Arcata Community Forest

Arcata Community Forest

Contact: Mark Andre; Email: mandre@arcatacityhall.org; Telephone: 707.825-2154

Established: During the 1930’s as about 622 acres.

Current acreage: 1815

Additions to the Forest: The initial Jacoby Creek Forest was acquired in 1944. With the help of the Wildlife Conservation Board, the City purchased 331 acres in 2001 (Lucchesi family) and 285 acres in 2002 (Barnum Timber Co.) Barnum Timber also participated in adding land along the Jacoby Creek corridor.

Recent Additions: Completed in cooperation with the Jacoby Creek Land Trust and the Northcoast Regional Land Trust.

Revenue/costs: Over the last 20 years the revenue has been about $6 - $7 million. (This would average to about $300,000 per year. (Timber harvests have occurred in twelve out of the past 23 years). Management costs are about $100 per acre or $150 - $180,000 per year. Some of the largest costs are associated with roads and trails work, culvert maintenance and upgrades, and law enforcement. Other costs include monitoring and biological and timber surveys associated with resource management. Other management activities involve recreation, docent lead walks, trail maps, and signage. The Forest Fund also covers staff reviewing timber harvest activity within the City’s planning area, issuing tree removal permits etc.

Current Management: A Forest Plan was prepared in the 1990s. This is available as a PDF document. The plan is a “Non-Industrial Timber Management Plan” (1-99-NTMP HUM) and involves coordination with the Forest Certification Council for the production/certification of “Smart wood”. Some of the forest is managed to support 200 year-old late seral-stage stands of trees.

Standing Volume: This is now about 67 million board feet on the available timber acreage base. It was about 45 million board feet in 1981 --- so volume has increased through management and expansion. Approximately 35% of the total acreage will be held in reserve and never harvested because it is in riparian reserve areas where other resource constraints exist (water quality and fisheries, for example.) The allowable cut level is ½ the annual growth increment.

Recreation/Tourism: The Forest has many tourists from out-of-town. Formal requests for silvicultural tours are frequent (about 12 per year.) Overall, the Forest has about 20 - 30,000 visitors per year. Note: The population of Arcata is about 16,000.

Community forests: More commonly encountered in Europe and New England. There is increasing interest in the western United States.