(July 8, 2025)
Haley is the Partnerships Director for SeaTrees. She was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and now lives in Long Beach with her rescued English bulldog, Jackie Chan, who loves paddleboarding. Haley worked in the surf, skate, and snowboard industry and as a corporate social responsibility consultant for several companies. She has worked with environmental nonprofits for eliminating plastic pollution, enhancing ocean conservation and reversing climate change.
SeaTrees’ mission is to regenerate ocean environmental health to help reverse climate change, restore marine biodiversity, and support local communities. The ocean can potentially store a major portion of planetary carbon dioxide production, based on its plant health. A major effort in the Palos Verdes coastal waters is restoring kelp forests, which support a wide variety of fish and other sea life. Other projects in various locations include planting mangrove trees (which shield coastal areas from sea erosion), restoring seagrass meadows, replanting coral fragments to restore coral beds, and restoring coastal watershed areas. Many project sites are located on the US and Mexican Pacific Coast, Hawaii, Caribbean, Mediterranean, East African, and Asian-Pacific areas. SeaTrees’ goal is to have 100 SeaTrees projects by 2030. These are coordinated with UN sustainable development goals and global biodiversity.
Kelp forests in the Palos Verdes area have been badly damaged by pollution, overfishing and environmental degradation, allowing sea urchins to overgrow and decimate what is left. Restoration includes removing overgrown populations of sea urchins and reintroducing sunflower sea stars that can control urchin populations to support sustainable kelp regeneration. A project in Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California supports a local women’s group to replant and restore degraded mangrove areas, to enhance biodiversity and strengthen coastal resilience. Mangroves help to support marine life and provide sustainable economic opportunities for local communities. Seagrass and algae restoration in Majorca, Spain, provides essential marine habitat and can absorb carbon dioxide much faster than rain forests. Coral restoration in Golfo Dolce, Costa Rica, is replanting living coral fragments to grow new coral beds and restore degraded coral reefs.
Haley encourages public involvement to become project partners and individual donors. The local project website is https://seatrees.org/pages/palos-verdes-kelp and Haley is at haley@seatrees.org.