Management Team

Raul D. Hernandez founded OGA in 1995 by purchasing 41 acres of logged forestland to focus on "hands-on" restoration. He incorporated OGA in 1999, serves as its CEO and wrote the manual Old-Growth Again, Restoring Logged Forests One Tree At a Time. Raul spent years in management positions with the Miami Herald Publishing Company before moving to Northern California to become vice-president of Urban Renaissance, Inc., an inner-city low-income housing redevelopment firm (1988 to 1993). Raul studied forestry and ecological issues exhaustively and accumulated a wealth of "hands-on" experience in forest restoration. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Florida International University (Miami, Fl). Raul has five children, Sky Alexandria, Lucio Yammir, Raul Angel, Norma Mia, and Santiago Rio. He spends his time between the Redwood forests of Annapolis, CA and our wood working shop in Ensenada, Baja California.

Warren Linney has been a board member and Senior VP of Forever Redwood since 2001. Warren is also the Founder of the nonprofit World Stewardship Institute (WSI). WSI works nationwide to raise consciousness around restoration forestry and build alliances with churches and businesses on environmental issues. WSI is also working to create land entitlement for the Shipibo Amazon tribe in Peru. WSI played a role in protecting the Headwaters Redwood forest in 1999. He is currently working to reverse climate change by co-founding the Alameda Climate Restoration Circle, in partnership with the Healthy Climate Alliance to evaluate and fund methods of removing CO2 from the air and oceans.
"I will speak on the potential for worldwide forests to sequester 12 billion tons a year (one-third of annual CO2 emissions) by using Restoration Forest Management. This method helps nature return a forest to a multi-generation, old growth forest by building the soil and harvesting 40% less."

Frank Marrero joined Raul at the beginning of OGA's venture. Like the blind leading the blind, Frank and Raul together designed and built a cabin and barn while experimenting with various forest-regenerating techniques. Frank has developed all of OGA's off-the-grid systems. He has worked thousands of hours in the woods and is an indispensable source of creativity and foolishness. Frank worked for nearly two decades as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area. A veteran of inner-city trenches as well as privileged schools, Frank has developed curricula to nurture and develop affective strengths (including character education, emotional fluency, moral values, and self-awareness) for a quarter century. His works have been lauded with superlatives by scholars, educators, parents, and children. He holds a Masters in the Arts of Teaching, and has taught in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at John F. Kennedy University. See www.FrankMarrero.com for his writings in these areas. Frank is also the author of Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky, the definitive biography of the Forgotten Father of Aerobatics. Frank has two grown children Salem and lla.

Terry Patten was a writer, trainer, coach, consultant, and entrepreneur. He has been involved with Old-Growth Again since its inception, as a key strategist, consultant, and investor. His later work was focused on teaching, training, coaching, social entrepreneurship, and civic service. He is the author, with noted philosopher Ken Wilber, Marco Morelli, and Adam Leonard, of  Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening . He worked with Wilber and a core team at Integral Institute (I-I) to develop Integral Life Practice, which distills ancient and modern practices into an intelligent contemporary transformational lifestyle. He was a Senior Trainer at Integral Institute Seminars and a Co-Director of I-I’s Coaching Center and the Integral Life Practice Center at Integral University. He teaches and coaches internationally. He was also the founder and for ten years the guiding spirit behind the Tools For Exploration catalog, which first presented and educated about the many emerging brain-mind machines, subtle energy tools, and other cutting-edge technologies for expanding awareness. Terry passed away peacefully in December of 2021, and his memory lives through us and his wonderful contributions.

Ian Morris is a "hands-on" expert in designing and building biodynamic gardens. His expertise helped OGA overcome many early in-the-field hurdles. Ian was actively involved in OGA's tree planting efforts and is an investor in several OGA restoration projects. Thanks to Ian's field experience and advice, OGA tree planting survival rate exceed 70% long-term. He lives in Graton, CA, in a beautiful new home with his lifelong partner, Aviana, and their 2 lovely daughters

Maria Eugenia Blanco is an award winning architect and was a partner in the firm Delphi Design and Development of Coconut Grove, FL. Maria specializes in traditional neighborhood design. She worked for over ten years with the firm of Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberg, founders of the new urbanism movement. Although Maria is no longer affiliated with Forever Redwood, she played an important role in the early design direction of the Forever Redwood furniture line and we are forever grateful.

Hans J. Burkhardt, PhD was a biochemist, author and forest researcher/activist. Beginning in the 1980's, Hans was instrumental in organizing a grass roots movement to change the unsustainable practices of the large timber companies via the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. He authored a book about these proposals in 1995, Maximizing Forest Productivity, Resource Depletion and a Strategy to Resolve the Crisis. The book is extensively quoted in OGA materials. Hans brought an enormous amount of experience to OGA. Hans was a teacher and a mentor and helped us create our restoration forestry standards. (Read his article, "The Economic Aspect of Ecoforestry".) Sadly, Hans Burkhardt passed away in 2004.