The San Lorenzo River still undulates through Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and the Nature Center still stands, but something is missing. Jeannie Kegebein, executive director of Mountain Parks Foundation for the past 18 years, has retired.
Unknown by many who visit, the Mountain Parks Foundation funds the nature education and enrichment programs offered at Henry Cowell Redwoods and Big Basin Redwoods state parks.
Inside the Cowell gift shop, through the classroom, one could long find Jeannie in her office in the back, creating a new park event or figuring out a way to get funding for the two parks.
Often working into the night alone, her only companions for several years were five raccoons that sat on the top of the deck outside her window, all in size order.
“The biggest one got to rummage through the garbage first. I knew then that I really lived in a forest — a constant reminder that we are visitors here,” she remembered.
The last major project Jeannie and her volunteers worked on was Proposition 21, funding for state parks. Jeannie’s office became command central for our area, and volunteers were trained and equipped to spread into the county to get signatures to put the measure on the ballot for 2010.
After we succeeded, she continued the fight to see the proposition pass, with events like the S’mores Funding Party at Henry Cowell. Supporters were treated to s’mores, live music, the warmth of patio fire pits and docent-led walks in the redwood grove.
We lost that battle statewide, but Santa Cruz County voted for the measure with a whopping 67 percent, the most of any county in California.
“She taught me to roll with the punches and keep smiling,” says Shirlee Byrd, a longtime friend of Jeannie and Mountain Parks advocate. “I have never seen her get upset when fundraising. She just kept asking and asking with a smile and a joke, until finally you had to give. Not only because you loved the forest, but because you couldn’t resist her enthusiastic friendship and sincere concern for our environment.”
While we slept in our warm beds, Jeannie, her husband, John, and their friends have woken up at 4:30 a.m. each March to drive to Sacramento for Park Advocacy Day. During full days of meetings with legislators, they have lobbied to keep California’s state parks open, protected and well maintained.
Jeannie has written grants and received funding for many projects, including these:
– The Big Basin Centennial. It featured 100 days of events, inaugurated by actor Clint Eastwood; development of student curriculum on Big Basin; publication of “The Grand Vision: A Journey Through Big Basin Redwoods State Park”; and the Oral History Project.
– The Teddy Roosevelt 100th anniversary celebration of his visit to Henry Cowell with historical costumes, re-enactments and a picnic.
– The renovation of the visitor center at Henry Cowell, with $400,000 in community funding.
– The Salmon and Trout Education Program, which provides an educational program at the park for 60 science classes a year, as well as money for the anadromous fish exhibit in the Henry Cowell visitor center to show students and adults how they can improve the health of the watershed and help restore the runs of native salmon and steelhead in the river.
– Also, by Memorial Day, the park will have an information trailer staffed with docents and volunteers at the Henry Cowell campgrounds off Mount Hermon Road. “Some people just go to the campgrounds and never get over to see the redwoods,” Jeannie said. “They think a manzanita is a redwood.” The campgrounds are part of a chaparral ecosystem.
Jeannie said she will miss “the people who visit us from around the world and who share a different perspective. Many people do not come from a ‘volunteer’ culture. They don’t understand that we have people who work for free in our parks because they enjoy it — not for the pay,” she said.
Shirlee said, “I remember years ago, when I decided that I could no longer work at the foundation, that somehow she talked me into continuing as a board member and volunteer. I didn’t leave the organization — I just stopped being paid by it. And I think Jeannie will be doing the same.”
She might, but first John and Jeannie are off on their own adventure. They plan to roam America in their new RV this year, visiting places including state fairs in four Midwestern states and antebellum homes in the South.
Carol Carson is a nature writer and educator. She has been a docent at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and has taught classes on Big Basin State Park for U.C. Santa Cruz Extension. She has a master’s degree in education.
