THE WORLD CONFERENCE ON ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

2005 The World Conference on Ecological Restoration 27
The Community-Owned Forest of Arcata, California: A Model of Sustainable
Redwood Forest Restoration
Andre, M.
Environmental Services, City of Arcata, California
The Arcata Community Forest established in 1955, comprises 803 hectares of 100-120 year old second
growth redwood forest in Humboldt County California. Community Forests are relatively rare in the western
United States, but recently there has been an increasing interest and effort to establish community
forests in many areas. The City of Arcata government leaders and its citizen’s are committed to a sustainable
management program that serves as a model of a managed redwood forest for demonstration
and educational purposes. Timber harvest revenue funds forest operations and open space and parkland
acquisitions. During the past 25 years, various silvicultural systems including variable retention, group
selection, group selection with green tree retention and single-tree selection has attempted to mimic natural
disturbance regimes such as wind throw and low intensity fire. The goal of providing habitat for
species associated with late-successional forest habitat in second growth redwood forests has primarily
focused on retaining structural elements while creating multi-aged stands, increased species diversity
and introducing “chaos” into relatively even aged 120-year-old stands. An array of permanent plots is
used to monitor changes in understory vegetation, structural features such as logs and snags, invasive
species, lichens, bryophytes and liverworts. Plot data is compared to reference stands including small adjacent
patches as well as larger old growth forest areas in nearby Redwood National Park. Arcata’s adaptive
management approach to increase biodiversity, accelerate old forest conditions, provide late successional
forest habitat while providing revenue is a long-term project that provides a valuable case study
for the region as efforts to restore redwood forests are expanded.
Keywords: Redwood, sustainability, restoration, community forestry.
The effect of Acacia saligna and dune stabilization on rodent populations in
Ashdod-Nitzanim sands
Anglister 1 N, U. Motro 2 , Y. Yom-Tov 1
1 Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, 69978
2 Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904
The coastal dune habitat of Israel is diminishing rapidly, mostly due to massive urbanization, fragmentation
and changes of habitat characteristics caused by dune stabilization and the introduction of Acacia
saligna, an invasive species brought to Israel for the purpose of dune stabilization. We studied the effect
of sand stabilization, on the populations of small mammals. The research was conducted from April 2003
through April 2004 in the Ashdod-Nizzanim sands; it included a total of 58 trapping nights. We analyzed
differences in species diversity, abundance and body condition of each species of rodent in four plots:
Unstablized dunes, semi-stablized dunes, stablized dunes and one plot with the presence of Acacia
saligna. Gerbillus pyramidum and Jaculus jaculus were captured almost entirely on the unstabilized
dunes. Gerbillus andersoni allenbyi was captured mostly on the semi-stabilized plot. On the other hand,
human commensals such as Mus musculus were found only on the stabilized dunes and on the Acacia
plot. Cluster analysis of species similarity among the four plots places the very similar stabilized and
semi-stabilized plots in the same cluster with the Acacia plot wheras the unstabilized plot forms another,
distinct cluster. The results of this research show that dune stabilization is followed by changes in rodents
populations - the disappearance of psammophile rodents and the appearance of human commensals.
Measures should be taken to stop the spread of the Acacia and the continuing stabilization of the
sands in order to conserve the psammophile species.
Keywords: dune stabilization, Acacia saligna, rodents.