Yurok Tribe
A partnership to save the cold-water lifeline of the Klamath River by creating the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest.
Coming together around salmon, land, forests and wildlife in California’s Klamath River basin, the Yurok Tribe and WRC accomplished one of the most important land repatriation and conservation projects in West Coast history. Over the course of 15 years, we worked together to double the size of the Yurok’s land holdings, create the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary, and establish the Yurok Tribal Community Forest. By purchasing 47,000 acres of privately owned land and returning it to the Yurok, we set the course to restore a vast swath of temperate rainforest for the sake of the Klamath’s fish and wildlife, and to foster tribal resilience and self-governance for the Yurok people. WRC and the Yurok continue to work closely on management practices, a large-scale carbon project, restoration activities and funding sources that will all help ensure that Blue Creek remains the cold-water lifeline of the Klamath River.
