Thanks to a generous show of support during our 2015 crowdfunding campaign and a $1 million grant from the Kendeda Fund, Western Rivers Conservancy is one step closer to saving Blue Creek! The contributions allowed us to purchase another 562 acres of coastal temperate rain forest in the heart of the California redwoods. This is exciting headway in our effort to bring the final 10,000 acres of land into the 47,000-acre Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest.
Our partners on the ground at Blue Creek are the Yurok people, who have deep cultural, spiritual and economic ties to Blue Creek and the Klamath River. Once our efforts are complete and WRC has conveyed the lands to the Tribe, the Yurok will regain the crown jewel of their spiritual homeland: Blue Creek. The Yurok will then manage the entire lower Blue Creek watershed to enhance recovery of salmon, steelhead and imperiled wildlife of the Klamath-Siskiyou.
WRC has been working to save Blue Creek for more than eight years, and we are now over 80% of the way there. But there is still much work to be done. The cost of purchasing the remaining lands is over $14 million. We hope to raise this through multiple sources, including foundations, individuals, corporations and state and federal funding. The role of individual support in this effort is pivotal, and we’re tremendously grateful to all who have contributed to WRC and our campaigns to save Blue Creek.
There are very few places like this on Earth. The Klamath-Siskiyou is one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world, home to a vast array of plant and animal life. The region is drained by some of the most extraordinary rivers in the West, including the Rogue, the Illinois, the Smith, the Chetco and the third largest salmon stream on the West Coast, the Klamath River. The Klamath remains the most recoverable of all the West’s great salmon rivers, and the key to ensuring its long-term survival is Blue Creek.
