In Memory of Lloyd Straley of Patagonia Reno

It is with great sadness to announce the loss of a deeply impactful community member, Lloyd Straley. Lloyd was the head of the Shipping Department for Patagonia Reno for many decades. Lloyd was a big supporter of the Sugar Pine Foundation, and has led his team on many environmental projects throughout the years including planting sugar pines with our organization. Though his passing is unfortunate, it inspired his team of coworkers to continue to spread good in their community. In his honor, the FedEx Patagonia Team recently sponsored an acre in Galena Creek State Park, where they have volunteered at many times. They wanted to pick a location that was closest to the Reno Patagonia facility. With the Truckee River roaring just outside of it, they thought it would be a good place to choose an acre in honor of their friend.

It is our goal to restore the Sugar Pine population that has been affected by a combination of logging, fire suppression and invasive pathogens, in particular the blister rust fungus. We find and collect the cones of fungus-resistant sugar pines, nurture the seedlings and plants the trees. In 2014 a group from the Patagonia Shipping Department in Reno, Nevada helped our environmental non-profit, Lloyd amongst them. Over the course of the spring, summer and fall of that year, the Patagonia Shipping Department contributed over 200 hours to our organization. This was made possible by the environmental internship program Patagonia offers to every employee. Getting involved with us through the internship program was extremely popular, with more than 80% of the department’s employees participating. Benefiting the local region was the objective, but the internships also helped develop relationships between employees.

In previous years, during spring and summer, Patagonia employees have helped water young trees.  In autumn of 2014, they planted over 200 sugar pine seedlings. We’ve been successful in reestablishing this pine species in the region, but we still have a long way to go to repopulate Tahoe’s forests with historical levels of sugar pine. We are excited for another year planting trees in the basin with the help from our friends at Patagonia Reno.

Lloyd will be remembered for his unwavering support and enthusiasm for the project. If he were here today, he would be honored to have an acre adopted on his behalf. We are grateful to have had such a dedicated community member help us reach our goals over the years.

The Adopt-an-Acre Certificate created for an acre adopted in Galena Creek State Park by the FedEx Patagonia Team in memory of their beloved and passionate team member Lloyd Straley. The coordinates for this acre have been covered to maintain privacy.

If this inspires you to get involved more in your community, it’s what Lloyd would have wanted! We are always happy to teach new volunteers how to plant tree seedlings and how to water them. We welcome all those who have volunteered with us before and those who have never volunteered with us to give back to nature this year by popping in and saying hi.