Monday January 27, 2025
Yurok Tribe via Maven’s Notebook —
This week, the Yurok Tribe started implementing a critical phase of an ongoing project to restore more than 60 acres of prairie habitat that once blanketed a ridge above Blue Creek.
Staff from three of the Tribe’s natural resources departments are hand-sowing 900 pounds of native plant seed over Steven’s Prairie as part of an integrated effort to reestablish the grassland ecosystem and renew two-miles of salmon and steelhead habitat in Blue Creek, the most productive Klamath River tributary on the Yurok Reservation.
“Our goal is to restore the meadows and prairies to increase plant diversity and abundance that will provide habitat and food for wildlife from insects to elk. Furthermore, many of the prairie plants are used by Yurok people for food, medicine, and utilitarian purposes. Where our wildlife thrives, we thrive, as members of the same ecological community,” says Tiana Williams-Claussen, the Yurok Wildlife Department Director.
A multidisciplinary team of experts from the Yurok Tribe’s Fisheries, Wildlife, Watershed Restoration & Roads, Environmental, Cultural, Forestry and Fire Departments are collaborating on the pivotal Steven’s Prairie Project. Prior to the project, nearly all of the historic prairie was covered in young Douglas firs, which were removed and incorporated into the restoration effort on Blue Creek.