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California’s Yurok Tribe will be the first Native people to manage Tribal land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding. Starting in 2026, the Tribe will have ownership of 125 acres that will serve as a new gateway to Redwood National and State Parks. The land, called ’O Rew in the Yurok language, was stolen from the Yurok during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s along with 90 percent of the Tribe's territory.
The agreement “starts the process of changing the narrative about how, by whom, and for whom we steward natural lands,” said Sam Hodder, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League.
The area is home to the world’s tallest trees—some over 350 feet tall—and is adjacent to the Redwood National and State Parks, which includes one national park and three California state parks totaling nearly 132,000 acres. Save the Redwoods League bought the property from a timber company in 2013 and has worked alongside the Tribe and others to restore it.
Plans for ‘O Rew include a traditional Yurok village of redwood plank houses and a sweat house, a new visitor center displaying Yurok artifacts, and over a mile of new trails that will connect to existing trail systems in the adjacent parks.
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A year after being permanently protected as part of Castner Range National Monument, our beloved Mexican Gold Poppies are popping up once again on the eastern slope of the Franklin Mountains. This year more than ever, their delicate deep green leaves and diminutive yellow-orange blossoms represent something far bigger, which is taking root—not just in Northeast El Paso—but across the country.”
