Overview

• Western Rivers Conservancy conveyed the 47,000 acres in stages, completing the final 15,000-acre transfer last week after raising $56 million from public grants, private donors and carbon credits.
• The Yurok Tribe will steward the area as a community forest, using sustainable logging practices, removing old logging roads and restoring native redwood and conifer stands.
• A protected salmon sanctuary at the lower reaches of Blue Creek will offer critical cold-water refuge for Chinook salmon and steelhead, enhancing benefits from the recent Klamath River dam removals.
• Restoration plans include reintroducing controlled fire to revive historic prairies, eliminating invasive species and rebuilding habitats for elk, trout and endangered birds.
• By doubling its land holdings, the tribe asserts ancestral rights lost during the Gold Rush and strengthens its role in regional conservation with Indigenous-led land management.