Meet the Arch Cape Forest Management Committee!

We are incredibly excited to welcome a group of capable, competent, and motivated Arch Cape community members to the Arch Cape Forest Management Committee!

The Arch Cape Forest Management Committee, which meets monthly, is made up of three community members. The committee is responsible for a multitude of management decisions for the Arch Cape Forest moving forward, including advising on financial decisions, contracts, and long term forest management. Luckily our community received numerous incredibly qualified applicants. The three committee members are Pat Noonan, Clark Binkley, and Michael Manzulli.

Pat Noonan has been a vital leader in the development of Arch Cape Forest. Prior to joining the Management Committee, she chaired the Arch Cape Forest Advisory Committee, helping develop the Arch Cape Forest Multi-Resource Management Plan. She has long enjoyed hiking in the Arch Cape Forest and has lived in Arch Cape for over 40 years.

Prior to joining the Management Committee, Clark advised the Arch Cape Forest Financial Committee. He brings over forty years of academic, non-profit and industry experience in forest economics and management. After an academic career at Yale University and the University of British Columbia, he moved into the forestry investment business. He served as the Chief Investment Officer for both the Hancock Timber Resource Group and GreenWood Resources/TIAA-CREF. In between those assignments he established and ran an independent forestry investment advisory business, International Forestry Investment Advisors. Clark was president of the Guildford (CT) Land Conservation Trust and advised the Galiano (BC) Conservancy on forestry matters. His writings on forest conservation easements are said to have been influential in the establishment of the USDA Forest Service Forest Legacy program.

Michael Manzulli, an Arch Cape resident, has lived on the North Coast of Oregon for twenty four years. As an attorney, he specializes in nonprofit law with a focus on coastal conservation land transactions between Astoria and Brookings. He was the Board Chair of the Ecola Creek Watershed Council for over a decade and is currently president of the Oregon Coast Alliance, a land use and sustainable community advocacy organization. He was an original member of the Northwest Community Forest Coalition's steering committee and helped the Coalition embrace coastal drinking watersheds as community forest projects. He is also a co-owner of forestland within Arch Cape's drinking watershed, managing the land for timber revenue, wildlife, and water quality protection with the goal of restoring the forest to old growth characteristics.

We are excited to see this committee set the Arch Cape Forest up for success.

Update From the Access Planning Team

Over the past half year, the Arch Cape Forest and Rainforest Reserve Access Planning Team has worked closely to establish the future of access to the Arch Cape Forest, and the neighboring Rainforest Reserve. With the support of the National Park Services – Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, the Team designed a decision-making process to better reflect how the Arch Cape Forest and Rainforest Reserve is being used by local property owners, rate payers, and visitors to the site specifically.

The official public access plan, containing access recommendations between both the 1,500 acre Arch Cape Forest and the 3,500 acre Rainforest Reserve Properties is poised to be released in Late Summer of 2023. This plan and process will consider the perspectives of the Arch Cape community members, Cannon View Park water users, North Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC), and additional adjacent land managers. The intention of this planning process is to facilitate access plans which balances the intention of the Arch Cape Forest with its neighbors and partners in conservation. While originally anticipated to be complete in early 2023, the complexity of issues has led to a longer timeline ending by fall.

We’d like to thank each the participants from the Arch Cape Forest Advisory Committee who lent their experience and expertise to the process thus far, and specifically thank Dale Mosby and Charlotte Blakesley for their ongoing work in the access planning process.

Native Plant Spotlight: Salmonberry

Salmonberry, or Rubus Spectabilis is one of the first of our local shrub wildflowers to emerge, keep an eye out for Salmonberry’s bright pink blooms around Arch Cape in early spring. The early berries provide important food for native birds, coyote, bear, and other wildlife.

The deciduous shrub can grow up to 13 feet tall but are typically 4 to 5 feet around Arch Cape. Compound leaves have three sharply toothed leaflets. The bring pink flowers emerge before or at the same time as leaves start to bud in the spring.

The berries range from orange to read and look similar to raspberries or blackberries. Berries are edible but are often quite tart.

The name, Salmonberry is thought to have come from the fact that they tended to ripen at about the same time as Chinook salmon arrived in the Columbia River. Native American tribes traditionally ate the berries and used the berries in salmon honoring ceremonies. The berries continue to be consumed by both Native and non-Native peoples.

Source: Pacific Northwest Foraging by local author, Doug Deur