Friday July 31, 2026
Redheaded Blackbelt —
The Yurok Tribe and Karuk Tribe, through their respective fisheries and natural resource departments and partners, are implementing a large-scale restoration project spanning 1.25 river miles and covering up to 45 acres in the mid-Klamath River to address the impacts of historic mining operations and sedimentation from the McKinney Fire footprint.
Just downriver from the recently removed dams, the McConnell Bar project site is about 7 miles northwest of Yreka and 3.7 miles downstream of the Klamath’s confluence with the Shasta River. Humbug Creek runs into the McConnell Bar site, and the popular Tree of Heaven campground is nearby.
Conducted in collaboration with local landowner, philanthropist, and hospitality entrepreneur Lance Evans, the Karuk Tribe, Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, The Watershed Research and Training Center, and the Klamath Indigenous Land Trust, the project aims to correct the detrimental alterations of widespread gold mining, which have resulted in a scarcity of salmon and steelhead habitat.