FOREST FORCE Arcata’s citizen-led Forest Management Committee (FMC) hit the trail(s) in recent weeks to give personal scrutiny to a new asset and the aftermath of a recent harvest. First they traveled to the site of this year’s sustainable forest harvest near Redwood Park. About 18 to 20 acres was harvested of about 340,000 board feet of timber, with revenue used to fund forest operations for environment, recreation and education – and to correct lingering problems left over from the bad old days of aggressive harvests. “We took care of some things,” said Environmental Services Director Mark Andre. “Every timber harvest is an opportunity to fix some legacy issues.” Andre said the logger, Tim Renner of Ferndale-based Diamond R Ranch, who has long experience adhering to Arcata’s stringent harvest standards, “did a good job.” A little more clean-up work remains to be done, including a “lop and scatter” of residual slash material, chopping it up and scattering it about to decompose. The FMC’s second tour took it to the Jacoby Creek Forest to inspect the recently added, 114-acre Swaner Property. Submitted photos