News Release
Max Forster
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On Oct. 26th, Redwood National and State Parks Superintendent Steve Mietz was honored and recognized with the National Park Service Director’s Award as Superintendent of the Year for Natural Resource Stewardship. This Washington D.C. based award recognizes NPS Superintendents who go above and beyond in performance of their duties toward resource protection.
Over the past several years, Steve Mietz has been successful in implementing landscape scale watershed conservation efforts with park partners and local tribes. In 2021, he presided over the park's California Condor restoration program in close partnership with the Yurok Tribe and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As a result of final efforts in 2021, condors were released on May 3rd, 2022 -- a seminal moment in the park's history with deep meaning for the Yurok people. This release reestablishes a population of California condors in the Pacific Northwest for the first time since 1933.
Superintendent Mietz has played an instrumental role in numerous other projects at the park, including minimizing the impact of the U.S. Highway 101 bypass to old growth redwoods, implementing watershed restoration across 35,000 acres of park land, and negotiating with partners for the 2026 acquisition of a 125-acre former redwood logging mill site, with plans to restore the site's natural resources and provide a trails gateway for visitors to self-orient to the park's southern district. The restoration of this site will also improve habitat for listed salmon species.
Park Program Manager for Resource Management and Science, Leonel Arguello, stated, “Restoring degraded resources in Redwood National and State Parks is a complex task that requires leadership, vision, and commitment, and this award honors Steve’s excellent work. But Steve would say this award reflects just as positively on the partners, friends, and stakeholders with whom he works daily. To Steve, this is a shared honor for the successful partnerships that will benefit the park and visitors for generations to come.”
To learn more about some of the natural resource projects underway at Redwood National and State Parks, please visit www.nps.gov/redw/learn/index.htm
Last updated: October 28, 2022