parks Week, I was a bit nervous. This was it. The real thing. I was going to record outdoors with a real guest I’d never met before. When I stand here under my tree, I can almost hear echoes from this season. The way each guest left a little note in the air, a lesson, a laugh, a reminder.

The forest remembers them all.

[00:04:53] Monica Carcamo-Binetti 

The second I met Maria, and she started talking about the aura of old growth. How a tree can feel like it’s speaking to you. I felt so at ease and like I was talking to a long lost friend. I think I finally understand what she meant. It’s less about what the tree says and more about what it allows me to feel.

[00:05:15] Maria Mowrey

The size, and to me it’s an aura or a spirit. And when you say silence, that resonates with me too, because it’s like there’s this vibration. The tree is speaking to you. It might not be through voice, but it’s, it’s a sensation.

[00:05:32] Monica Carcamo-Binetti 

Kourtney Boone, my actual new BFF reminded me that if you’re nervous, be curious about it. And that’s advice that stuck with me all season.

[00:05:42] Kourtney Boone

Right, if you’re nervous about something, be curious about it. Don’t be afraid to ask those questions. Don’t be afraid to start whenever.

[00:05:50] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Like here I am, standing alone with a mic and a squirrel is staring me down, and I’m definitely a little nervous, but also kind of curious about it.

[00:06:00] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Then there was Rahsaan McFarland II, in second in episode three. Hearing him talk about his early encounters with the redwoods and how those moments led him to create community for black students in nature, was powerful.

[00:06:16] Rahsaan McFarland II

It’s really hard to be the only one out there that looks like you in those spaces. So, a big part of our mission is doing things as a community, as a collective. Sort of having that support system with you can be magical and sort of making you feel more comfortable in that space and motivating you to continue entering those spaces that historically just haven’t looked like us.

[00:06:42] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

His story was such a reminder that belonging isn’t automatic in the outdoors. Sometimes someone has to build the bridge first. His work with Nurtured by Nature made me think about representation in a deeper, more personal way.

[00:06:59] Rahsaan McFarland II

The trees are always willing to listen. They don’t judge. I hope that everyone finds time to visit their local redwood park or park in general, and spend time with the ecosystems.

[00:07:12] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

You’ve been a pretty good listener yourself, friend. Never once interrupted me.

[00:07:17] Rahsaan McFarland II

I, I generally accept that I’m always in awe. You know, I’ve got maybe 500 or so pictures of redwood trees. So, every time I pass one, I can’t help but take out my phone and snap a photo of one because they’re just amazing. And it’s incredible how they’ve been on this earth for so long. In spite of all of the anthropogenic changes that are coming full force at them, they stand the test of time.

That’s the definition of awe, if I’ve ever heard one.

[00:07:47] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Awe, that word again. It keeps showing up like sunlight through these branches, and I’m starting to think it’s the real thread between us all.

[00:08:00] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Talking to Daisy Prado felt like coming home. She shared how her own childhood experiences shaped her naturalist journey, and how she now creates space for women of color in the outdoors through City Girlz Hike. Daisy reminded me that reconnecting with nature can be both healing and empowering, especially when you finally see yourself reflected in those spaces that coming back to nature can also be coming back to yourself.

[00:08:31] Daisy Prado

2022 was the beginning of my homecoming to myself, I would say, because I was always an outdoors kid. I had the privilege of growing up in a place where I had a backyard and I had access to parks, and I think along the way, I became a little separated from the outdoors.

And so, City Girlz Hike really brought me back to that relationship with the outdoors.

[00:08:57] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

A homecoming. That’s what this season has felt like for me through every conversation. Another trail marker, each one pointing back to wonder.

[00:09:08] Daisy Prado

I think for folks that don’t see themselves as outdoorsy people, find something that you feel like is the gateway to being outside. There’s no one way to go outside. You can show up as your authentic self and in the way that you feel the most comfortable, and be outside and enjoy it.

[00:09:25] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Then there was a conversation with Dr. David Rebanal and Rizelle Jugarap about the Reclaiming Nature project, studying how time in the redwoods can reduce stress and improve health for young people from marginalized communities. Listening to them made me realize something simple but profound.

Nature isn’t a luxury. It’s a form of care. It’s medicine. Their work gave me a whole new appreciation for access. Who gets it, who doesn’t, and why it matters.

[00:09:59] Rizelle Jugarap

We hope to see that there are health benefits to being out in nature, and that nature is a viable resource for reducing stress in our youth.

[00:10:10] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Every deep breath out here feels like a little dose of medicine.

Standing here, I think about my own ancestors, how somewhere someone else once stood in awe of a tree. Just like this. Just listening.

[Forest sounds]

[00:10:31] Dr. R. David Rebanal

All peoples in some point in their ancestry were in touch with nature for survival and for health and for healing. I hope that we are able to sort of interrupt this narrative, that being in nature is solely a white thing to do. Like, that it only belongs to certain segments of our population.

[00:10:54] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

These forests belong to all of us. And when we return, we don’t just visit. We reclaim.

Hearing from the trail crew, Riley and Margarita, gave me a new respect for the invisible labor behind every trail we walk. The hours, the resilience, the creativity that goes into building paths that feel natural. Their stories reminded me how many hands it truly takes to protect and share these places. I’m in awe of them and the work they do, and I carry their hard work and dedication with me.

[00:11:31] Riley Dunn

We know we’ve done our job when hikers don’t know that we had to do anything to build the trail. Like trail work is an invisible profession in a lot of ways to where we want our, we want our work to stand out and look nice, but also blend in to the natural environment.

[00:11:50] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

The best care is the kind that disappears into the landscape. You might not see it, but you feel it.

Maybe that’s what we all are, the people, the redwoods, the community, all working together, holding each other up. This whole season, I thought I was the one recording the stories, but maybe the forest has been recording me too. Every word, every laugh, every breath among the trees.

[Music break]

[00:12:31] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Before I leave the grove, there’s one more voice that’s been echoing in my mind. Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley, whose work restoring San Vicente Redwoods reminded me what community care really looks like.

[00:12:45] Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley

I was just inspired to be able, to be able to play a part in helping set up this ecosystem up for success, for future climate kind of resiliency. Support comes in many shapes and forms, you know. Some folks can give money, and some folks can give their time. Some folks give by spreading the word about the work that we do.

[00:13:05] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Setting the stage for a future we may never see. Trusting that someone else will take the next step. That’s what stewardship is, isn’t it? Every person we met this season brought something different: hands, knowledge, laughter, faith, and together, all of it becomes protection and stewardship.

[00:13:26] Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley

You know, I think so often humans think we’re separate from nature, but we’re not. We’re, we’re, we are a part of nature. This, yeah, this is a co-living situation. This whole thing is a big old co-op.

[00:13:38] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

The redwoods, the rivers, the scientists, the trail crews, the hikers, the storytellers. We’re all caretakers of the same miracle. Community engagement isn’t just an idea. It’s a practice. It takes a literal village to keep trails open, to repair bridges, to share stories, to make sure everyone can step into these life changing spaces filled with awe.

And that work never stops, because these places are at constant risk from fire, from neglect, from disconnection. And the only way we protect them is by investing in ourselves and in each other. When we build community, we build resilience.

[00:14:26] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

That’s why I wanted to record this episode here, by my tree. This spot reminds me that I’m not separate from this story. I’m part of it. And for a long time, I didn’t feel that way. This journey, this tree, all of this has taught me that we don’t stand alone. This tree itself has held its roots that weave underground, connecting it to every other redwood in the grove. That’s what community looks like.

All of the aforementioned people, the hikers, the builders, we are like those roots that are connected. We’re above ground, fortunately, but we are interconnected in the exact same way that my friend here is connected to his friends all around him. And that’s what community looks like.

This podcast has given me a platform to build that kind of connection, to celebrate the people behind the parks, the scientists, the crews, the dreamers, and to remind all of us that we belong here together.

[00:15:27] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Thank you, friend, for listening, for holding space, for reminding me that awe isn’t a feeling you chase, it’s one you practice.

[Closing music]

[00:15:42] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Hosting this season has been one of the greatest joys of my year. To everyone listening, thank you for coming along, for caring about these forests and for being part of this ever-growing community. I’m so thankful to grow with you, and I can’t wait for what’s ahead next season.

Until then, keep noticing the awe around you. And as always, I’ll go if you go.

[Slow footsteps on trail]

[Closing Credits]

[00:16:12] Monica Carcamo-Binetti

Thanks for joining us on I’ll Go If You Go, a Save the Redwoods League podcast. This season is produced by Leslie Parra and hosted by Monica Carcamo-Binetti. Edited and sound engineered by Mac Cardona at cWave Media.

Thank you to Mariela Gándara and Caleb Castle for graphic design and media support, and to Adam Kaplan for tech support. Theme song and music by Nhu Nguyen and Anni Feng.

You can find seasons one through four, wherever you listen to podcasts or on

savetheredwoods.org where you can also find transcripts of each episode.

If you like our show, please rate and review. It helps more people find us and join in on the conversation. For behind-the-scenes and bonus content, follow us on Instagram @IllGoIfYouGoPod. If you have comments or questions, you can email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you and maybe even share your comments on the podcast.

I look forward to when our paths cross again, on the hiking trail or beyond.