An Indigenous‑led land trust has bought 10,000 acres along the Klamath River in the United States, in one of the largest private land back deals in the region’s history.
The Klamath Indigenous Land Trust (KILT), formed in 2024 by members of several Klamath Basin tribes, has finalised a US$10 million purchase from power company PacifiCorp. The property stretches across northern California into Oregon and includes land that, until recently, sat under reservoirs behind four hydroelectric dams.
Those dams (JC Boyle, Copco No. 1 and 2, and Iron Gate) were removed between late 2023 and 2024 under the Klamath River Renewal Project, the largest dam removal and river‑restoration effort in US history. Their removal has reconnected around 400–420 miles (640–675km) of salmon habitat for the first time in more than a century.
PacifiCorp had owned the land for about 100 years and used it mainly to run power lines; there was little environmental management and the former reservoir beds were left bare after draw‑down. Under the deal, the company keeps easements to operate its lines, while the land itself passes to KILT.
KILT chair Molli Myers, a Karuk woman, told local media the acquisition was funded entirely by philanthropic donations and framed it as a logical next step after dam removal: first free the river, then return stewardship of its banks.
The trust plans to work with tribal governments on stream restoration, revegetation and cultural burning to protect cold‑water refuges that are critical for salmon recovery. Early monitoring in 2024 recorded thousands of Chinook salmon using newly opened habitat upstream of the former dams.
For tribal communities whose fishing rights and economies were gutted by earlier dam construction and fish kills, the deal is about more than real estate. Advocates say it represents a tangible shift from corporate control to Indigenous stewardship along a river that once epitomised conflict over water.
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