California's Yurok Tribe gets back ancestral lands that were taken over 120 years ago

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.

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.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of on how tribes and Indigenous communities are coping with and combating climate change.

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.

One fall morning in heavy fog, a motorboat roared down the turbid Klamath toward Blue Creek — the crown jewel of these lands — past towering redwoods, and cottonwoods, willows, alders. Suddenly, gray gave way to blue sky, where an osprey and bald eagle soared. Along a bank, a black bear scrambled over rocks.

The place is home to imperiled marbled murrelets, northern spotted owls and Humboldt martens, as well as elk, deer and mountain lions.

The Klamath River basin supports fish — steelhead, coho and Chinook salmon — that live in both fresh and saltwater. The Klamath was once the West Coast's third largest salmon-producing river and the life force of Indigenous people. But the state’s salmon stock has plummeted so dramatically — in part from dams and diversions — that fishing was banned for the third consecutive year.

“We can’t have commercial fishing because populations are so low,” said Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department. “Our people would use the revenue to feed their families; now there’s less than one salmon per Yurok Tribe member."

Experts say restoring Blue Creek complements the successful, decades-long fight by tribes to remove the Klamath dams — the largest dam removal in U.S. history.

This watershed is a cold-water lifeline in the lower Klamath for spawning salmon and steelhead that stop to cool down before swimming upstream. That's key amid climate-infused droughts and warming waters.

“For the major river to have its most critical and cold-water tributary … just doing its job is critical to the entire ecosystem,” said Sue Doroff, co-founder and former president of Western Rivers Conservancy.

For more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed for industrial timber.

Patchworks of 15 to 20 acres (6 to 8 hectares) at a time of redwoods and Douglas firs have been clear cut to produce and sell logs domestically, according to Galen Schuler, a vice president at Green Diamond Resource Company, the previous landowner.

Schuler said the forests have been sustainably managed, with no more than 2% cut annually, and that old growth is spared. He said they are “maybe on the third round” of clear cutting since the 1850s.

But clear cutting creates sediment that winds up in streams, making them shallower, more prone to warming and worsening water quality, according to Josh Kling, conservation director for the conservancy. Sediment, including from roads, can also smother salmon eggs and kill small fish.

Culverts, common on Western logging roads, have also been an issue here. Most "were undersized relative to what a fish needs for passage,” Kling said.

Land management decisions for commercial timber have also created some dense forests of small trees, making them wildfire prone and water thirsty, according to Williams-Claussen.

“I know a lot of people would look at the forested hillsides around here and be like, ‘It’s beautiful, it’s forested.’ But see that old growth on the hill, like way up there?” asked Sarah Beesley, fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe, sitting on a rock in Blue Creek. “There’s like one or two of those."

Fire bans, invasive plants and encroachment of unmanaged native species have contributed to loss of prairies, historically home to abundant elk and deer herds and where the Yurok gathered plants for cultural and medicinal uses.

Western Rivers Conservancy bought and conveyed land to the tribe in phases. The $56 million for the conservation deal came from private capital, low interest loans, tax credits, public grants and carbon credit sales that will continue to support restoration.

The tribe aims to restore historic prairies by removing invasive species and encroaching native vegetation. The prairies are important food sources for elk and the mardon skipper butterfly, said Kling from the conservancy.

Trees removed from prairies will be used as logjams for creeks to create habitat for frogs, fish and turtles.

The tribe will reintroduce fire to aid in prairie restoration and reestablish forest diversity and mature forests to help imperiled species bounce back.

Members know its going to take decades of work for these lands and waterways to heal.

“And maybe all that’s not going to be done in my lifetime,” said McCovey, the fisheries director. “But that’s fine, because I’m not doing this for myself.”

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Highway 101 is seen in the distance while traveling on the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Klamath, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Sarah Beesley, fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe, hugs a tree located in land that will be returned to the Yurok Tribe, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Sunlight falls on smalls plants located in land that will be returned to the Yurok Tribe, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Sunlight highlights the bark on a tree located in land that will be returned to the Yurok Tribe, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Sarah Beesley, fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe, walks up a fallen tree in land that will be returned to the Yurok Tribe, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Logan McKinnon, a member of the Yurok Tribe who is involved in the restoration implementation, walks along Blue Creek, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Blue Creek, center, flows into the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Wildlife footprints are visible on a bank of the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

A western toad sits on the sand along the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, looks at footprints she believed to be of a black bear while walking on land that will be returned to the tribe Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

A great blue heron flies above the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

A black bear walks along a rocky bank of the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

The bottom of Blue Creek is visible on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Yurok Tribe members Tiana Williams-Claussen, left, and Morgan Clayburn make their way to Blue Creek while traveling on the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran has proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic as an ongoing crackdown on demonstrators has led to hundreds of deaths.

Trump said late Sunday that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports mount of increasing deaths and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night.

Iran did not acknowledge Trump’s comments immediately. It has previously warned the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has accurately reported on past unrest in Iran, gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran cross checking information. It said at least 544 people have been killed so far, including 496 protesters and 48 people from the security forces. It said more than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

The Latest:

A witness told the AP that the streets of Tehran empty at the sunset call to prayers each night.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, addressed “Dear parents,” which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

—- By Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Iran drew tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators to the streets Monday in a show of power after nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy.

Iranian state television showed images of demonstrators thronging Tehran toward Enghelab Square in the capital.

It called the demonstration an “Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism,” without addressing the underlying anger in the country over the nation’s ailing economy. That sparked the protests over two weeks ago.

State television aired images of such demonstrations around the country, trying to signal it had overcome the protests, as claimed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier in the day.

China says it opposes the use of force in international relations and expressed hope the Iranian government and people are “able to overcome the current difficulties and maintain national stability.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday that Beijing “always opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs, maintains that the sovereignty and security of all countries should be fully protected under international law, and opposes the use or threat of use of force in international relations.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned “in the strongest terms the violence that the leadership in Iran is directing against its own people.”

He said it was a sign of weakness rather than strength, adding that “this violence must end.”

Merz said during a visit to India that the demonstrators deserve “the greatest respect” for the courage with which “they are resisting the disproportional, brutal violence of Iranian security forces.”

He said: “I call on the Iranian leadership to protect its population rather than threatening it.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday suggested that a channel remained open with the United States.

Esmail Baghaei made the comment during a news conference in Tehran.

“It is open and whenever needed, through that channel, the necessary messages are exchanged,” he said.

However, Baghaei said such talks needed to be “based on the acceptance of mutual interests and concerns, not a negotiation that is one-sided, unilateral and based on dictation.”

The semiofficial Fars news agency in Iran, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, on Monday began calling out Iranian celebrities and leaders on social media who have expressed support for the protests over the past two weeks, especially before the internet was shut down.

The threat comes as writers and other cultural leaders were targeted even before protests. The news agency highlighted specific celebrities who posted in solidarity with the protesters and scolded them for not condemning vandalism and destruction to public property or the deaths of security forces killed during clashes. The news agency accused those celebrities and leaders of inciting riots by expressing their support.

Canada said it “stands with the brave people of Iran” in a statement on social media that strongly condemned the killing of protesters during widespread protests that have rocked the country over the past two weeks.

“The Iranian regime must halt its horrific repression and intimidation and respect the human rights of its citizens,” Canada’s government said on Monday.

Iran’s foreign minister claimed Monday that “the situation has come under total control” after a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in the country.

Abbas Araghchi offered no evidence for his claim.

Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.

Iran’s foreign minister alleged Monday that nationwide protests in his nation “turned violent and bloody to give an excuse” for U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene.

Abbas Araghchi offered no evidence for his claim, which comes after over 500 have been reported killed by activists -- the vast majority coming from demonstrators.

Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.

Iran has summoned the British ambassador over protesters twice taking down the Iranian flag at their embassy in London.

Iranian state television also said Monday that it complained about “certain terrorist organization that, under the guise of media, spread lies and promote violence and terrorism.” The United Kingdom is home to offices of the BBC’s Persian service and Iran International, both which long have been targeted by Iran.

A huge crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran, gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue in LA’s Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian government. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by early evening only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with the the demonstrators, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver. A police statement said one person was hit by the truck but nobody was seriously hurt.

The driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” police said in a statement Sunday evening.

Shiite Muslims hold placards and chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and show solidarity with Iran in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Activists carrying a photograph of Reza Pahlavi take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Activists take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)