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In these previous leadership roles, Mietz identified creative funding sources via state and local government agencies and nonprofits. He also established nonprofit park “friends groups,” oversaw scientific research and large-scale landscape projects, and managed thousands of employees who stewarded millions of acres and visitors annually. Throughout his public service career, Mietz has forged innovative, sustainable programs and partnerships, especially in connection with tribal groups, that have yielded new models for managing public lands.

During his time as superintendent of Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP), Mietz partnered with Save the Redwoods League and California State Parks to establish and lead Redwoods Rising, an unprecedented public-private partnership to accelerate the pace and scale of restoration work across 70,000 acres of previously logged redwoods parkland. He also helped craft a first-of-its-kind agreement to establish a southern gateway to RNSP that the parks will co-manage with the Yurok Tribe on a property that the League will convey to tribal ownership in 2026. Mietz was named Superintendent of the Year for Natural Resource Stewardship by the National Park Service in 2022 for going above and beyond in protecting RNSP’s natural resources.

“My entire career has built to this crescendo—leading Save the Redwoods League,” says Mietz. “I’m honored and thrilled to carry forward the League’s mission to protect and restore these extraordinary redwood forests for future generations. Building on more than a century of conservation leadership, I’m excited to bring innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to meet today’s challenges, seize new opportunities, and inspire a new generation of forest stewards to help revive the redwood range.”

As Save the Redwoods League’s senior manager of community engagement, Parra ensures that people of all backgrounds can not only benefit from the outdoors but also feel welcome in the natural spaces many take for granted. Immediately after joining the League, Parra began cultivating relationships with community groups and tribes to understand their interest in the redwoods. Since then, she has led the League’s strategic outreach to forge relationships and programmatic partnerships with community-based organizations, public lands managers, and leaders within these diverse networks to connect them to coast redwood and giant sequoia forests.

“I’ve learned that good things always happen when the community expands,” says Parra. “When we grow the community around redwoods, it will benefit not only those who have been historically excluded, but also the parks and trees themselves.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parra launched the League’s podcast “I’ll Go If You Go,” which features diverse conservation and outdoor recreation leaders. The series strives to build community through conservation while promoting redwood access for all. Parra continues to serve as executive producer. She also helps communities connect with local redwood parks through the Redwood Rides access program and in collaborative enrichment projects.

“When you’re trying to build relationships with new audiences, it’s important to get out of your comfort zone and go where they are,” says Parra. “Sticking to the old ways of doing things is how conservation organizations lost their trust with these communities in the first place.”

Parra earned a B.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University and a M.S. in Biology from San Francisco State University. She also received the 2025 Community Partnership Award for Campus Collaboration from San Francisco State University and the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the university and the broader community.

“When I went on a hike through the ancient redwood forest at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park about 10 years ago, it somehow crystallized my priorities,” says Ringgold. “I remember imagining how happy I’d be if I could find a way to help preserve forests like these. It made me realize what I really wanted to do with the rest of my career.”

Prior to joining the League, Ringgold served as vice president of Land Stewardship for the Peninsula Open Space Trust, a forest policy analyst for the Pinchot Institute of Conservation, and a forest manager and research program director for the University of Washington.

Ringgold holds a master’s in Forest Science, Forest Policy and Rural Sociology from Yale University and a B.S. in Forest Resources Management from the University of Washington. In addition to his work at the League, he serves on the Boards of the California Council of Land Trusts.

“Ultimately, the restoration and ongoing preservation of the coast redwood and giant sequoia forests throughout their ranges remains the League’s immutable goal,” says Ringgold. “We must continue to adapt and evolve our approach to the challenges of the coming century, especially as we expand our purview to meet the challenges of climate change and accelerating natural resource demands.”

Today, Stiff oversees the implementation of restoration activities as field operations manager for Redwoods Rising, a collaboration between the League, California State Parks, and the National Park Service to restore more than 70,000 acres of previously logged coast redwood forest in Redwood National and State Parks. He is the project’s on-the-ground point person, managing relationships with park inspectors and contractors and addressing challenges as they occur. Stiff also manages the logs generated from the project’s restorative thinning activities.

“I was really interested in doing large-scale watershed restoration—fully restoring these streams, removing old roads, and getting the crowded forests thinned back and into a healthy state,” says Stiff. “These measures help reduce the chance of catastrophic wildfires and recreate old-growth forest conditions.”

Stiff’s role with the League also enables him to spearhead work improving conditions for fish in redwood ecosystems. He oversees the decommissioning of former logging roads that haven’t been used in decades, which stems soil erosion that can cloud creeks.

“A lot of these streams were completely buried by old roads and crossings,” says Stiff. “Unearthing these waterways and removing the fill material will allow gravel to move down the creeks into larger streams, where they can provide high-quality spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and other fish.”

Stiff is also implementing aquatic restoration projects, working with contractors to place whole logs with intact “root wads” into streams, where they can help slow the movement of water and create ideal habitat for young fish to thrive among the redwoods.

Stump holds a B.S. in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from the University of California, Davis. His areas of expertise include conservation programs, land conservation funding, fee title acquisitions, conservation easements, and leading high-functioning teams.

Stump’s contributions to the League have been significant, taking on some of the organization’s most public-facing and challenging projects. His recent work includes the protection of Monte Rio Redwoods and Russian River Redwoods in Sonoma County, crafting an agreement to acquire Sonoma Coast Redwoods, and working with Mendocino Redwoods Company on the Dark Gulch acquisition at Montgomery Woods. He is currently supporting the transfer of the ‘O Rew property to the Yurok Tribe, working to resolve access and water issues at the League’s Alder Creek property, collaborating with California State Parks to transfer several properties into their ownership, and working to secure new opportunities for redwood land protection at scale.

Before joining the League in January 2022, Stump served as the director of conservation at the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). He directed their easement acquisition and stewardship programs, provided strategic guidance on conservation priorities, and developed policy and funding models at local, state, and federal levels to support land conservation and stewardship. His efforts at MALT contributed to the protection of 29 family farms and ranches, covering more than 16,250 acres.

Stump’s career also includes significant roles at the American Land Conservancy, where he handled some of the organization’s most complex land transactions—including protection of the Hearst Ranch—and at the California Coastal Commission, where he was the Commission’s legislative liaison. He has served on the board of the Marin Conservation League for six years, the Marin Carbon Project’s steering committee, and contributed to the Bay Area Critical Linkages Project, now part of the Conservation Lands Network.

“The best way to reach adults with our message is to inspire them when they’re children,” says Deborah Zierten, the League’s Education and Interpretation Manager. “Children find redwoods fascinating – thrilling, even! We don’t have to convince them of their importance. They’re so often captivated by the forests’ beauty and grandeur, and they understand the importance intuitively when they’re presented with the facts.”

Zierten’s mission, then, is educational outreach, both in the schools and the redwood parks.

“We need to do both,” she observes. “The schools offer our best opportunity for replicable programs across the entire redwood range. For high schools, we provide a redwood forest program that ties into climate change and carbon sequestration. Our curricula are locally focused, so that kids can conduct hands-on research almost literally in their backyards.”

The League also has an elementary school program, Explore Your Watershed, Zierten says.

“We take students on field trips to redwood forests in the upper reaches of their local watershed and to the San Francisco Bay,” she says. “They’re taught how it all is connected, and how the health and integrity of the coast redwood forest can ultimately affect water quality in the Bay. For many of these kids, our field trips provide their first visit to a forest. It’s incredibly moving to watch them becoming engaged with the redwoods, to see them explore the connections between critical natural systems.”

Such youthful enthusiasm is infectious, Zierten notes, and that’s an essential factor in redwood conservation outreach.

“A truism in this work is that you teach the kids to reach the parents,” Zierten says. “When your kids develop an intense interest, you inevitably end up sharing it.”

Zierten also provides professional development to docents in California’s redwood parks to inform them of the latest findings in redwood research

“The parks, of course, are the best possible venues for educating people about the redwood forest,” Zierten says. “Park visitors are already in a receptive frame of mind – they want to know more about the redwood forest, and what they can do to protect it. We want to make sure there are people on the ground who can answer their questions, enhance their experiences and engage them directly in redwood conservation.”

Part of that task involves direct training of docents and park staff, “we also ensure that the parks have access to the tremendous body of research produced by League scientists,” says Zierten. “We help the parks find innovative ways to communicate about redwood conservation with the public.”

Zierten grew up in Oakland and spent much of her free time exploring the expansive redwood parks of the East Bay. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Oregon and her Master’s degree in environmental education at Southern Oregon University.

“I love Oregon,” she says, “but I’m glad to be back in the Bay Area. The redwood forest is where I feel most at home and where my heart is.”