Save the Redwoods League joins Oakland Goes Outdoors in redwoods community building
“Just seeing all the trees and the smell of nature is calming.”
“I felt amazed, curious, peaceful, brave, and grateful.”
“Hiking calms me down.”
Reflections like these from Oakland students capture what often happens when young people spend quality time in the redwoods. These trips offer moments of discovery, calm, and connection—often in forests just a short drive from their schools and neighborhoods, yet still perceived as worlds away and out of reach.
That’s why the Save the Redwoods League partnership with the Oakland Goes Outdoors program is so beneficial. Together, we support Oakland students in accessing the outdoors and forming lasting connections with natural places close to home.
And just this month, Oakland Goes Outdoors hosted its 1,000th trip—a major accomplishment worth celebrating.
Support across the grades
Save the Redwoods’ Oakland education program primarily serves elementary school students. Through hands-on activities in the forest, children learn about their local watershed, explore redwood ecology, and build observation skills. Activities typically include guided hikes, building small habitats with fallen branches, and even dressing up like a redwood tree.
Oakland Goes Outdoors builds on these early experiences as kids grow up by supporting outdoor learning for middle school students across the Oakland Unified School District.
Students in the program enjoy a wide range of adventures—overnight camping trips, kayaking in San Francisco Bay, and day trips to parks and preserves throughout the region. Redwood parks are a favorite, and for many students who didn’t take part in elementary school redwoods experiences, these field trips are their first time spending time with the massive trees that are right in their backyards.
“It was a natural fit to partner with Oakland Goes Outdoors to deepen Oakland students’ experiences and understanding of redwood forests,” says Deborah Zierten, senior manager of education at Save the Redwoods. “If kids are able to visit the redwoods in elementary and middle school, with friends, they will start to feel more comfortable in nature and want to continue to come back to these places in their own backyards. Our partnership is helping create memories for these students that will last a lifetime.”
Impact you can measure in smiles
Teachers enthusiastically report back about seeing the happy impacts of these trips firsthand.
“Students were smiling, laughing, and really enjoying themselves,” one teacher shared after a recent trip to Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. “It was a needed break, and students had the chance to spend time with friends and connect with new people. They measured trees, identified plants, and did leaf rubbings. It’s a joyful experience for students to go out in nature together.”
For Oakland Goes Outdoors Executive Director Kaitlin Levenstrong, those moments of connection are exactly what the program is designed to create.
“Redwood forests have a way of slowing people down and opening space for curiosity and connection,” she says. “When students experience these places together with their classmates and teachers, they are not only learning about ecology and the natural world. They are building relationships, confidence, and an understanding that these incredible places are part of their own community and a place where they belong.”
Save the Redwoods supports Oakland Goes Outdoors with transportation grants, teacher training, and hands-on redwood education activities. Together, the organizations are helping ensure that all Oakland students not only visit the redwoods, but also begin to see these forests as places where they belong. Where they can build community. That comfort and familiarity encourages future visits with classmates, family, and their broader community.
“I’m an East Bay kid who didn’t go to Redwood Regional Park until I was 17,” said one Oakland educator. “So, I am very thankful that we are getting 11-year-olds to fall in love with their beautiful home.”
Here’s to another 1,000 happy field trips.
