The Arcata Community Forest is part of the parks and recreation system of the City of Arcata, California, United States. It was originally created in 1955 from six forest tracts: Gannon Tract, Burns Tract, Preston Tract I, Preston Tract II, Reclamation Water Co. Tract, and Brizard Tract.[1] The main forest area covers 793 acres (3.21km2). The park was the culmination of efforts to combine tracts of forest land located east of the city together in one continuous section of city-owned second-growth coast redwood forest. Over a 50-year period,[when?]622 acres (2.52km2) were obtained in several purchases. In November 2006, the 171-acre (0.69km2) Sunny Brae Forest was added to the Community Forest. The city also owns and manages the 1,200-acre (4.9km2) Jacoby Creek Forest. The City owns a total of 2,350 acres (9.5km2) of forest.[2]
Prior to European settlement, the land which makes up Arcata Community Forest was occupied by the indigenous Wiyot people[3]. The Wiyot community used the Arcata forestlands for hunting, fishing, as well as other practices. In the 1850s, European settlers began to occupy the Humboldt Bay region and Wiyot people were driven off the land.
Until 1964, this land was used as the municipal water source, obtaining its supply from Gannon Creek, Preston Creek (Jolly Giant), and Janes Creek.[1] Historically, steelhead and salmon migrated upstream into all the creeks before logging and poor water quality wiped them out.[4] It is currently used for education, recreation, wildlifehabitat, and sustainable timber harvesting. Many of Arcata's small streams possess their headwaters in the Arcata Community Forest.
In 1979, the citizens of Arcata passed the "Forest Management and Parkland Initiative". The Arcata Community Forest was the first municipal forest certified in the US under the Forest Stewardship Council.[5] This was intended to develop an ecologically responsible long-term forest management program to generate income to develop and acquire parkland. Generating $500,000–$700,000 of revenue per year[when?] from timber harvesting, the forest is self-supporting, and excess net revenue is used to maintain other city parkland and open space.[6]
The forest is popular with hikers, birders, and has a history of (illegal) camping that remains unpopular with some locals who report being harassed or intimidated by the homeless that have "staked a claim" to both public and private property. According to the Humboldt Housing and Homeless Coalition (HHHC), 74% of homeless individuals were camping in Humboldt County. Approximately 15 illegal, two- to five-person camps are cleaned up annually by the Arcata City Police and Environmental Service Departments in the community forest.[7]
Parking and main trail head can be accessed from an unmarked road at Bayview and E 12th St.[8] The Redwood Lodge is located at the park; it is available for rent to host activities and contains tables, chairs, and a small kitchen with appliances.[9]
Notes
1 2 Van Kirk, Susie (1985). A History of the Arcata Community Forest. Arcata, CA.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[self-published source?]
↑ "City Forests". City of Arcata. Archived from the original on February 29, 2024. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
Humboldt County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka.
Arcata is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. Arcata was first founded in 1850 as Union, was officially established in 1858, and was renamed Arcata in 1860. It is located 280 miles (450 km) north of San Francisco, and is home to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Arcata is also the location of the Arcata Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for the administration of natural resources, lands and mineral programs, including the Headwaters Forest, on approximately 200,000 acres (810 km2) of public land in Northwestern California.
Eureka is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, 270 miles (435 km) north of San Francisco and 100 miles (161 km) south of the Oregon border. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 26,512. As of the 2010 census, the population of Greater Eureka was 45,034.
Fortuna is a city on the northeast shore of the Eel River, approximately 9 miles (14 km) from where it enters the Pacific Ocean, and is on U.S. Route 101 in west-central Humboldt County, California, United States. The population was 12,516 at the 2020 census, up from 11,926 at the 2000 census.
Humboldt Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, United States, containing Rockefeller Forest, the world's largest remaining contiguous old-growth forest of coast redwoods. It is located 30 miles (48 km) south of Eureka, California, near Weott in southern Humboldt County, within Northern California, named after the great German nineteenth-century scientist, Alexander von Humboldt. The park was established by the Save the Redwoods League in 1921 largely from lands purchased from the Pacific Lumber Company. Beginning with the dedication of the Raynal Bolling Memorial Grove, it has grown to become the third-largest park in the California State Park system, now containing 51,651 acres (20,902 ha) through acquisitions and gifts to the state.
The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one national park and three California state parks located in the United States along the coast of northern California. The combined RNSP contain Redwood National Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The parks' 139,000 acres (560 km2) preserve 45 percent of all remaining old-growth coast redwood forests.
The Eel River is a major river, about 196 miles (315 km) long, in northwestern California. The river and its tributaries form the third-largest watershed entirely in California, draining a rugged area of 3,684 square miles (9,540 km2) in five counties. The river flows generally northward through the Coast Ranges west of the Sacramento Valley, emptying into the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles (16 km) downstream from Fortuna and just south of Humboldt Bay. The river provides groundwater recharge, recreation, and industrial, agricultural and municipal water supply.
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the second-largest enclosed bay in California, and the largest port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, Oregon. The largest city adjoining the bay is Eureka, the regional center and county seat of Humboldt County, followed by the city of Arcata. These primary cities, together with adjoining unincorporated communities and several small towns, comprise a Humboldt Bay Area with a total population of nearly 80,000 people. This comprises nearly 60% of the population of Humboldt County. The bay is home to more than 100 plant species, 300 invertebrate species, 100 fish species, and 200 bird species. In addition, the bay and its complex system of marshes and grasses support hundreds of thousands of migrating and local shore birds. Commercially, this second-largest estuary in California is the site of the largest oyster production operations on the West Coast, producing more than half of all oysters farmed in California.
The Wiyot are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a small surrounding area. They are culturally similar to the Yurok people. They called themselves simply Ku'wil, meaning "the People". Today, there are approximately 450 Wiyot people. They are enrolled in several federally recognized tribes, such as the Wiyot Tribe, Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, Blue Lake Rancheria, and the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria.
The Headwaters Forest Reserve is a group of old growth coast redwood groves in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion near Humboldt Bay of the U.S. state of California. Comprising about 7,472 acres (30.24 km2), it is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of the National Landscape Conservation System.
Bayside is an unincorporated community 2.25 miles (3.6 km) south-southeast of Arcata, at an elevation of 33 feet in Humboldt County, California. The ZIP Code is 95524, the area code is 707. The relatively large area was originally covered by large, ancient Coast Redwood trees down to what was the edge of a significantly larger Humboldt Bay at high tide. Later, the mammoth redwoods made it the natural placement of some of the area's earliest redwood lumber operations. A rock quarry was located in the area's hills, which form the beginning of the Coast Ranges, the source of water for an early public water system for the City of Arcata. Today, Bayside provides Arcata a buffer from Eureka's northward expansion along US Route 101 and the area, with the exception of some business and public buildings, is largely rural, with homes and small ranches dotting the landscape. Second growth forests exist mostly apart from cleared lands, which show some evidence of the extensive redwood forest that once existed in the form of large stumps. Some of the area's older Victorian era houses, are still present on the Old Arcata Road, the original main road connecting Arcata to Eureka. Jacoby Creek runs alongside a road of the same name from the hills in the direction of the Bay.
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park, located in Humboldt County, California, near the town of Orick and 50 miles (80 km) north of Eureka. The 14,000 acres (57 km2) park is a coastal sanctuary for old-growth Coast Redwood trees.
The Mad River is a river in upper Northern California. It flows for 113 miles (182 km) in a roughly northwest direction through Trinity County and then Humboldt County, draining a 497-square-mile (1,290 km2) watershed into the Pacific Ocean north of the town of Arcata near [California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport] in McKinleyville. The river's headwaters are in the Coast Range near South Kelsey Ridge.
Redwood Creek is a 61.8-mile (99.5 km) river in Humboldt County, California. The river's headwaters are in the Coast Range at about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and it flows roughly northwest until it empties into the Pacific Ocean near the small town of Orick, the only development in the 280-square-mile (730 km2)-watershed.
Fieldbrook is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California. It is located 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Arcata, at an elevation of 203 feet (62 m). The population was 860 following the 2010 census.
The Lake George State Forest is a designated protected area and state forest in the U.S. state of Florida. The 21,176-acre (8,570 ha) forest is located in northwestern Volusia County, Florida, near Lake George and the communities of Pierson, Barberville, and Volusia. It is overseen by the Florida Forest Service within the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Santiam State Forest is one of six state forests managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry. The forest is located approximately 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Salem, Oregon, and includes 47,871 acres (193.73 km2) on the western slope of the Cascade Mountains in three Oregon counties: Clackamas, Linn, and Marion. It is bounded on the east by the Willamette National Forest and Mount Hood National Forest. Silver Falls State Park is located west of the forest. The rest of the land surrounding the forest belongs to the Bureau of Land Management or is privately owned. The forest is managed as part of the Department of Forestry's North Cascade District.
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Fields Landing is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California. It is located on Humboldt Bay 6 miles (9.7 km) south-southwest of downtown Eureka, at an elevation of 13 feet. The ZIP Code is 95537. The population was 276 at the 2010 census.
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