is the Conservation Director at Western Rivers Conservancy and Tiana Williams-Claussen is Director of the . Both join the Exchange to discuss a deal with California state agencies that will return more than 47,000 acres of ancestral lands back to the .
Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC), the Yurok Tribe, the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) and the California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC) completed the largest single “land back” deal in California history, marking a milestone achievement for conservation and Tribal sovereignty.
The 73 square miles of land along the eastern side of the lower Klamath River are now owned and managed by the Yurok Tribe as the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest.
Establishing Tribal ownership safeguards the long-term health of this critical ecosystem and culturally significant sites along the Klamath, which is home to one of the most important fall Chinook salmon runs on the West Coast. The conveyance of these lands to the Tribe has more than doubled the Tribe’s land holdings; both California state agencies provided crucial funding to enable this transfer of ownership.
