On California’s north coast, deep in the heart of the ancestral territory for the Yurok Tribe, generations of Yurok people came to the confluence of Prairie and Redwood Creeks to fish at a place called ‘O Rew. Just a few miles from the ocean, the creeks here teemed with salmon and trout, surrounded by impossibly tall redwood trees bathed in coastal fog.
The fish camp was just one of many village sites destroyed by settlers during the gold rush period in the mid-1800s.
“A lot of our coastal villages got hit really hard because of where they were and the resources they occupied,” said Rosie Clayburn, tribal heritage preservation officer for the Yurok Tribe.
Located almost exactly halfway between present-day Eureka and Crescent City, ‘O Rew became the site of a redwood lumber mill, one of several that boomed around the town of Orick after World War II. A good portion of the site was paved over; construction of the mill and nearby Highway 101 and upstream clear-cutting of old-growth redwoods degraded the watershed. The mill closed in 2009, and in 2013, Save the Redwoods League purchased the 125-acre property and with the Yurok Tribe, National Park Service, and California State Parks, embarked on a massive effort to restore Prairie Creek and the surrounding mill site. Now, the partners have signed an historic agreement to repatriate this land back to the tribe.
“This MOU creates a new conservation model that recognizes tribal land management,” said Clayburn. “It also recognizes that this is the first time we know of where tribally owned property will be co-managed with the national and state park.”
Initially, the League planned to convey the land to Redwood National and State Parks, with the understanding that the Yurok Tribe would continue to have access to the site and play a key role in co-managing it. Along with the creek restoration, the partners envisioned a southern “gateway” to California’s iconic redwoods, with new trails, interpretation, and possibly, a visitor center.
“As we explored scenarios, the tribe’s deep connection to this place became really clear,” said Jessica Carter, director of parks and public engagement for Save the Redwoods League. “We realized together that we could achieve and even improve upon the planned outcomes for this property with the Yurok Tribe themselves as the owner.”
“We’re always thinking about how to advance partnership models for conservation and public access that serve and reflect all communities, especially those that have been marginalized by historical land practices,” said Carter, adding that in 2012 and 2021, the League donated parcels of coastal forest to the Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of 10 tribes.
The Yurok Tribe has partnered with Redwood National and State Parks on other projects; notably, restoring a population of endangered California condors to the north coast. Since 2022, the tribe has also managed Chah-pekw O’ Ket’-toh “Stone Lagoon”Visitor Center just a few miles south of ‘O Rew—the first instance of a tribally operated visitor center within California’s State Park system.
The repatriation of ‘O Rew comes at a time when the future of the country’s national parks, which occupy millions of acres of land stolen from native people, is making its way into the national conversation. Ojibwe writer David Treuer recently argued that over 80 million acres of national parkland should be returned to tribes, who would then manage the parks on behalf of all Americans.
Steve Mietz, superintendent at Redwood National Park, said that the tribes are natural partners in helping co-manage the forests in Redwood National and State Parks, which many people view as sacred and irreplaceable. “This [agreement] is part of recognizing that traditional role that they have and that special knowledge they bring to it, and that they were here long before the park and will continue being here forever,” said Mietz.
Restoring a salmon stronghold
On a tour last September, Matt Williams, project lead for the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation, strode among knee-high sedges—just a few of the thousands of native grasses, shrubs, and trees that have been planted at ‘O Rew.
Years ago, Prairie Creek was rerouted and straightened to make way for the mill and adjacent Highway 101. Now, the creek has been directed into a newly constructed meander that runs through the center of the site. Williams paused by the bank to point out whole trees and smaller logs that had been carefully placed in the stream, with the aim of creating pockets of habitat for fish.
“We had a huge pile of wood, but we used it all,” said Williams.
While a host of partners have helped plan and design the years-long restoration, crews from Yurok Tribe Fisheries and Construction Corporation have largely implemented it. “This one is special for the Yurok Tribe,” said Williams. “All of our equipment operators are tribal members. We’re working in our back yard, close to home.”
There is no direct English translation for ‘O Rew, but Clayburn said this special spot was known as a place where trails come together.
“Both Prairie Creek and nearby Redwood Creek were very important for fishing and [are] still really important for salmon migrations,” Clayburn explained.
Prairie Creek feeds into Redwood Creek, which empties into the Pacific Ocean just northwest of Orick. Coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead, and other native fish depend on these streams, but they’ve been compromised by development.
Pinned between the highway and the mill, Prairie Creek had become entrenched and steep banked. Sediment from upstream logging operations built up what remained of the floodplain around the creek. Instead of growing fat in the rich, slow-moving wetland habitat, young fish got swept downstream in the swift flows.
Restoring that floodplain habitat is key to recovering fish, especially coho, said Mary Burke, North Coast regional manager at California Trout. “This site is so important because it’s the first best or the last best habitat for either adult fish coming up from the ocean or juvenile fish coming down from the grounds where they were born.”
One of the first steps, completed in 2021, was to build a two-acre pond and wetland complex that connects to Prairie Creek. Thousands of young coho found the new pond immediately, said Burke. “We experience time and time again with habitat restoration that the minute you provide access, the fish show up.”
Alongside the creek restoration, crews have been removing some 20 acres of asphalt and concrete that were left over from the lumber mill.
Fourteen organizations and agencies have come together to heal this scarred landscape. The $23 million restoration is being funded by the California State Coastal Conservancy, Save the Redwoods League, and several other entities.
Co-stewardship and cultural restoration
‘O Rew is at the center of the “restoration economy,” said Mietz, connecting to other restoration projects around it.
Forests in the watershed upstream are the focus of Redwoods Rising, an ambitious initiative launched by the National Park Service, California State Parks and Save the Redwoods League in 2018. The project aims to restore over 70,000 acres of second-growth forests in Redwood National and State Parks, many of which were clear-cut and replanted with Douglas fir. Thinning overcrowded trees, replanting with redwoods, and removing miles of logging roads will help forests be more resilient in the face of climate change, said Mietz. “We’re speeding up the timeline so it looks and feels like an old-growth forest much more quickly than if it were just left alone.”
Downstream of ‘O Rew, the Parks and California Trout are working with private landowners to pull back some of the levees the Army Corps of Engineers built around Redwood Creek to protect the community of Orick from flooding. Moving the levees further from the banks will help recover important estuary habitat for fish.
As important as it is, physical restoration is just part of the overall vision. The ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway will also give visitors traveling north the first chance to stop and experience old-growth redwoods. Visitors will be able to take a short hike on the property or connect to the parks’ trail systems, including the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, a popular redwood destination on the ridge above Orick.
The Yurok Tribe plans to build a traditional village with redwood plank houses and a sweat lodge on the site, which will be open to the public. When the land is officially conveyed to the Yurok Tribe in 2026, the village and new trails should be complete. The Gateway will help ease pressure on Redwood National and State Parks, where popular destinations like Fern Canyon are seeing more visitors than ever.
According to Clayburn, the tribe also plans to build a cultural and visitor center on the site, which will incorporate Yurok language, culture, and history, interpret the restoration that has occurred, and house recovered cultural items such as traditional baskets.
For the tribe, the project and land repatriation are important steps toward making their homeland whole again. “The Yurok Tribe’s goal is to reclaim all of our ancestral territory,” says Clayburn. “We work on that every day.”
