Personal Profiles

Portrait of a person at a desk in a room beneath large landscape photographs of redwoods

Meeting the moment

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Save the Redwoods League has been so honored to have a relationship with Dr. James. As a member of our Redwood Legacy Circle, he decided last June that rather than leave a gift for the League in his estate, he would pay it forward now to meet the moment in these extraordinary times. We are incredibly grateful for his generous gift to the League.

The Live Like Coco Foundation takes Santa Cruz County students on a field trip to Nisene Marks to see redwoods. Photo courtesy of The Live Like Coco Foundation

In Loving Memory: Foundation Sponsors Youth Field Trips

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The Live Like Coco Foundation has partnered with Friends of the Santa Cruz State Parks, taking third-graders from Santa Cruz County on field trips to Nisene Marks to see redwoods, and banana slugs, firsthand.

Redwoods Rising Apprentices 2019

Redwoods Rising Apprentices Team Building

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Earlier this season, Redwoods Rising apprentices toured the Greater Miller Creek Project Area to get a sense of the work they would be doing later in the summer. They also did a team building activity, where they established a circle in the grass, and then had to retrieve a piece of redwood branch that they placed outside of the circle without touching the ground. The larger lesson was that growth requires teamwork. All in all a fun day.

League President Sam Hodder, left, Board member Peggy Light, and Redwood Legacy Chair Mike Helms.

Redwood Legacy Circle Celebrates Peggy Light

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Save the Redwoods League recently celebrated Board Member Peggy Light for her extraordinary generosity in inspiring 105 new legacy gift commitments in 2018 to commemorate the centennial of Save the Redwoods League. Peggy offered to match each new legacy gift commitment made in 2018 with a $1,000 gift, with a goal to encourage 100 people to join the Legacy Circle. We were thrilled to surpass our goal.

Felicia Marcus. Photo credit: California Water Resources Control Board

Felicia Marcus Promotes Protecting the Forest to Save Water

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California’s Water Resources Control Board has a broad purview, overseeing water rights, regulating groundwater, and maintaining and enforcing standards for drinking water. And that’s just what they do as a critical partner with Save the Redwoods League in forest lands management and watershed restoration efforts.

Arboreal Lessons

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Award-winning children’s author Anthony D. Fredericks explains how a journey to Redwood National and State Parks inspired his book Tall Tall Tree and his commitment to #Stand4Redwoods because of the lessons redwoods offer kids. You can enter to win a copy of Tall Tall Tree and other fantastic prizes by entering our Reading the Redwoods contest by May 10, 2018. Reading the Redwoods is a free, online contest for kids in grades K-5, hosted in celebration of the Centennial of Save the Redwoods League.

Rue Mapp, founder of Outdoor Afro.

Redwoods Hold Particular Significance for African Americans, Says Rue Mapp

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In 2009, Rue Mapp started Outdoor Afro. Initially, the website served as a frame for Mapp’s blogs on her personal connection to nature, but it quickly evolved into a national conversation platform for the African-American community. And as people connected online, they got together to hike, camp, bike, fish, and ski.

T. A. Barron. Photo by Aimee Giese

T. A. Barron Writes of Wonder in the Redwoods

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T. A. Barron, a Councilor for Save the Redwoods League, grew up in rural Colorado, where his connection to nature was immersive and powerful. The lofty peaks, pristine streams, and expansive aspen and spruce forests of the Rocky Mountains constituted …

Wendy Hayward and her husband Rich Wendling.

A Women’s Day Tribute to a Redwoods Champion

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In honor of International Women’s Day, commemorated annually on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history, Save the Redwoods League honors the late Wendy Hayward, a tireless advocate for the redwood forest.

Teresa Baker at Muir Woods National Monument.

Teresa Baker Blazes Trail for Racial Diversity in Parks

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“America is changing demographically,” said Teresa Baker, founder of the African American Nature & Parks Experience. “People of color will soon be in the majority, and we need to do everything possible to connect them to the outdoors, to help them experience the power of nature.”

Janet Jackson Explores Local Redwood Watershed with Inner City Youth

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Jackson does what she can to expand the horizons of her students. Each month she takes three or four students to a regional park for an extended hike. She has also participated in outreach programs sponsored by universities and conservation groups, including Exploring Your Watershed, a Save the Redwoods League project that teaches kids about the linkages between the East Bay’s redwood forests and San Francisco Bay.

Christina Jaromay in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

Christina Jaromay Strengthens Parks through Lasting Partnerships

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As the Chief of the California State Parks Partnership Office, Christina Jaromay’s primary challenge is figuring out connections: how to make new ones and strengthen old ones. The long-standing partnership between Save the Redwoods League and California State Parks is one such relationship Jaromay oversees.

José González, Executive Director of Latino Outdoors. Photo by Jordan Bloch, Earthjustice

José González Promotes Discovery in the Outdoors

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Outdoor adventure is often characterized as a highly idiosyncratic pursuit, one that engages a single individual with the challenges of nature. That’s all well and good, but José González, the founding Executive Director of Latino Outdoors, promotes another perspective: connecting communities and families with the power and beauty of the planet’s wild places.

Leonel Arguello addresses the crowd at the League's Annual Meeting 2013. Photo by Paolo Vescia

Leonel Arguello Seeks Restoration of Redwood Ecosystems in RNSP

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Arguello has worked at Redwood National and State Parks ever since, and he is now Joint Chief of Resource Management and Science, often collaborating with partners such as the League to implement restoration projects. Today, his foremost task as chief is much the same as when he was hired as a student so many years ago: help restore the park’s world-renowned redwood ecosystems.

Sanborn Hawley Grove at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

We Give with Our Hearts

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Dollars may all look alike, but every dollar given to Save the Redwoods League has its own story. In memory of luminary and humble friends, loved ones, children, and parents, the League has dedicated hundreds of redwood groves. And last week, I came to remember what an honor it is to be a caretaker of these memories.

Bill holds a seedling at the Mill Creek nursery in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. Photo by Mark Bult

Bill Libby: League Honors a Scientist and Leader

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Forest geneticist Dr. William Libby, a longtime volunteer leader for Save the Redwoods League, recalls the night in 1951 when he chose the path for his life’s work.

In 1926, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. discusses redwoods conservation with Save the Redwoods League leader Newton Drury. David Rockefeller is pictured on the front, right side.

Generations of Generosity: Remembering David Rockefeller

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There is one element of David Rockefeller’s story that you will likely only read here: that he was there, standing among the redwoods with early Save the Redwoods League leaders when their conservation story began nearly 100 years ago.

In this 1899 photo, Buffalo Soldiers in the 24th Infantry carried out mounted patrol duties in Yosemite. Photo courtesy of Yosemite Research Library

Celebrating African-American Environmentalists

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February is African-American History Month, and we’d like to acknowledge a few men and women, past and present, who advocated for our environment, promoted environmental and social justice, and paved the way for all people to connect with nature.

Wendy Millett

Wendy Millet: Her Conservation Roots Run Deep

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As a literature major at Harvard, Wendy Millet’s love of the natural world was deepened by reading Emerson, Muir and Thoreau. But Millet liked getting her hands dirty too, so during and after college, she worked on ranches in Montana and Wyoming.