The gateway to the California redwoods is being restored to the indigenous people. ‘That heals our people’

This mist-shrouded patch of coastal forest in the heart of Yurok Country has been cared for by the tribe for a thousand years.

But during the Gold Rush it was removed and, later, used by the logging industry, reshaping the area.

Now, as the land recovers from the scars of a longtime lumber mill, it has been returned to its original owners, who will use it as a public gateway to Redwood National and State Parks about 50 miles south of the Oregon border.

The Save the Redwoods League last month transferred 125 acres of land to the Yurok Nation following a year-long project to rehabilitate degraded industrial land in a diverse river basin. It opens to the public Saturday as the ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway, with interpretive exhibits and trails leading to old redwood trees.

The announcement comes as the indigenously populated state of California is working to restore their lands, an initiative enshrined in its constitution. The Yurok tribe has so far reclaimed 60,000 acres — about 12% — of its 500,000-acre ancestral land, along the north coast of the Klamath River, according to a spokesman. Most were returned in a series of operations that culminated last year in what is believed to be the largest “land restitution” deal in the country’s history.

The name of the gate ‘O Rew has no direct translation in English, said Rosie Clayburn, director of the Yurok Tribe’s Cultural Resources department. The world is known as a crossroads, he said. It sits at the confluence of Prairie Creek and Redwood Creek, important fish streams where the Yurok people once caught steelhead and salmon.

But the Yurok lost 90% of their land, including ‘O Rew, during the Gold Rush. Although many families stayed – Clayburn calls it an “attempted colony” – they endured massacres, boarding schools and other atrocities as invaders sought to take out many of the salmon stores and old-growth coasts redwoods.

Some of those trees were milled at ‘O Rew when it operated as the Orick Mill for more than 50 years, starting in 1954.

Mill builders dug a new channel for Prairie Creek and paved over the river. What was once a meandering stream became a straight and narrow canal, pushed into the side of the property on Highway 101, said Barry McCovey, director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department. The move eliminated a variety of aquatic habitats, such as ponds and slow-moving waters that serve as breeding grounds for juvenile salmonids, McCovey said.

“All the life that depends on that stream, whether it’s salmon or lamprey or bugs, evolved from that stream having this active connection with its floodplains and out-of-channel lakes,” he said. “When you take a stream out of its flood plain and put it in a man-made channel, you lose all that natural complexity, and you start losing some of those animals.”

McCovey described Prairie Creek as the primary habitat for coho salmon, which is legally protected in this part of California. The stream has the potential to be particularly productive because its waters are already protected under Redwood National and State Parks, he said.

The Save the Redwoods League purchased the property in 2013. After years of planning, the nonprofit in 2021 launched a $33-million restoration effort with the Yurok Tribe and the California Trout nonprofit. The project is funded by a combination of grant and public sources, including support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the California State Coastal Conservancy and the California Wildlife Conservation Board.

Yurok Tribe construction workers and fishermen hauled about 20 acres of thick tar, rerouted the mile-long braided waterway and created wetlands and two lakes. They added logs and wood debris to the water to create deep pools and other places where the baby fish could hide.

Yurok revegetation workers cut invasive weeds and planted nearly half a million native seedlings of 50 species, including redwoods and black cottonwood.

Juvenile coho salmon began using the ponds within a few weeks. The area has also attracted blue herons, kingfishers, otters, deer, bears, California condors and an elk herd notorious for tearing up new saplings.

“They’re brutal — they often pull down the trees we’ve just planted,” said Steve Mietz, president and CEO of the Save the Redwoods League. It’s almost like a game. They don’t even eat them.

A tribally operated and maintained gate will be available free of charge to the public. Crews are also building a pedestrian area with picnic tables and a mile of new trails that provide access to the famous Lady Bird Johnson Grove within Redwood National and State Parks.

“It’s been an amazing transformation to see it go from a parking lot to what is now a beautiful place,” said Mietz.

This project creates a new southern gateway to the Redwoods National and State Parks. More importantly, it provides guidance in a place of honor through Yurok culture, said Jessica Carter, executive director of programs at the Save the Redwoods League.

“It’s very gratifying to see the land return to its original owners,” he said, “and to accept the land so you can enjoy it.”

Although Redwood National and State Parks draw more than a million visitors a year and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, until recently, you could visit and not know Native people lived there, Clayburn said. Now, he said, when people visit the Yurok ancestral place, they will know.

‘IO Rew includes interpretive exhibits that tell the story of the site and the Yurok people from a Yurok perspective, he said. The information kiosk resembles a traditional Yurok house. Even the seating is a nod to Yurok culture – designed to resemble traditional chairs and, in one case, a boat.

The tribe hopes to rebuild the village of Yurok and build a cultural center that will serve as a gathering place and repository for artifacts recovered from museums and institutions, Clayburn said.

Many Yurok people had a difficult relationship with the mill, he said. On the other hand, the Yurok believe that redwoods are living creatures and only use them to build special and specific things like houses or boats.

On the other hand, many Yurok became loggers or mill workers to support their families, he said. Although that may have been primarily out of necessity, they took pride in their work.

“Now, you have this multi-generational thing going on where you have people whose parents and grandparents may have worked at that mill actually working at that place, giving it back, so that’s great,” Clayburn said.

“By healing the earth and healing the environment we live in, healing our water, that heals our people.”