A project 23 years in the making, the Yurok Tribe and Western Rivers Conservancy jointly achieved the largest land back deal in California’s history this May. With over 47,000 acres of ancestral lands, the area doubles Yurok’s land holdings. It includes critical habitat for salmon and other wildlife along the eastern side of the lower Klamath River watershed, just a few miles up from the mouth of the river.
“One of the biggest takeaways from all of this is that things can change if you put in the work, and these initiatives take time,” said Barry McCovey Jr., director of the Yurok Fisheries Department and a citizen of the Yurok Tribe. “This is a 23-year process to get this land returned. And so it took many, many people over those years working on this and fighting for it.”
Within the over 73 square miles of land along the lower Klamath River, the Yurok Tribe will now be permanent managers, focusing on ecosystem health for fish, wildlife and the broader forest.
In 2002, the potential to buy 47,907 acres along the lower Klamath River and Blue Creek from Green Diamond Resource Company opened up, according to Nelson Mathews, president of Western Rivers Conservancy. By 2009, Western Rivers Conservancy and the Yurok Tribe teamed up to purchase the land.
Today, 14,790 acres of that area are protected as Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary, providing critical cold water habitat for migrating salmon and steelhead. This is particularly important following the removal of the Klamath dams as the salmon begin to find their way back to historic spawning habitat in the upper river. The other 32,307 acres comprise the Yurok Tribal Community Forest, managed with sustainable forestry practices.
“One of the really special things I think about this land being passed back to tribal management, which it never should have been taken from, is that I know that we are managing and restoring far beyond the human scope of understanding,” said Tianna Williams-Claussen, director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, and a citizen of the Yurok Tribe, from the village of Wehl-kwew’. “This is not something done for humanity. This is something that’s done for the world, for all of our wildlife and fisheries communities.”
Western Rivers Conservancy paid $56 million for the property and transferred $3.3 million generated from carbon credits to the Yurok Tribe, according to a press release, with overall project costs totaling $70 million. Western Rivers Conservancy cobbled together funding through private capital, loans, tax credits and carbon credit sales.
The Yurok Tribe is now full manager of the property.
“This project exemplifies the power of partnership, showcasing how conservation efforts and the land back movement can come together to benefit the rivers, fish, wildlife and people of an entire landscape,” said Mathews, in a press release. “After more than 20 years of close collaboration with the Yurok Tribe, we have together achieved this magnificent conservation success while ensuring these lands and waters are in the hands of those most deeply committed to their future health and sustainable use.”
The land returned to the Yurok Tribe includes 25 miles of the mainstem river and all nine miles of Blue Creek. Blue Creek provides critical habitat for fish including coho salmon, fall and spring chinook, winter steelhead, pacific lamprey and green sturgeon. The forested area, consisting of redwoods and mixed conifers, is also home to key wildlife, including the Humboldt marten, marbled murrelet and Northern spotted owl.
For Williams-Claussen, this land being returned to her people feels particularly impactful. She grew up along the river and in the forests. Though she grew up fishing, she has seen the river degrade so much that she can’t take her own daughter fishing because she fears that the river can’t support it.
Williams-Claussen hopes that with the undamming of the Klamath River and this land return that will be focused on restoration, one day her and her daughter will be able to fish in their ancestral homelands once more.
“Even though the lands were taken from us through various ways, we never lost that connection, and we never ceded our obligation to be caretakers for the land, to live in reciprocity with it, both caretaking and then receiving the abundance from the lands itself,” Williams-Claussen said. “And so it’s a weird way to live estranged from something that is so integral to your heart and your well-being, to not have access to it, to not be able to take care of it. And receiving these lands back is a big step towards repairing that damage.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect accurate spelling of Nelson Mathews’ surname.
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