Along the Klamas River in Northern California, the logging company once cut down ancient redwood trees, has returned large tracts of land to the Yurok tribe over many years, which tribe leaders say will allow forest restoration and conservation of a water area that is crucial to salmon.
The effort has gradually developed over the past 23 years, and in May, the Western Rivers Conservancy transferred 14,968 acres to the Yuluk Tribe. This is the last part of the 47,097 acres of land acquired and transferred to the tribe by the nonprofit, which is considered the largest “land” deal in California's history.
Members of the tribe said they were celebrating the return of their ancestral land along Blue Creek, which ran into the main tributary about 40 miles south of the Oregon border. Blue Creek has cultural and spiritual significance to Yurok, and its cold, clear waters provide a shelter for salmon.
“We are salmon people,” said Joseph James, chairman of the Yuluk tribe. “The river takes care of us, and it is our job to take care of the river.”
Overall, the tribe now has an additional 73 square miles along the Lower Klamath River, including most of the watershed in Blue Creek. The coniferous forest registered in the last century will be managed by the tribal government into two reserves, namely the Blue Creek Salmon Shelter and the Yuluk Tribal Community Forest.
Yurok leaders say regaining management of these lands has made greater efforts to revive the ecological health of the Klamath watershed last year Demolition of four dams The further upstream restores the free flow of the river and restores the salmon to Arriving at the spawning area It has been inaccessible for more than a century.
“This land is now back in our homes and we will continue to protect the land as the Yurok people, protect the streams, provide our people and provide this work for the environment,” James said.
Blue Creek, the center flows into the Clamas River in Humboldt County, California.
(Godofredo A.Vásquez/AP)
In addition to Blue Creek, the land includes other streams flowing into Klamath.
Tribal Program plans to create healthier stream habitats for fish and restore grasslands and prairie. In the forest, they plan to use controlled burns to already established thin vegetation.
Some old logging roads are being retired, while others will be upgraded.
“We will continue to work hard to bring back our wildlife population, our fish population,” James said. “It will take a lot of work, but a lot of people will benefit from it.”
James said that in addition to local benefits, the effort is Backward movementIndigenous people in many of these areas are seeking to regain the ancestral lands that were taken from them several generations ago.
“That's what we're talking about when land comes back,” James said. “Regression means returning the land to the primitive people without any stripes. Let them provide traditional knowledge to heal the land, the environment.”
He said that the successful conclusion involved years of efforts by leaders of tribal and western river reserves, as well as the help of other partners. He said the deal should start more discussion nationwide on how other tribes can promote their traditional land.
“It’s a huge victory for the Indian country,” he said. “This is a model that people can use in our experience to restore the land.”
This effort has more than doubled the tribe's land ownership. The lands were previously owned by Green Diamond Resource Co. and its predecessor, Simpson Loggging Co., where the company collected nearly a century of wood. The last time the property happened was in 2007.
Western Rivers Consermacy, a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon, signed a purchase agreement with Green Diamond in 2008 after five years of negotiations and funding efforts. The land was gradually acquired by the group between 2009 and 2017 and moved to the tribe in multiple stages.
The Conservation Team adopted an innovative funding strategy, which aggregated $56 million from foundations, companies and philanthropists, as well as other sources such as tax credits, public grants and sales carbon credits.
State funding and support for this work comes from the California Wildlife Conservation Commission, California Coastal Reserves, and other agencies.
“We put together mosaics from different sources of funding,” said President Nelson Mathews Xihe Preservation Area. “It’s the result of commitment, perseverance and tenacity.”
Mathews' organization is committed to protecting fish, wildlife and rivers of the public and attracting the project with its conservation benefits. By establishing a salmon shelter in Blue Creek, the deal protects a vital cold water habitat including Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon and Steelhead.
“With climate change, it’s crucial that cold water is important to the premium of these rivers,” Matthews said. “So it’s important to fully protect the basin.”
The deal shows how efforts to protect targets and tribes to regain land are consistent in ways that bring great benefits, he said.
“Protecting these rivers is a good thing for the soul, and seeing a tribe reclaiming the land is a double benefit,” Matthews said.
Members of the Yurok tribe said this effort, along with other similar efforts, is a crucial step in striving to cope with the lasting impact of colonization.
In the 1800s, California's native population was destroyed by disease, displacement and violence, including State-sponsored killings.
Yurok reservation is Established by the federal government In 1855, tribes were confined to areas that covered only a small part of their ancestral territory. In the late 1800s, white settlers and speculators found ways to acquire other land along the Klamas River, and in some cases they could deceive by bribing ordinary American office officials for cheating thousands of acres of woodland.
Today, the Yuluk tribe is the largest tribe in California, with more than 6,400 members.
“We are working to recover from colonization,” said Amy Bowers Cordalis, a tribe’s attorney. Ridge to Royal Indigenous Conservation Group. “And, we’ve just entered a place where we’re starting to see some of the results of our efforts, between the dam removal and the efforts that are now backward.”
Amy Bowers Cordalis, the Yurok tribe's lawyer, brought the ridge to the Royal Indigenous Conservation Group, near the Re-village at the mouth of the Klamas River in 2023.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Restoring these lands allowed the tribe to “start to rebuild and start taking care of our land and our resources”, she said. “We are determined to be in a balance with the natural world.”
For members of the tribe, visiting the cold, clear water of Blue Creek is a spiritual experience. “It’s one of the craziest places in the whole of California, and it’s glorious.”
Some areas are seen from the boat, from the Klamas River to the mouth of the Blue Creek. But for the moment, access to the area is limited.
James said that this may change in the future once the repair and other work is done.
“At some point in time, we have the opportunity to turn it into a big and beautiful park,” James said. “We have to heal it first and put resources into it, and it will take some time.”
He said members of the tribe were pleased to lead again to these lands and waterways, just like their ancestors.
“It's a wonderful feeling to know that we will be moving this land forward for the next seven generations, our Yurok people and our grandchildren.”
