Natalie Oberman: Restoring Redwoods Trail is ‘a Privilege’

Natalie Oberman swings a mattock to rebuild the River Trail in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The project was made possible by gifts to the League from The Garden Club of America and members like you.
Natalie Oberman swings a mattock to rebuild the River Trail in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The project was made possible by gifts to the League from The Garden Club of America and members like you.
To Natalie Oberman, the ancient redwood forest is otherworldly. “It’s hard to grasp the size and age of the trees, the uniqueness of the ecosystem,” she said, as she restored part of the fire-damaged River Trail in Humboldt Redwoods State Park last summer.

She was part of The Student Conservation Association (SCA) crew that worked on the trail, thanks to gifts to Save the Redwoods League from The Garden Club of America (GCA).

Oberman is part of the community of scientists, land managers, volunteers and members like you who care for redwood forests today.

For many participants like Oberman, the SCA offers a brief, physically challenging and exciting interlude in an otherwise sedentary career arc.

“It’s funny, but I’ve discovered that I really like hard, outdoor labor,” says the 24-year-old graduate of the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York at Syracuse. “I may go back for a graduate degree, or work as a researcher. But now, I just love doing what I’m doing.”

Oberman served two summers with the SCA monitoring post-logging conifer regeneration in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, and she restored habitat in the California desert.

“I just want to be outdoors, so I’ve enjoyed it all,” she said. “There’s no other place like the redwood forest on Earth, and working here has been a real privilege.”

About the author

Since 1918, Save the Redwoods League has protected and restored redwood forests and connected people with their peace and beauty so these wonders of the natural world flourish.

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