FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—May 4, 2023
Contact:
Kelley Beamer, Executive Director, Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts
503-348-9612 | kelley@oregonlandtrusts.org
Elizabeth Goward, Community Engagement Manager, McKenzie River Trust
541-743-6259 | elizabeth@mckenzieriver.org
Thanks to a $2.01m grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP, pronounced “Kelp”), the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians (CTSI) will soon own and steward Cape Foulweather, an ecologically and culturally significant property overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The CELCP grant that will fund this project was awarded to the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) this spring through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding for Coastal Zone Management programs.
As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, Congress made up to $284 million available for these grants for coastal land conservation projects. The award for Cape Foulweather was part of the first round funding for this important program.
According to a press release from DLCD, Cape Foulweather’s rare rocky shores contain important salt spray meadow and Sitka Spruce forest habitat which will be permanently protected for its ecological, cultural and visual benefits, bolstering the resilience of the Tribe and coastal community. With this funding, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians will regain ownership of a parcel on their traditional homelands—the only site the Tribe will own with coastal access.
“The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has worked for many decades to recover parcels of their ancestral lands across western Oregon, especially lands within the 1.1-million-acre Siletz Coast Reservation established as a treaty-guaranteed permanent homeland for the Tribe in November 1855. Opportunities for acquisition of small conservation lands like Cape Foulweather are allowing the Tribe to bring cultural lifeways and traditions back to its members by providing unique and ecologically healthy, quiet, and family-safe areas,” said Stan van de Wetering, Biological Programs Manager for the Tribe. “The Cape Foulweather site will be the first intertidal rocky shore property recovered by the Tribe, a piece of a landscape where tribal families have gone to harvest foods and medicines from time immemorial.”
Cape Foulweather is currently held by McKenzie River Trust, who purchased the property using a Craft3 bridge loan with the goal of transferring it to the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.
“We are thrilled to see the return of funding like this which recognizes natural land and cultural tradition at the core of infrastructure and critical to community resilience. Kudos to the state of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians for their leadership in working with NOAA,” said Joe Moll, Executive Director, McKenzie River Trust.
In the face of a biodiversity crisis and climate change, protecting our coasts and investing in resilient landscapes is more important than ever. The CELCP supports conservation easements and land acquisition, and is a critical funding tool to protect important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical or aesthetic values, or are threatened.
“The CELCP is a significant funding source for land trusts and Tribal partners interested in protecting ecologically and culturally significant coastal lands,” said Kelley Beamer, Executive Director for the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. “This project is one of the first to be funded since CELCP funding was restored in the 2021 Infrastructure bill, and it really shows the national and regional significance of Oregon’s unique coastal and estuary lands.”
About the Coalition for Oregon Land Trusts
The Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT) serves and strengthens the land trust community in Oregon. At COLT, we build connections and advance policies that help protect our natural world—our water, wildlife and open space—for all people, forever.
This work helps our coalition members—30 conservation organizations around the state—do what they do best: protect wildlife and wild places, defend working farms and forests, provide recreation and parks, drive climate solutions and science, champion clean water for all and engage communities to protect our natural world.
About McKenzie River Trust
The McKenzie River Trust is a regional nonprofit land trust with offices in Eugene and Newport OR. Our mission is to help people protect and care for the lands and rivers they cherish in western Oregon. Since 1989, we’ve acquired property and voluntary conservation easements to protect more than 8,000 acres of clean, free-flowing rivers, plentiful salmon runs, and vibrant farms and forests that provide livelihoods and habitat. Working with private willing landowners from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, we take on the responsibility of caring for land, water, and people, and ensuring that these resources are available for generations to come.
