A $4.3 million grant from CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Program to the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District is funding work to protect natural, cultural, and spiritual values in a key watershed in the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral homeland.

Blue Creek is the most important cold-water tributary to the Klamath River, serving as essential habitat for Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, and steelhead trout, as well as the federally threatened northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Humboldt marten. The Yurok Tribe and Western Rivers Conservancy have worked together over the past decade to purchase lands in the Blue Creek watershed in an effort to return Yurok ancestral lands to Yurok ownership. Now, these partners are teaming up with Humboldt County Resource Conservation District and CAL FIRE to implement forest health and fuels reduction work in the watershed to improve the resilience of this special place.

The project consists of repairs to Blue Creek Bridge; construction of a 4.2-mile-long shaded fuel break along a ridge adjacent to the Six Rivers National Forest; and hand and mechanical fuels treatments on more than 1,300 acres of second growth timberland. When completed, the project will reduce fuel loads while retaining the healthiest and largest trees, facilitate the return of cultural burning practices, improve wildlife habitat, and create employment opportunities for Yurok Tribe members. CAL FIRE estimates that the project will have a greenhouse gas benefit of more than 57,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over its lifetime, thanks to increased carbon sequestration on the landscape.

“The CAL FIRE Forest Health grant program has enabled the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District to support several important projects on Yurok Tribal lands and provides critical support for implementation of the Yurok Tribe’s natural resources management plans,” said Tim Hayden, Deputy Executive Director of Natural Resources for the Yurok Tribe.“ Continued support from CAL FIRE’s Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention grant programs will be essential to increase resiliency to climate change impacts in economically disadvantaged and rural tribal communities throughout California.”

“The Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest are protecting the most important cold-water lifeline for Klamath River salmon,” added Sue Doroff, president of Western Rivers Conservancy. “Thanks to CAL FIRE’s generous support, and our strong partnership with Humboldt County RCD, Western Rivers and the Yurok Tribe can together secure a more hopeful future for the fish, wildlife and people of the Klamath River.”

Work on the bridge and the fuel break have been completed, and environmental compliance work for the fuels reduction treatments is underway. The treatments themselves will be conducted over the next two years, with work slated to be completed by early 2025.