'It's incredible': Seized ancestral homelands handed back to Yurok Tribe in California
The move is what is known as a "land-back" deal - where homelands are returned to indigenous people through ownership or co-stewardship.
The land-back conservation project along the Klamath River, a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and the Western Rivers Conservancy, is being called the largest in state history.
The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.
For more than a century, the land was then owned and managed by timber companies - severing the tribe's access to its homelands.
However, over 73 square miles of land along Blue Creek stream and the eastern side of the lower Klamath River in northern California will now be permanently managed by the Yurok Tribe for fish, wildlife and forest health within the newly-created Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest.
Western Rivers Conservancy and the Yurok Tribe established a long-term partnership in 2009 to buy 47,097 acres along the lower Klamath and Blue Creek from Green Diamond Resource Company.
It has cost the partnership $56million (£41m).
The deal to hand back the land comes amid mounting recognition that indigenous people's traditional knowledge is critical to addressing climate change.
Studies found the healthiest, most biodiverse and resilient forests are on protected native lands where indigenous people remained stewards.
The tribe's plans include reintroducing fire as a forest management tool, clearing lands for prairie restoration, removing invasive species and planting trees while providing work for some of the tribe's more than 5,000 members and helping restore salmon and wildlife.
The area is home to many creatures, including northern spotted owls, elk, deer and mountain lions.
Galen Schuler, a vice president at Green Diamond Resource Company, the previous land owner, said the forests were sustainably managed by the firm when it managed them.
Over the last decade, nearly 4,700 square miles (12,173 square kilometers) were returned to tribes in 15 states through a federal program.
Barry McCovey Jr, whose ancestors were members of the Yurok Tribe, was involved in the effort to get the land returned to the tribe and said: "Snorkelling Blue Creek ... I felt the significance of that place to myself and to our people, and I knew then that we had to do whatever we could to try and get that back."
Mr McCovey Jr, who is director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, would have to sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards in order to fish in the Blue Creek stream connected to the Klamath River.
He said: "To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible."
The tribe aims to restore the historic prairies, but members know it's going to take decades of work for the lands and waterways to heal.
"And maybe all that's not going to be done in my lifetime," said Mr McCovey Jr. "But that's fine, because I'm not doing this for myself."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Ranger fired for hanging transgender flag in Yosemite and park visitors may face prosecution
A Yosemite National Park ranger was fired after hanging a pride flag from El Capitan while some visitors face potential prosecution for alleged violations of protest restrictions that have been tightened under President Donald Trump. Shannon 'SJ' Joslin, a ranger and biologist who studies bats, said they hung a 66-foot wide transgender pride flag on the famous climbing wall that looms over the California park's main thoroughfare for about two hours on May 20 before taking it down voluntarily. A termination letter they received last week accused Joslin of 'failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct" in their capacity as a biologist and cited the May demonstration. 'I was really hurting because there were a lot of policies coming from the current administration that target trans people, and I'm nonbinary,' Joslin, 35, told The Associated Press, adding that hanging the flag was a way to 'tell myself ... that we're all safe in national parks.' Joslin said their firing sends the opposite message: "If you're a federal worker and you have any kind of identity that doesn't agree with this current administration, then you must be silent, or you will be eliminated.' Park officials on Tuesday said they were working with the U.S. Justice Department to pursue visitors and workers who violated restrictions on demonstrations at the park that had more than 4 million visitors last year. The agencies "are pursuing administrative action against several Yosemite National Park employees and possible criminal charges against several park visitors who are alleged to have violated federal laws and regulations related to demonstrations," National Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz said. Joslin said a group of seven climbers including two other park rangers hung the flag. The other rangers are on administrative leave pending an investigation, Joslin said. Flags have long been displayed from El Capitan without consequences, said Joanna Citron Day, a former federal attorney who is now with the advocacy group Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility. She said the group is representing Joslin, but there is no pending legal case. On May 21, a day after the flag display, Acting Superintendent Ray McPadden signed a rule prohibiting people from hanging banners, flags or signs larger than 15 square feet in park areas designated as 'wilderness' or 'potential wilderness.' That covers 94% of the park, according to Yosemite's website. Parks officials defend restriction on protests Parks officials said the new restriction on demonstrations was needed to preserve Yosemite's wilderness and protect climbers. 'We take the protection of the park's resources and the experience of our visitors very seriously, and will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations that impact those resources and experiences,' Pawlitz said. It followed a widely publicized instance in February of demonstrators hanging an upside down American flag on El Capitan in the wake of the firing of National Park Service employees by the Trump administration. Among the small group of climbers who helped hang the flag was Pattie Gonia, an environmentalist and drag queen who uses the performance art to raise awareness of conservation issues. For the past five years, Gonia has helped throw a Pride event in Yosemite for park employees and their allies. She said they hung the transgender flag on the granite monolith to drive home the point that being transgender is natural. Trump has limited access to gender-affirming medical treatments, banned trans women from competing in women's sports, removed trans people from the military and changed the federal definition of sex to exclude the concept of gender identity. Gonia called the firing unjust. Joslin said they hung the flag in their free time, as a private citizen. 'SJ is a respected pillar within the Yosemite community, a tireless volunteer who consistently goes above and beyond," Gonia said. Jayson O'Neill with the advocacy group Save Our Parks said Joslin's firing appears aimed at intimidating park employees about expressing their views as the Trump administration pursues broad cuts to the federal workforce. Since Trump took office, the National Park Service has lost approximately 2,500 employees from a workforce that had about 10,000 people, Wade said. The Republican president is proposing a $900 million cut to the agency's budget next year. Parks have First Amendment areas Pawlitz said numerous visitors complained about unauthorized demonstrations on El Capitan earlier in the year. Many parks have designated 'First Amendment areas' where groups 25 or fewer people can protest without a permit. Yosemite has several First Amendment areas, including one in Yosemite Valley, where El Capitan is located. Park service rules on demonstrations have been around for decades and withstood several court challenges, said Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers. He was not aware of any changes in how those rules are enforced under Trump. ___ Associated Press journalist Brittany Peterson contributed reporting from Denver.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
San Francisco landlord says only MAGA voters and Israel supporters can apply to rent his bargain apartment
A San Francisco landlord has sparked outrage for listing his spacious two bedroom apartment as available only to tenants who are MAGA voters and Israel supporters. Alexander Baran, 48, shared his 1,100 square foot listing in Sunnyside on Zillow this month. He was advertising the apartment for $3,500 per month, which also came with two bathrooms, a private deck, in-unit laundry and sweeping city views. At a time when the AI boom has caused a sudden influx of new residents, prices are soaring and housing is in short supply, Baran's listing seemed like a great deal. But in the fine print of the Zillow advertisement, under a subheading reading 'What's Special', Baran injected a very specific clause. 'Only MAGA voters and Israel supporters are invited,' the Zillow listing read. But in the fine print of the Zillow advertisement, under a subheading reading 'What's Special', Baran injected a very specific clause The listing was deactivated on Sunday, despite having two open homes scheduled for Sunday and Monday. It is unclear if the unit has now been leased to a tenant of Baran's choosing. The landlord declined to comment when approached at his home by The San Francisco Standard. 'Get the f--- away from here,' he said. 'Don't make me repeat myself.' David Blosser, the director of leasing at RentSFNow, told the Standard that the rental market in the region is the best it's been in years. He cited the AI boom for luring in tech industry workers. 'June was really the pivotal moment where the market shifted,' he said. 'Suddenly we were having back-to-back applicants for units across our portfolio, and really we hadn't seen that since before the pandemic.' Baran has faced mass criticism for his listing on social media. 'As if apartment hunting is SF isn't difficult enough already,' one critic wrote. 'So now the neighbors know anyone who ends up living there is a maga, have fun,' another wrote, while a third quipped: 'I'd say im maga and then move in and put up a Make America Gay Again flag.'
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
California Republicans sue to block Democratic redistricting plan
Aug 19 (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in California have filed suit seeking to block action on Governor Gavin Newsom's redistricting plan, opens new tab, which aims to create five new Democratic U.S. congressional seats in his state to counter a similar move in Texas favoring Republicans. The Republicans argue in their emergency petition to the California Supreme Court that the state constitution bars consideration of the redistricting plan until September 18 because new legislation requires a 30-day review period before lawmakers may act on it. The four Republicans who filed the suit on Monday asked the court to block Democratic lawmakers from moving forward with the legislation until September 18, absent a three-fourths vote the petition says would otherwise be required of each chamber to proceed sooner. The petition asks the state Supreme Court to rule on the merits of the lawsuit by Wednesday or to stay the legislative process in Sacramento while the case remains under judicial review. California Democrats currently face an August 22 deadline to pass all three bills of the redistricting plan to meet Newsom's goal of placing the newly drawn political maps on the ballot for a special statewide election on November 4. The lawsuit comes as Newsom seeks a tit-for-tat expansion of California's Democratic delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives to offset a redistricting effort pursued in Texas at the behest of President Donald Trump that would net five more House seats for Republicans. Republicans now hold a narrow 219-212 majority in the U.S. House, with the battle for control of Congress expected to be closely fought in the November 2026 midterm election. Newsom and his fellow Democrats have characterized their bid to depart from the state's independent, bipartisan redistricting process - adopted by voters in 2008 - as a temporary "emergency" strategy to neutralize what they see as extreme moves by Trump and the Republicans to rig the system. The redistricting effort pushed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott broke with a tradition in which lawmakers draw new electoral maps only after the once-per-decade census. Democrats also argued that the Republican proposal would disenfranchise minority voters by weakening their political clout. A special session Abbott called to pass the Republican plan led to a two-week walkout by more than 50 Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives, who left the state to deny the legislative quorum necessary to pass Republicans' plan. The Texas Democrats returned to the Austin statehouse on Monday, saying they had achieved their goal of temporarily thwarting the Republicans while prompting Democratic-led states, such as California, to consider mid-decade redistricting moves of their own. But Texas Republican leaders immediately initiated a crackdown on newly returning Democrats, requiring they be permitted to come and go from the state Capitol only if they signed a paper agreeing to be placed under escort of a state police officer who would ensure they were present for legislative sessions going forward. Several Democrats bristled at the escorts, calling the restriction a political stunt that was wasting public money. One legislator, Texas House Representative Nicole Collier, protested the move by refusing to sign the required permission slip and spending the entire night in the statehouse rather than consent to being placed in the custody of a police escort. Texas Republicans, newly assured of a quorum, planned to take up their redistricting measure on Wednesday.
