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Today, as land protection manager for Save the Redwoods League, she works directly to help protect those trees, guiding the sale of land and negotiating conservation easements between landowners and the League. She also interfaces with public agencies as the League transfers ownership of acquired properties to the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service, and other agencies.

Andreucci earned her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Planning from Sonoma State in 2011. One of her positions after graduating was with the Greenbelt Alliance, an environmental advocacy group that promotes smart growth development and the preservation of open space. Andreucci joined the League in 2017, where she served as a conservation programs assistant & associate before moving into her current position in April 2021.

Andreucci appreciates the multi-faceted nature of her work, but she especially enjoys the special relationships she builds with landowners who have chosen to protect their land in perpetuity by selling it to the League or holding it in a conservation easement.

“Under the League’s ownership, we get to steward, manage, and nurture purchased property,” says Andreucci. “But partnering with landowners to keep land under their ownership—often lands that have been in a family for generations—while still making sure that sound management endures is really special.”

It’s a long-term relationship, and often the process can take years. Andreucci helps the League identify priority properties—redwood and giant sequoia lands with significant conservation value—but she also works with landowners who reach out directly.

This long-term impact is what drew Andreucci to her position. “I never thought I could have a career spending time in the places I love, doing work to ensure the protection of those places,” she says. “I can say after it’s done that this piece of land will be protected forever. It connects me to these places in a deeper way.”

One of Blom’s priorities is leading the League’s work with the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, a multi-partner collaboration dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of giant sequoia ecosystems. “Giant sequoias are some of the most awe-inspiring and iconic trees on the planet,” he says. “Yet they are vulnerable to high-severity, climate-driven wildfires. It feels like an existential crisis, and at the same time, I’m energized to see our coalition mobilizing to do the work to protect our sequoia groves.”

Prior to joining the League, Blom worked for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for 12 years, most recently overseeing restoration and management operations across 300,000 acres of public land in 10 Central California counties. While at BLM, Blom partnered with the League on various projects. “I was excited to join Save the Redwoods League because it’s guided by science and its mission in a very pure way,” Blom says. “I also appreciate the League’s long-term and unwavering commitment to the restoration and stewardship of redwood forests.”

Even in his spare time, Blom is always in the forest. “Working among the largest trees in the world is a dream come true. But I also live in the redwoods,” he says. “Seeing the resilience and beauty of these trees—the awe that you feel when you’re in a redwood forest—I think that’s why everybody connects with our mission so closely. You don’t have to explain our mission for very long to somebody before they understand why we need to protect and restore redwoods.”

“I’ll never forget the first time I went to Muir Woods National Monument after starting my job with the National Park Service. Being surrounded by the majestic redwoods in the deep quiet of the forest was powerful,” says Carter.

Carter received her M.B.A. in Strategic Management, Sustainability/Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of California, Davis and her B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her expertise in managing nonprofit, commercial, and interagency partnerships helps the League expand and improve redwood parks and deliver resonant access, interpretation, and education programs. She oversees this integrated approach to redwoods access on key properties currently owned by the League, including ‘O Rew, Alder Creek, and Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve.

Carter’s work engages communities that have historically been underrepresented in the conservation movement and that have faced barriers to enjoying parks and nature. By closely collaborating with park agencies, Tribes, and diverse communities, Carter helps the League provide meaningful opportunities to connect with the redwoods.

“As the world becomes increasingly diverse and complex, everyone deserves the chance to experience redwood forests because people have always been an integral part of the redwoods ecosystem,” says Carter. “Bridging equity gaps not only serves conservation, but also plays a key role in the wellness and prosperity of our society at large. Fostering inclusive and inspiring experiences in the outdoors is foundational to the League’s mission.”

Anthony Castaños grew up in San Diego and took frequent trips to the Sierra with his family. He credits solo time exploring the chaparral and forests for his deep comfort in wild places.

“As a kid I would just leave to wander in the woods for hours, not knowing where I was or how to get back, but somehow I always managed to get home,” he says. “I like to joke that I never get lost in the woods; I just get delayed.”

It’s a broad role. A typical week includes several days out in the forest, checking on properties, and ongoing restoration projects. He stays in contact with dozens of contractors and seeks grant funding for restoration projects on these properties. Though not required, sometimes he pulls on boots and works alongside crews doing chainsaw work and data collection.

Castaños says the restoration projects are even ramping up in light of a growing awareness: that simply preserving land through ownership or conservation easement isn’t enough.

“For most of the past 100 years, Save the Redwoods League bought land, transferred ownership to an agency, and said, great, it’s protected,” he explains. “But with climate change, the accumulation of fuels, and the need to incorporate Indigenous people’s historic land management practices, we’re realizing these lands can’t just be left alone.”

The scope and intensity of wildfires over the past several years is the driving motivation for land stewardship. The biggest focus is on fuels reduction—hand crews in the forest doing the time-consuming but necessary work of thinning small trees and removing “ladder fuels” that carry fire up the tree. “That way, when a fire does come through, it will just burn on the ground floor rather than up into the canopy where it can cause a lot of damage,” explains Castaños.

In addition to overseeing ecological thinning projects, Castaños has also begun managing prescribed burns. “It’s been quite a thrill to get that work done because we’ve seen very positive results,” he says, pointing to a prescribed burn completed in February of 2020 in the Santa Cruz Mountains as a case in point. An intense wildfire burned through the area later that year.

“All the trees outside the prescribed burn were burned head to toe,” recalls Castaños. “But the trees within the prescribed burn area were still green and had healthy canopies.” Castaños foresees this restoration work expanding as the state embraces the need for active management. Castaños first joined the League in early 2011 as the conservation programs assistant and has since been promoted three times. He’s been in his current role since 2016.

“I feel like I have a lot of institutionalized knowledge,” he says. “I can reference past projects, past relationships, and partners.” This deep knowledge has been critical for helping facilitate new projects and figure out how to accomplish them.

When he’s not working, Castaños spends much of his free time volunteering: planting trees with Friends of the Urban Forest, packing food at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, and mentoring kids at an after-school program in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco.

If doing good work is critical to Castaños’ personal happiness, so is living in the state of California.

“When I drive along the 101 and see the ocean, the cliffs, and the redwood trees, I find it so beautiful and captivating,” he says. “I cannot imagine living anywhere else.”

For nearly two years, Hayes worked as a seasonal park ranger and aide for California State Parks and California Land Management in Placer and Mendocino counties. In these roles he interacted directly with visitors and became intimately familiar with the natural landscapes of the parks, including Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area, Richardson Grove State Park, and Hidden Falls Regional Park. Soon after, he went back to school, earning an MBA in Strategic Sustainability from Humboldt State University. He accepted the role of partnership manager with Save the Redwoods League in the summer of 2021.

In this role, Hayes administers Redwoods Rising, a collaborative effort to accelerate redwood forest recovery within Redwood National and State Parks and to help protect the remaining old-growth groves there.

Hayes views himself as the connective tissue among the partners, which include the League, the National Park Service, and California State Parks. This translates into frequent meetings and lots of communication.

“My value to the project is doing the behind-the-scenes work and keeping everyone in the loop,” says Hayes. “A huge component of my job is relationship building, not only with partners but with funders of the project.” Coordinating tours and presentations for funders and other parties helps them understand what their generosity has helped accomplish on the ground.

The restoration projects coordinated under Redwoods Rising are aimed at rehabilitating crowded second-growth forests, restoring streams, and decommissioning the many miles of defunct logging roads that wind through these forests.

“It’s gratifying to be part of a transformation, as forests that were treated poorly are stewarded back into health,” says Hayes. “And knowing, too, that old-growth forest helps with carbon sequestration, and that restoration work helps increase wildfire resilience.”

But even more important, says Hayes, is being part of a complex and successful collaborative where projects of such scale and importance are possible.

“Being part of that model and being able to share that knowledge is one of the most important parts of my job,” he says.

Currently, about $30 million in public funds has been committed to Redwoods Rising. Hayes is tasked with planning and tracking budgets with all of the granting agencies. He also meets regularly with the League’s other departments, helping convey the importance of the initiative and keeping colleagues updated on the latest developments.

Through his experience administering projects of all types, Hayes has learned that conflicts are inevitable.

“Knowing how to communicate and what to say in those delicate moments is a skill I’ve found to be universal to all project management-related roles,” says Hayes.

His natural proclivity for understanding different points of view make him particularly well-suited as the administrator of a complex collaborative partnership.

“Being able to be that connective tissue—to take the middle ground—is very beneficial,” says Hayes. “It’s not that I know exactly what decision to make, but I’m very good at hearing from everybody first and facilitating a decision.”

Hayes loves to play where he works, and he blows off steam four or five days a week on his mountain bike. He rides all over Humboldt County. Blue Lake, Arcata Community Forest, and Paradise Royale near Shelter Cove are some of his favorite places to ride. He also enjoys camping, backpacking, and kayaking.

He grew up in Santa Cruz County, on the southern end of the redwood range.

“The landscape on the North Coast is very similar to Santa Cruz and very near to my heart,” says Hayes. “It’s a huge reason why I’m doing this kind of work.”

“You were never far from a lake or river,” Laura recalls. “Anytime you wanted you could just take a hike, go swimming in a pond, go fishing or canoeing. There was a simplicity to it all that was incredibly satisfying.”

That connection to the wild and all the living things in it led her to a Bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Maine at Farmington. After graduating in 2007, she went west, taking a position as a biological science technician with the U.S. Geological Survey. Laura worked on various projects in the Sierra Nevada, northern California, and southern Oregon for the USGS, with much of her effort focused on tree growth, mortality, drought response, and forest restoration. She joined Save the Redwoods League as a forest fellow in 2016 and completed her Master’s degree in Forestry from Humboldt State University in 2018. She was hired as a forest ecologist by the League at that time and is currently working with her colleagues on Redwoods Rising, the seminal and deeply ambitious partnership involving the National Park Service, California State Parks, and the League to restore 120,000 acres of degraded forest in Redwood National and State Parks.

“I’m inspired by the vision of Redwoods Rising, and I’m honored to be a part of it,” Laura says. “This collaboration will allow us to restore forest ecosystems on a landscape scale. More than that, we’re working to accelerate old-growth characteristics in second-growth and third-growth forests. Our work will allow these young, degraded forests to progress to a more dynamic and resilient mature state far sooner than would occur if they were simply left alone. I also see Redwoods Rising as being a model for future collaborations who are working together on integrated, landscape-level restoration and land stewardship.”

“Prescribed fire, or controlled burning, is a valuable tool for forest restoration,” Laura observes. “It allows us to reintroduce the natural process of fire back onto the landscape in a controlled manner, on our terms. Fire is a critical component in many western forests, including redwood forests. I believe it’s essential that we develop healthy relationships with fire, allowing it to fulfill its important, ecological role in fire adapted systems and to assist in fuels reduction and wildfire management.”

“That said,” Laura notes, “every prescribed burn is unique and forest type and structure, terrain, fuel loading, and climatic variables all need to be taken into consideration when developing a successful prescribed burn plan.”

“We also have to address the political and educational aspects,” Laura says. “People need to understand why fire is a valuable restoration tool, and we need to show them how it works. We need to be educators as well as forest managers.”

The best part of her job, says Laura, is that it allows her to contribute to an all-encompassing vision of conservation.

“The League is working toward a convergence of forest conservation, restoration, and land stewardship at the largest possible scale, and I find that incredibly exciting,” she says. “We’re not just working to restore and maintain redwood forests. We’re working to conserve all the associated species that depend on ancient redwoods. We’re integrating in-stream aquatic restoration, road removal and soil stabilization, forest restoration–everything that affects the redwood ecosystems. And we’re doing it as an equal partner with other agencies and groups, collaborating to define and sustain our long-term mission. I find this work very important and satisfying.”

Much of Laura’s spare time is spent enjoying the Humboldt and Del Norte County coastlines and ancient forests.

“I love canoeing, hiking, and just exploring the woods,” she says. “I also enjoy fiber arts, growing and preserving food, raising chickens, ducks, and geese, and connecting with others while building community.”