After months of collaboration with city officials, RCMBA has received approval to improve “Peanut Butter” and “Jump Trail” within the recently acquired Forsyth Tract of the Arcata Community Forest! Thanks to all the members that have been a part of this process, with a special thanks to Mark Andre and Julie Neander for going to bat for RCMBA, as well as all the other staff who got us here. To find out more about this project and to view the submitted plan, check out the Arcata Staff Report here.

On Saturday November 28th, the Humboldt Trails Council, Volunteer Trail Stewards is holding their regularly scheduled work day. They have chosen to collaborate with RCMBA and help us get started on Peanut Butter! We will be volunteering with their organization this time around, so the maximum number of people we can have is 20 people due to their organization's Covid guidelines. Once we establish our own working agreement with the City, we will subsequently coordinate our own workdays. Rees Hughes of the Volunteer Trail Stewards has built a very productive and successful organization and we are lucky to have them as a resource and we are thankful for them helping us kickoff this long anticipated project.

Sign up for the workday here.

Below is the information Rees Hughes of the Volunteer Trail Stewards sent out for the trail day. If you don’t get on the list this time around, worry not. There will be plenty more opportunities in the near future.

“Dear Wonderful Volunteers,

Good news! We are going to collaborate with the Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association on our Saturday, November 28th work day and build new trail in the most recent additions to the Community Forest (the Forsyth and Lima parcels . . . see my map). We will be working on clearing the 'Peanut Butter Trail', a new trail designed for mountain bikes. In addition, we will be removing holly which exists in abundance in this area. There will be plenty of options for working off your Thanksgiving excesses. Eventually, as we can direct users onto the Peanut Butter Trail we will begin rehabilitating and naturalizing some of the many social trails that have developed here over the years.

We are continuing to work using the COVID-19 protocol. All interested volunteers will need to RSVP (we will have a 9 am crew and a 9:30 crew). We will conclude at about noon. We will provide hand sanitizer, packaged snacks, and tools. Please bring your own water, gloves (we will have some extras), and face mask. We will maintain social distance throughout the morning and please don't come if you feel sick. As always, we welcome new volunteers as well as those of you who may have been away for a while. If you remember, please bring your water and gloves (I will have our usual supply of gloves). We will work rain or shine.
We are going to meet in the Redwood Sciences Lab Parking Lot and walk in from there. Our work site is a good 15-minute walk from Redwood Sciences Lab. Here's a map (go to the end of East 16th or 17th and turn left on Bayview and follow it to the end).

Thanks, as always and stay safe!