ON THE KLAMATH RIVER, Calif. (AP) — As a youngster, Barry McCovey Jr. would sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards just to catch a steelhead trout in Blue Creek amid northwestern California redwoods.
Since time immemorial, his ancestors from the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. But for more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed by timber companies, severing the tribe’s access to its homelands.
When McCovey started working as a fisheries technician, the company would let him go there to do his job.
“Snorkeling 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,” McCovey said.
After a 23-year effort and $56 million, that became reality.
Roughly 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) of homelands have been returned to the Yurok, more than doubling the tribe’s land holdings, according to a deal announced Thursday. Completion of the land-back conservation deal along the lower Klamath River — a partnership with Western Rivers Conservancy and other environmental groups — is being called the largest in California history.
Tribe gets timberlands back
California's Yurok Tribe has regained about 73 square miles of ancestral homelands that were owned and managed for timber for more than 100 years.
The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.
“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,” said McCovey, director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department.
Land Back is a global movement seeking the return of homelands to Indigenous people through ownership or co-stewardship.
In the last decade, nearly 4,700 square miles (12,173 square kilometers) were returned to tribes in 15 states through a federal program. Organizations are aiding similar efforts.
There’s 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.
Beth Rose Middleton Manning, a University of California, Davis professor of Native American Studies, said Indigenous people’s perspective — living in relation with the lands, waterways and wildlife — is becoming widely recognized, and is a stark contrast to Western views.
“Management of a forest to grow conifers for sale is very different from thinking about the ecosystem and the different plants and animals and people as part of it and how we all play a role,” she said.
The Yurok people will now manage these lands and waterways. 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.
