Friday, 01 June 2001
FSC Opens New Office in Arcata, California
With nearly half of all FSC members in the US on the west coast, northern California was a natural choice for the opening of new FSC office earlier this year.
The Arcata, CA location will help FSC to strengthen relationships with all west coast partners, as well as support the over 150 FSC chain-of-custody certificate holders in California, Oregon, and Washington. The Arcata office will also be responsible for coordinating the regionalization of FSC global standards to the different forest types in the US. Both Bill Wilkinson, Senior Forester for FSC, and Ben Addlestone, also an experienced forester, have been working closely with FSC’s diverse group of stakeholders throughout the standards development process.
Located on northern California’s scenic coast, the City of Arcata itself also offers many interesting forestry-related environmental and economic opportunities. Most notably is the 600 hundred acre Arcata Community Forest within the city limits. In 1955, it became the first municipally owned forest in the state of California, and was designated to be “managed for the benefit of all citizens of the city, with attention to watershed, recreation, timber management and other values." The Arcata Community Forest, along with the neighboring Jacoby Creek Forest, earned FSC-certification in 1998. Both parcels together represent 1,200 acres of primarily second generation redwood and sitka spruce. Arcata is also home to The Institute for Sustainable Forestry, an affiliate of the FSC-accredited Smartwood forest certification program, and Humboldt State University, which offers one of the largest forestry programs in the country. Arcata serves as a resource center for all certified forests on the West coast, which total 1.3 million acres. We invite you to tour the Community Forest and see for yourself an FSC well-managed forest at work.
For more information FSC Arcata office, please visit our website at fscus.org. More information on the Arcata Community Forest can be found at www.arcatacityhall.org.