Martha Spencer
Martha Spencer
President
Martha originally moved to Humboldt County in 1976 to attend Humboldt State University and graduated with a degree in Sociology and Social Work and a Masters of Science in Natural Resource Planning. She started working for Humboldt County in 1986 in the Planning Division but then followed her wayward husband in 1990 around the states of California (including work in Glenn, Trinity and Siskiyou County planning departments), Washington and Oregon, finally returning to Humboldt County in 2002. She worked in the Resource Lands Division for the Humboldt County Planning Department including administering the Williamson Act program, the Resource Lands Conservation Program, the Local Coastal Planning program and the county wide General Plan Update. She retired from her position as Supervising Planner in 2011. During that time, she has served on numerous Boards, including 9 years on the Northcoast Regional Land Trust (where she did a minor stint as the Executive Director), Food For People, Humboldt Botanical Garden, Food Fiber and Flowers and is currently a member of the Williamson Act Advisory Committee. She has been an active 4H leader for eight years in three states and was on the school board for four years during her residency in Oregon. With her husband, Eric Nelson (newly retired from US Fish and Wildlife Service) they have two daughters, who have both graduated from college and finally found independent housing from their parents. Since her retirement from the county, she has become a certified Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver.
Christine Manhart
Christine Manhart
1st Vice President
Growing up in a Navy family, Christine Manhart grew up all over the country but wound up in Humboldt County in 1981 as an incoming freshman at Humboldt State. Over the next 40 years she left a few times but always seemed to find her way back. Christine majored in Geology and Oceanography at HSU and has mainly worked for engineering firms since graduating. She is a state licensed Professional Geologist and Certified Hydrogeologist, working primarily in groundwater-related issues. She also leads the geology practice for LACO Associates throughout all of the offices, focusing on risk management on the corporate side and career growth and development on the personnel side. In her free time she weaves and spins and is active in putting on the annual Natural Fiber Fair in Arcata.
Susan Moranda
Susan Moranda
2nd Vice President
Susan is a Humboldt County native who was raised on a small, family farm south of Eureka. Susan was active in 4-H and FFA during her school years, raising numerous livestock projects. She spent many summers helping on her grandparent’s dairy, working in the family garden, and at the local fairs with her calf projects. Susan attended College of the Redwoods and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She has been a member of Humboldt County Cattlewomen since 1992, served as President in 1999-2000, and is still active on the board, currently serving as Treasurer. Susan currently works as the Senior Tax Manager for local accounting firm, DHS Advisors. In her spare time, she enjoys home and yard improvement projects, being outdoors, and hanging out with her dogs.
Karen Diemer
Karen Diemer
Secretary
Karen Diemer, a retired City Manager from Arcata, has dedicated her career to supporting local residents, families, and businesses. With a diverse background in local city government, she has focused on public access to resources and recreational lands, local infrastructure, land use planning, public safety, and community building around shared values and visions.
Originally from the Midwest, Karen moved to Humboldt County to pursue a degree in Wildlife Management at Cal Poly Humboldt, and she has proudly called the region home ever since. Through an emphasis on community involvement she has supported both small and large-scale conservation and restoration projects, including the expansion of the Arcata Community Forest and Marsh, the development of the Humboldt Bay Trail, setting standards to promote infill development to preserve local landscapes, and creek, marsh, and bay land restoration. Through her work, she has seen firsthand the economic benefits conservation can provide for local families and businesses.
Though retired, Karen continues to manage crop sales for the family’s homesteaded farm in North Dakota, while staying connected to her love for local government as a Senior Advisor to the International City Management Association (ICMA).
Joseph Alexandre
Joseph Alexandre
Treasurer
Joseph is a current resident of Ferndale, CA, but he was raised working on his family’s dairy in Crescent City. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with an MBA; also earning a BS in Agricultural Business and a Minor in Dairy Science. He met his wife, Alexa, while at school. She is now an Ag Teacher at Ferndale High School. He is kept busy helping the Alexandre Family Farm, assisting in accounting, pricing, milk logistics and management reporting. Though these take a good portion of his time today, he is most proud of the team of 16 that he leads in the management of two Humboldt County dairies in Ferndale and Elk River. Joseph and Alexa are the 5th generation dairying on Sage Road in Ferndale. In 2021 Joseph became President of the Humboldt County Farm Bureau and a member of both the Salt River Watershed Council and Eel River Groundwater Working Group. He hopes to ensure the productivity of working lands with a perspective of working with nature, down to the microbiology of the soil, which has played such an integral part of his family businesses and upbringing.
Julia Cavalli
Julia Cavalli
Julia first became involved with NRLT as a member of the projects staff, where she supported the development of conservation easements and helped steward Freshwater Farms Reserve. This work deepened both her love of the North Coast and her appreciation for the Land Trust’s role in protecting it.
She now services as a Wildfire Resilience Planner with Dudek, partnering with cities, counties, and communities across California to develop proactive risk reduction strategies, enhance community safety, and support healthy, fire-adapted ecosystems.
Julia holds a M.S. in Natural Resources from Cal Poly Humboldt, where she focused on fire behavior in the wildland-urban interface, and a B.S. in Conservation & Resource Studies from UC Berkeley. She remains committed to staying at the forefront of fire science, wildfire prevention, and prescribed fire.
Outside of work, Julia enjoys discovering new-to-her corners of Humboldt County with her husband and their one-of-a-kind dog, Dennis.
Bryn Coriell
Bryn Coriell
Bryn is the Broker/Owner of Coldwell Banker Sellers Realty. Born in Arcata and raised in part on a wilderness ranch in the lower Trinity Alps, he earned an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz. Committed to returning to the North Coast, Bryn worked across a range of fields, including manufacturing, hydroponic system design for large-scale agriculture, healthcare, and small business management. After earning a graduate degree in Education from Cal Poly Humboldt, he joined the School of Education, training credential candidates and graduate students for careers across public education. He later transitioned into real estate, and after several years as an agent, assumed leadership and ownership of his brokerage. Bryn’s work in real estate has led to meaningful involvement in land conservation, helping clients protect local properties through strategic acquisitions and conservation easements. This work reflects a return to his early training in ecology and natural resource stewardship. He believes the North Coast thrives when conservation and working lands are aligned, supporting both healthy ecosystems and resilient local communities.
Nancy Diamond
Nancy Diamond
Nancy has practiced law locally for over 30 years, representing local governments, nonprofits, small businesses and advising in real estate transactions. Her practice in the area of land conservation began in the 1990’s when she started working with the Jacoby Creek Land Trust to acquire the Mill Creek site as mitigation for the McKinleyville shopping center development (now, Chah Gah Cho, held by the McKinleyville LandTrust). In the early 2000’s, she helped the NorthCoast Regional Land Trust lay the ground work for its McNamara and Freshwater Farms acquisitions. She studied biology at UC Berkeley, and obtained a Master’s of Science in Fisheries Biology from HSU before studying law. She holds certificates in Ocean and Coastal Law and Environmental Law from the University of Oregon where she obtained her law degree. She and her husband live in Westhaven and enjoy being outdoors as much as possible whether hiking, beach strolling, paddling, or gardening.
Russell Dorvall
Russell Dorvall
Russell was born and raised in Humboldt County and is a fourth-generation member of the Timber Industry. Starting out working for his father at a young age, he developed a love of working in forested landscapes. He began his working career as a groundman on a tree crew and worked his way through positions including tree climber, crew foreman and took on summer logging jobs setting chokers. During this time, he attended College of the Redwoods where he focused his studies on forestry and natural resources. Upon leaving school, he joined the timber industry full-time working in the field of forestry where he held positions including Forestry Technician and Road Construction Supervisor. The experience he gained enabled him to become a Registered Professional Forester in 2013. Currently, he holds the position of Timber Manager for North Fork Lumber Company and Schmidbauer Family Sawmills. His work has given him the opportunity to spend significant time working in various forest types on hundreds of land ownerships throughout Humboldt, Del Norte and Mendocino Counties. Russell lives in McKinleyville with his wife and their three children where he enjoys various outdoor activities, woodworking and spending time with his family.
Donnie Escamilla
Donnie Escamilla
Donnie Escamilla is a Registered Professional Forester currently working for Humboldt Redwood Company. He is originally from Coulterville, California where he was raised on a small cattle ranch. Donnie and his wife, Allee, currently reside in Eureka with their dog Copper. Growing up in a rural area led to Donnie developing a fondness for camping, hunting, and fishing, and to pursuing a degree and career in Forestry. Donnie attended Columbia Community College where he received an A.S. in Forestry then transferred to HSU in 2015. He began forestry career in the summer of 2014 with the US Forest Service working on the Post-Rim Fire Recovery, then began working for various forestry consultants while in college. Donnie started working for Humboldt Redwood Company in 2019 where he develops and implements Timber Harvest Plans, broadcast burns, and grant projects.
Todd Fulton
Todd Fulton
Todd is the Security Patrol for Green Diamond Resource Company California Timberlands and has been employed with them for the last 4 years. Prior to coming to Green Diamond, he was employed by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for 15 years. He retired from The Sheriff’s Office as a Sheriff’s Investigator for the Criminal Investigations Division. Prior to his stint in Law Enforcement, he worked for The Pacific Lumber Company (PL) for approximately 17 years. During his time at PL, he worked in the Factory then transferred out to the woods where he worked all facets of the logging industry. Upon leaving PL he was a heavy equipment operator/tree climber. Todd serves on the Fortuna Rodeo Board of Directors, Humboldt County Fair Association Junior Livestock Auction Committee, California Rural Crimes Prevention Task Force, and is a newly elected Director for the Humboldt Del Norte Cattlemen’s Association. Todd is the 4th generation of his family to call Fortuna, Humboldt County home. He and his family have a small cow-calf operation in the Kneeland area.
Alyson Hunter
Alyson Hunter
Alyson Hunter moved to Humboldt in 1988 after graduating from high school in suburban Los Angeles. By the time she graduated from Humboldt State University in 1993 with a BA in Social Science and Geography, she knew she wanted to stay in the area. In 1997 she began an entry-level planning job with Humboldt County, moving up the ranks over the ensuing 11 years. She worked briefly in the private sector at LACO Associates and at CalTrans for 4 years in Transportation Planning. In 2013, missing environmental and land use planning, she accepted a position as Senior Planner at the City of Arcata. In 2018, she and her partner Bill (and dog Fergus) moved to the Monterey Peninsula to advance their respective careers. As of 2026, Alyson and Bill are now retired and have moved back into their Eureka home (with Fergus) and Alyson has happily rejoined the NRLT Board of Directors. She is passionate about contributing to the County’s rural health and lifestyle by assisting working ranch families in succession planning and providing tools to maintain family ranches. She loves the beautiful rural landscape of Humboldt and neighboring counties and is on the Board to help facilitate not only the protection of these lands, but the protection of the lifestyle that contributes to our way of life.
Erin Kelly
Erin Kelly
Erin is an associate professor in the Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources at Humboldt State University, teaching forestry administration, policy, and economics. She is also a registered professional forester. She grew up in The Dalles, Oregon, graduated with a psychology degree from Whitman College, and lived and worked abroad before deciding to pursue forestry as a graduate student at Oregon State University. After graduation, she held a research position at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. She moved to Humboldt County in 2012, where she has discovered the joys of bicycling long distances on back roads through redwood forests and oak woodlands. She hopes to help protect the open space and working landscapes that thrive behind the redwood curtain.
Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace
Mike is a retired fish biologist from the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife where for the last 15 years he studied juvenile salmonids in the tidal portion of Humboldt Bay tributaries. He was lucky enough to work with a wide variety of groups and individuals to design and monitor habitat restoration projects to improve rearing areas for juvenile Coho salmon, steelhead, tidewater goby, and many other fish and aquatic species. Mike moved to Humboldt County in 1976 to attend Humboldt State University and earned a BS in Fisheries in 1982. Mike has kept busy since retirement by volunteering for a number of local non-profit organizations including being out-smarted by 2nd graders while working with the Early Childhood Literacy Program. Mike likes to take advantage of the beauty of Humboldt County by hiking, kayaking, fishing, and birding.
Advisors
- Blake Alexandre
- Mark Andre
- Greg Blomstrom
- Heidi Bourne
- Clif Clendenen
- Maya Conrad
- Melanie Cunningham
- Jeff Dunk
- Yvonne Everett
- Gary Falxa
- Gary Flosi
- Tom Hjerpe
- Annette Holland
- Rees Hughes
- Dave Imper
- Pete Jackson
- Peter Jermyn
- Ann King Smith
- Aldaron Laird
- Roland Lamberson
- Mandy Marquez
- David McMurray
- Mike Miles
- Dina Moore
- Leland Mora
- Chuck Powell
- Dennis Rael
- Rondal Snodgrass
- David Turner
- Robert Vogt