In this episode of Sustainability Leaders, Emily moderates a conversation with:
Shelana deSilva, Deputy Superintendent at California State Parks
Sally Bolger, Executive Director at Ecological Workforce Initiative
Alma Cortés Selva, Senior Advisor with the BMO Climate Institute.
Their conversation focuses on the Redwoods Rising initiative, including its forest and watershed restoration work, cross-sector partnerships, and new research showing how investment in nature-based solutions can strengthen local economies, support workforce development, and deliver lasting environmental and social benefits.
Below are highlights from the discussion:
Q: Can you tell us about your role at California State Parks, and what makes the Redwoods Rising Project such a unique restoration initiative?
Shelana deSilva, California State Parks:
“I support operations across 22 park units that span from Northern Mendocino County to the Oregon border along the coast… Redwoods Rising is a multi-jurisdictional restoration initiative that was started back in 2016 with three key partners, California State Parks, the National Park Service, and our non-profit backbone entity Save the Redwoods League… This partnership came together in 2016, leveraging funding, leveraging expertise, to look at the 70,000 acres of formerly logged timberlands, and figure out how together we could really start to work at scale to heal these forests.”
Q: Could you please tell our audience about your organization and how you became involved in this project?
Sally Bolger, Ecological Workforce Initiative:
“We are bringing respect and recognition and training, to the trade workers who implement restoration projects, that restore health to ecosystems around species of concern, and sensitive habitats, and cultural resources… We got involved with this project, with Redwoods Rising and the North Coast District of State Parks in particular, because of the leadership’s commitment to the workforce, who implement these projects… They are creating incredible numbers of jobs to implement those projects.”
Q: Can you share more about the restoration activities that are happening on the ground and how long do they typically take?
Shelana deSilva, California State Parks:
“Redwoods Rising, we like to say that it has three legs of the stool, essentially. The key activities are restoration thinning… The second activity that we focus on is aquatic habitat restoration… The third leg of the stool is to deal with all of the road infrastructure within this landscape… We have what we call a normal operating season, which goes from June to October… this is essentially a legacy project. It will be multiple generations of us who will be working on this.”
Q: What has been the impact on regional employment that you’ve seen? And what kind of training have the workers gained while being employed on these projects?
Sally Bolger, Ecological Workforce Initiative:
“There have been studies that have looked at the economic impact of the large-scale restoration activities throughout the Redwoods Rising region… Projects that have already been done, have brought tens of millions of dollars into the local economy. Through jobs, through increased visitation, et cetera… The training that folks get, a lot of it is on the job training now… we are elevating the recognition that this is a specialty.”
Q: Alma, can you please highlight some of the key findings of this research?
Alma Cortés Selva, BMO Climate Institute:
“I feel like there’s four main findings of this study. The first one is … restoration work brings major economic benefits. It’s not just environmental benefits.
The second one … it creates a lot of good accessible jobs … 250 people per year, for both [Del Norte and Humboldt] counties. This is just the direct wages. They do not require a college degree … The workers typically earn between $42,000 to $108,000 per season … That’s higher than the average per capita income in both counties.
“The third finding is that the financial impact is huge, when you add everything up. If you will take the direct impact, which is just the wages, we're talking about $17.4 million per year in wages across these two counties.
“The fourth one is, they strengthen the communities, the local communities, long-term.”
Q: What does that mean for a rural county like Del Norte?
Alma Cortés Selva, BMO Climate Institute:
“For a rural county, this level of employment is actually very impactful … When a single sector—in this case, the restoration economy—employs a large number of workers, that moves the needle on local employment … restoration work is not just another job sector, it actually becomes a pillar of the local economy.”
Q: Beyond California’s North Coast, what lessons from the Redwoods Rising Project could inform other conservation efforts?
Sally Bolger, Ecological Workforce Initiative:
“Investing in ecological restoration projects is first and foremost investing in jobs … Now we can actually start talking about long-term sustainable investments in ecological restoration, climate resilience, nature-based solutions, as equally investing in jobs … this is a win-win-win.”
The full research report referenced in this episode and additional resources are available at parkscalifornia.org, a partner in this work connecting communities and cultivating new career pathways across California's public lands.
Photographs courtesy of California State Parks.