Landmark Partnership Launched on Lower Klamath River and Blue Creek

The Klamath River is an icon of the West, once among the greatest salmon and steelhead rivers on the continent. For decades the Klamath has been beset by dams, dewatering and political turmoil.

Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC) is excited to announce its part in a broad-based movement to restore the Klamath. In May, we signed an agreement to purchase and conserve 47,000 acres along the lower Klamath River and Blue Creek, a critical coldwater tributary.

This launches a landmark partnership with the Yurok, California’s largest tribe, which long has sought to conserve Blue Creek as a salmon sanctuary and cultural site. Western Rivers Conservancy will purchase the land from Green Diamond Resource Company and convey it to the Yurok Tribe.

The entire lower Blue Creek watershed will become part of a 20,000-acre Yurok Tribal Park, forever protecting Blue Creek as an outstanding refuge for threatened Klamath River coho, Chinook and steelhead.

Additionally, the project will help the Yurok Tribe re-establish their homeland along the Klamath, including cultural sites along Blue Creek.

The Tribe will practice sustainable forestry on the remaining land, approximately 27,000 acres, as a much-needed economic base for their people.

Blue Creek tumbles cold and clear out of the Siskiyou Wilderness, flowing through rugged mountains to meet the Klamath River near the Pacific Ocean. When water temperatures rise in the Klamath, Blue Creek is the first coldwater tributary fish encounter as they migrate up from the sea.

Critical support for the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary - Yurok Tribal Park Project has been provided by the Compton Foundation, the Foundation for Sustainability and Innovation, Lawrence Foundation, G. and E. Mead Foundation and Weeden Foundation.

Photo by Rick Hiser