Monthly Archives: June 2025

Mongabay: In a big win, Yurok Nation reclaims vital creek and watershed to restore major salmon run

Barry McCovey has been director of the Yurok’s fisheries department for a quarter-century and is seen here on the Klamath. He says that while the four dams coming down on the Upper Klamath River is a crucial step toward restoring what was once the third-largest salmon run on the West Coast of the United States, the tribe’s reclamation of the Blue Creek watershed might be even more important to the eventual recovery of the entire ecosystem. Image courtesy of Matt Mais of the Yurok Tribe.

The genesis of this Northern California story began in Paris, France, in March 2024. There, I was visiting my friend and former student Phil Glynn, where he lives with his family. I asked if he knew of any environmental stories in the Pacific Northwest, where I would be traveling in late July. It wasn’t a random question. Phil and his wife Elizabeth, also a former student, run Kansas City-based Travois, a full-service company that facilities economic development and conservation on Indigenous lands across the U.S.

Phil told me about reclamation and restoration of Blue Creek. I recognized its news value and environmental importance immediately, as I explain in this story. What followed in the spring and summer of 2024 was a host of interviews with leaders of Portland, Oregon-based Western Rivers Conservancy, the Yurok tribal leadership and an immersive visit to Northern California, the Klamath River and, most importantly, ice-cold Blue Creek (in which I snorkeled to look for salmon!).

One of the biggest environmental stories of 2024 was the removal of all four dams on the Klamath River, the largest river restoration project in U.S. history. But without the concurrent revitalization of Blue Creek, what was once the West Coast’s third-largest salmon run would have little chance of full recovery. While it took a generation and a pioneering $60 million fundraising effort on behalf of Wester Rivers, the Blue Creek watershed and the salmon are coming back to the Yurok, the land’s rightful stewards — a rare environmental success story involving a timber-rich ecosystem and California’s largest Indigenous tribe.

Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler provided this insightful analysis and commentary of my story on LinkedIn. The story was also cited by Inside Climate News reporter Kiley Price, a former student, in her weekly newsletter, and republished by Resilence.org, a global eco-think tank.

Sue Doroff, former president and co-founder of Oregon-based Western Rivers Conservancy, spent the better part of the last 18 years working diligently and creatively to raise the $60 million required to buy the entire 19,000-hectare (47,000-acre) Blue Creek watershed from a timber company for the Yurok Tribe. Standing in the creek, she says, “We are in the business of forever; that’s how we feel about the Yurok taking over as stewards of this vital creek and watershed.” Image by Justin Catanoso.

Mongabay: Real-world return on climate adaption investments wildly underestimated, report finds

In 2023, Brazilian officials and representatives from several other cities around the nation met for a workshop in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state as part of the “Nature-Based Solutions Accelerator in Cities” project. Participants discussed ways for improving adaptation and nature-based solutions projects in order to better access climate finance. Image courtesy of Diego Padilha-Yantra Imagens/WRI Brasil.

When it comes to global finance for climate adaptation and resilience, the billions made available to vulnerable countries continues to fall hundreds of billions short of the actual need as climate catastrophes mount annually. In this story for Mongabay, I report on a novel, detailed study by World Resources Institute that is critically important to policymakers and finance leaders who gather at annual UN climate summits.

WRI economist Carter Brandon‘s team evaluated 320 adaptation and resilience grants in 12 mostly tropical countries totaling $133 billion in finance between 2014 and 2024. They found that for every $1 invested there was a return of more than $10 in value in unaccounted for benefits. This came in areas such as permanent infrastructure, job creation, risk management, public health improvements, lives saved, biodiversity protection. These benefits accrue whether or not they are counted or even recognized.

Brandon argues that finance institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and other major eco-financiers should consider these ancillary benefits as they evaluate future grant requests. He emphasized that countries, too, should better understand the full impact of the most effective adaptation and resilience projects and sharpen their finance requests. “What we now can see is that this investment is not only good for resilience,” Brandon told me, “but it’s also a really strong investment in development and public health.”

The Guandu water treatment plant in Nova Iguaçu, Brazil. The facility supplies water to more than 9 million people in Rio de Janeiro. Under the Cities4Forests initiative, WRI conducted a study on the benefits of natural infrastructure for water in five metropolitan regions, including Rio de Janeiro. By restoring forests and protecting watersheds upstream, the Rio de Janeiro project also helps reduce pollution, lower water treatment costs and secure long-term water quality. Image courtesy of Marizilda Cruppe/WRI Brasil.