Siletz Reservation Robe Blanket, Size 64” x 80”
Price: Tribal member – $153; Employee – $188; Public – $202
Siletz Reservation Saddle Blanket, Size 68” x 39”
Price: Tribal member – $105; Employee – $129; Public – $138
Contact April Middaugh at 541-444-8201 or 800-922-1399, ext. 1201, for more information and to purchase.
Blue Creek protection offers new hope for Klamath River and its salmon
KLAMATH, Calif. – The Yurok Tribe
and Western Rivers Conservancy have
succeeded in creating a major salmon
sanctuary within the Yurok Reservation
to protect Blue Creek, the most important
source of cold water for the lower Klamath
River and a lifeline for some of the largest
runs of salmon and steelhead remaining
on the West Coast.
The project is part of the Yurok Tribe’s
and WRC’s larger effort to return more
than 47,000 acres of ancestral lands to the
Tribe by purchasing them from Green Dia-
mond Resource Company, which owned
all the land along Blue Creek between
the Siskiyou Wilderness Area and the
Klamath River.
The land was controlled by the Tribe
until the late-1800s, when it was appro-
priated by the federal government. As a
result, the Tribe lost all but a small per-
centage of its reservation lands, including
Blue Creek, the Yurok spiritual center-
piece since time immemorial.
“For the Yurok Tribe, Blue Creek is
equally a salmon stronghold, a sacred
place and an integral component of our
cultural identity. Today, we are celebrat-
ing the completion of a vital piece of our
long-term plan to restore the Klamath
River from its headwaters to the Pacific,
but tomorrow we will begin work on the
next phase of this project because our
people and our salmon depend on it. The
salmon are a big part of who we are as
Yurok people,” said Thomas P. O’Rourke
Sr., chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “We
would like to express our sincere appre-
ciation to Western Rivers Conservancy
for assisting us in the reacquisition of our
ancestral homeland.”
The project and will create a salmon
sanctuary unmatched by any in the United
States. By conserving the lower 25 miles
of Blue Creek and converting what was
formerly a vast, industrial tree farm into
a biologically robust forest preserve, this
project will provide new hope to salmon
and to one of the most important river
fisheries in the West.
“This is a historic and joyous moment,”
said Sue Doroff, WRC president. “The
Yurok Tribe has at last been reunited with
its ancestral lands and Western Rivers
Conservancy has finally ensured that Blue
Creek, the lifeline of the Klamath River,
will always be a source of cold, clean
water and a refuge for the fish and wildlife
that depend on it.”
Now that the sanctuary exists, the Tribe
will be reunited with Blue Creek and can
steward the forests for the sake of fish and
wildlife and to keep Blue Creek clean and
cold. Under a management plan approved
by the State of California, the Yurok Tribe
will manage the lands to heal decades of
aggressive timber harvest, restore the rich-
ness of the forest and create Tribal jobs in
sustainable forestry and restoration.
Conservation of Blue Creek comes
at a critical moment. Last year, the fall
Chinook return was at a historic low. With
plans in place to remove four dams on the
upper Klamath River, extensive salmon
habitat will be reopened in the upper
basin. But if salmon are to reach the upper
river, they must have the cold-water refuge
that Blue Creek provides.
In 2008, WRC helped the Yurok Tribe
acquire 22,237 acres of land in the first
phase of the project. WRC then worked
for a decade to raise the tens of millions
of dollars needed to acquire the remaining
24,860 acres.
The Tribe also secured more than $10
million to acquire the lands, including
settlement money from the federal govern-
ment. Last year, WRC purchased the last
of the project lands from Green Diamond
and has been working to transfer them in
phases to the Tribe.
In February, WRC moved the first
major holdings along Blue Creek into
Yurok ownership, finally making the
salmon sanctuary a reality.
Yurok acquisition of these lands was
made possible through the federal New
Markets Tax Credits program, which was
designed to spur revitalization in low-
income communities through private
investment.
Through the program, Opportunity
Fund; U.S. Bancorp Community Devel-
opment Corporation (a division of U.S.
Bank), and the Yurok Tribe invested
$16.25 million in this phase of the project.
“Helping to return these ancestral
lands to the Yurok Tribe, including the
beautiful Blue Creek, will create or retain
over 500 jobs for Yurok Tribe members,”
said Luz Urrutia, Opportunity Fund’s
chief executive officer. “Opportunity Fund
seeks to advance the economic well-being
of working people. The chance to do so
on a project that also benefits our natural
environment is a triple bottom-line win:
the social, economic and environment
returns make this effort one our biggest
New Markets investments to date.”
WRC is a pioneer in both conserva-
tion and New Markets Tax Credits and,
working in partnership with Opportunity
Fund and U.S. Bancorp, helped the Yurok
secure more than $40 million in all for
this project.
New Markets Tax Credits were criti-
cal to the project’s success, allowing the
partners to bring needed private capital
to the table in the face of waning federal
funding for land conservation.
“We are delighted to be a trusted
partner to help the Yurok Tribe reclaim its
ancestral lands so that it can continue to
nurture the Klamath River and the wildlife
that depend on it,” said Maria Bustria-
Glickman, vice president of U.S. Bancorp
Community Development Corporation (a
division of U.S. Bank).
In the coming decade, the Yurok and
WRC will manage the lands together until
WRC is able to transfer the remaining land
to the Yurok for permanent stewardship.
The Klamath was once the third larg-
est producer of salmon on the West Coast.
Its salmon are the keystone species of
the Klamath-Siskiyou eco-region, one of
the most biologically diverse places on
earth. They are central to both Yurok and
regional economies and are the backbone
of Yurok culture.
About the project partners
The Yurok Tribe is the largest feder-
ally recognized Indian Tribe in California
and has a reservation that straddles the
Lower Klamath River, extending for one
mile on each side of the river, from its
entry into the Pacific Ocean to approxi-
mately 45 miles upriver to the confluence
with the Trinity River.
The Tribe’s major initiatives include
natural resources management, fisheries
protection, watershed restoration, dam
removal, condor reintroduction, cultural
revitalization, language preservation and
land acquisition.
To learn more, visit yuroktribe.org.
Western Rivers Conservancy
acquires lands along rivers to conserve crit-
ical habitat and to create or improve public
access for compatible use and enjoyment.
By cooperating with local agencies and
organizations and by applying decades of
land acquisition experience, WRC secures
the health of whole ecosystems.
WRC has protected hundreds of miles
of stream frontage on great rivers like
the John Day, Hoh, Gunnison, Salmon,
Yampa, Snake and Madison. To learn
more, visit westernrivers.org.
Opportunity Fund advances the
economic well-being of working people,
driving economic mobility and building
stronger communities. Our strategy com-
bines loans for small business owners and
investments in community infrastructure
so that hard work and perseverance mean
a shot at getting ahead, not just struggling
to get by. Through our New Markets Tax
Credit program, Opportunity Fund lever-
ages federal tax credits to invest in high-
impact community projects.
Since 2004, Opportunity Fund has
provided financing for 23 projects through-
out the western United States, which has
leveraged $270.2 million in capital for
nonprofit facilities and American Indian
projects. Ranging from health clinics
and youth centers to homeless shelters
and nonprofit centers, these investments
have supported more than 5,800 jobs and
provide services for more than 390,000
low-income people each year.
Visit opportunityfund.org to learn more.
U.S. Bancorp Community Develop-
ment Corporation: Minneapolis-based
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), with $462
billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2017, is
the parent company of U.S. Bank National
Association, the fifth largest commercial
bank in the United States.
The company operates 3,067 banking
offices in 25 states, has 4,771 ATMs and
provides a comprehensive line of banking,
investment, mortgage, trust and payment
services products to consumers, busi-
nesses and institutions.
Visit U.S. Bancorp at usbank.com.
Acknowledgments
Funding for the Blue Creek Salmon
Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community
Forest was made possible through gener-
ous contributions from multiple sources,
including the L.P. Brown Foundation,
California Coastal Conservancy, Cali-
fornia Department of Fish and Wildlife,
California Wildlife Conservation Board,
Compton Foundation, Lisa and Douglas
Goldman Fund, George F. Jewett Founda-
tion, The Kendeda Fund, Giles W. and
Elise G. Mead Foundation, National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation, National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation/Acres for America and
Walmart Stores Inc., Natural Resources
Conservation Service, David and Lucile
Packard Foundation, State of California’s
Environmental Enhancement and Mitiga-
tion Program, U.S. Endowment for Forestry
and Communities Inc., U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of
Land Management, Weeden Foundation
and The Wyss Foundation.
April 2018
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Siletz News
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