Trees Foundation Staff
Damien Roomets
Executive Director
Damien moved to the North Coast of California from Park City, Utah in 2009. Drawn to the area’s breathtaking landscape and the artist and activist culture, he has spent much of his time here in the woods working as an arborist and sawyer, volunteering as an active member of the Briceland Volunteer Fire Department, playing music, and living off-grid. He holds a Bachelor’s degree focused in Environmental Economics from Dartmouth College, and brings a diverse background of work experience that includes prescribed fire, fuels reduction, building construction, nature photography, technical writing, and website development.
Mona Provisor
Bookkeeper
As Bookkeeper for Trees foundation Mona performs all aspects of financial duties and oversight. She has a BA in Art History, and a Bookkeeping Certificate, and has worked in the bookkeeping capacity for over ten years. Besides her role at Trees, she has several personal clients that include retail businesses, non-profits, and private citizens. She has also been a Board Member of Beginnings Inc. for the past 15 years. In her free time she enjoys gardening, hiking, knitting and time outdoors.
Cullen Cramer
GIS Coordinator
Cullen does GIS for Trees, creating and updating regional conservation status maps for periodical publications, public presentations, and grant reports for partner groups. He draws on a BA in Geography with a natural resource and GIS emphasis. Other experience includes: data collection and analysis on biological survey and wildlife studies, private land-use management, and regulatory compliance cartography.
Chelsea Sproul
Forest Health and Fire Resources Director
As Forest Health and Fire Resources Director, Chelsea is a community liaison and assists fire safety groups in planning, funding, and implementing community wildfire preparedness goals. Additionally, she produces invoices for the organization and assists with fundraising initiatives and grant administration. Chelsea earned her Master's in Organizational Development and Leadership in 2015 and worked in higher education administration and fundraising in the Philadelphia area before relocating to Southern Humboldt. She has gotten involved in the community as a member of the Briceland Volunteer Fire Department, enjoys singing backup for band Wolf Tree and playing tunes over the radio waves as a KMUD DJ.
Sarah Brooks
Organizational Development Director
Sarah is well known in the Southern Humboldt community thanks to her passion for grassroots organizing and her service on several boards including the Garberville Town Square and Beginnings in Briceland. Sarah is the vice chair of Humboldt Progressive Democrats and co-founder of the Redway Fire Safe group. Sarah is the author of a children’s book about river otters, has had numerous poems published in various journals, and has written several grants to support southern Humboldt community projects.
Tanner Speas
Project Manager
Tanner serves as a Program Manager with Trees Foundation, bringing more than fifteen years of experience in wildfire mitigation, emergency services leadership, community organizing, and grant-funded project delivery throughout Humboldt County. His professional background spans public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private-sector partners, with a consistent focus on strengthening rural communities through sustainable land management, fire preparedness, and collaborative planning. Grounded in hands-on experience, Tanner has spent over twenty-five years homesteading in Southern Humboldt, where he built a low-impact family residence using locally milled materials and sustainable construction practices. As a certified Permaculture Designer, he manages a food forest and permaculture garden, integrating ecological principles into daily life. Outside of work, Tanner enjoys trail building, mountain biking, hiking, and creating original music, reflecting a deep personal connection to the landscapes and communities he serves.
Mary Giardino
Community Equity and Tribal Engagement Coordinator/ Trees Foundation Board Member
Writer, Editor, Mediator, Advocator, Agitator, and Career Non-Profit Professional - Mary has spent half her life in Colorado – her home state – and half in California – her chosen state. Protecting the natural world has been an automatic reflex since she was a child. Mary found a profound home among redwoods and rebels, living 20 years off-grid in the forest, among people who worked hard at self-sufficiency, and valued community and diversity. She moved back to Boulder, CO to raise her two daughters close to her big Italian family. With her daughters now grown and gone to NYC and Bellingham, WA, she has returned to the forest and the work of protecting the natural world, in community with others. Mary has raised money for local and national non-profits, supporting community-building, marginalized groups, and youth climate actions. Mary was a Trees board member from 1998-2009 and upon returning to northern California in 2025 rejoined the board.
Board of Directors
Leib Ostrow
Board President
Founder of Trees Foundation, Music for Little People, and Earth Beat! Records.
A North Coast resident since the mid-1970s, Leib was one of the founders of Trees Foundation and of Music For Little People records, one of the largest independent children’s record labels in the world. He has produced over 100 recordings and has been awarded two Grammy nominations. An environmental activist for most of his life, he is a landowner in southern Humboldt practicing sustainable forest management and regenerative farming. He is also a performing musician. He considers getting arrested with his son at Headwaters Forest one of the best civic lessons he could teach.
John Wilhelm
Board Treasurer
John’s dedication to promoting community resilience, and his unwavering commitment to the environment made him a natural fit for the Trees Foundation. He is a volunteer firefighter and on the board of the Palo Verde Volunteer Fire Department as well as being a member of the Prescribed Burn Association and the Palo Verde Fire Safe Council. John's life's work embodies Trees Foundation's core values, as he continues to leave a lasting impact on the lands and communities of the North Coast.
Ali Freedlund
Board Secretary, Mattole Restoration Council
Ali has worked for the Mattole Restoration Council since 1996. At first, she concentrated her efforts on lessening the impacts from industrial timber harvest plans and the protection of Old-Growth forest stands. However, her job soon grew to incorporate different kinds of restoration projects from upgrading roads to reducing fuels, in her desire to protect and nourish watershed processes. Because Trees Foundation had long been a tireless supporter of MRC’s efforts, she did not hesitate when asked to become a member of their Board of Directors. She is pleased to be working alongside the dedicated and inspiring team of both the board and staff of Trees Foundation.
Elizabeth RedFeather
Board Member, Round Valley Tribal Social Worker
Elizabeth is a Tribal Member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and she is proud of her rich culture as a descendant of ConCow, Wailaki, and Nomlaki Peoples. Born in Healdsburg, CA, she moved home to her Reservation around 2007 and now works as a Tribal Social Worker. Elizabeth is active in her traditional ceremonies and is a dancer with The Round Valley Feather Dancers. She also participates in the Nome Cult walk, a 100-mile trek that commemorates the tragic march of Indigenous survivors who were forcibly removed from their homelands in 1863. Her interests include advocating for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIW/MMIP), supporting restoration of the practice of cultural burning to prevent devastating wildfires, standing up for Mother Earth, saving sacred cultural sites, and learning all she can.
Perry Eugene Lincoln
Board Member, Native Health in Native Hands
Perry is a Tribal Member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, and the Executive Director and Project Leader of Native Health in Native Hands (NHNH), a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Perry is a father and grandfather, and a descendant of Wailaki, Yuki, and Pomo Peoples. Perry was raised surrounded by native elders, listening to stories, singing songs, talking about native culture, and attending many ceremonies, dances, and gatherings. He has been instrumental in revitalizing the Wailaki language, and tribal arts and crafts. He strives for collaborative bridges between different communities, and creating opportunities for native youth—such as accessing lands, building traditional redwood canoes, and learning ancestral languages. He believes that overall, it’s not about any one person, but the act of building and supporting teamwork.
Cleo Woelfle-Hazard
Board Member
Cleo Woelfle-Hazard is an activist and scholar with training in fish ecology, ecohydrology, and social science whose research focuses on ecological and social dimensions of human relations to rivers and their more-than-human inhabitants, and on how queer trans feminist thought can transfigure ecological science as it’s used by Indigenous and non-Native practitioners in fire and river management. He is the Habitat Restoration Program Manager for the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources, where he co-leads projects restoring meadows, salmon habitat, and riparian burning. He co-produced a musical about water politics and salmon migration, The Gold Fish, or, Straight Flushes for the Manifestly Destined (2012) and the short film The Gold Fish Casino (2017). His latest book is Underflows: Queer trans ecology and river justice (University of Washington, 2022). He is currently the outreach coordinator for Wusatoumuduk: We Make It Burn, a play about Wiyot cultural fire that will premiere in Eureka parks in October 2026.