The Quinault Nation has purchased more than 11,000 acres of ancestral land within its reservation from a logging company.
The land was one of the largest privately owned properties within the Quinault Indian Reservation, making up roughly half of the reservation’s privately owned fee lands, according to a press release from The Nature Conservancy. The land sits within the Olympic Rainforest and is largely in the Raft River watershed, home to salmon, steelhead trout, elk, and culturally significant gathering areas used by Quinault people.
President of the Quinault Indian Nation Guy Capoeman said the purchase allows the tribe to steward its ancestral lands cohesively, rather than parcel by parcel.
“This acquisition represents a vision in the making by our forebears,” Guy Capoeman, president of the Quinault Indian Nation, said in a press release. “This is making our ancestral land whole again and will allow future generations to strategically manage our culture and traditional land as our ancestors intended.”
The acquisition brings Quinault Indian Nation ownership within the Reservation from approximately 47% to more than 52%.
“Some of the most fractionated and disconnected land parcels exist on the Quinault Reservation, preventing meaningful forestry, fisheries, cultural and overall ecological resource regeneration,” Tyson Johnston, the 1st councilperson on the Quinault Tribal Council’s business committee, said. “This historic acquisition represents one of the most meaningful milestones Quinault has seen to restore our land base, heal our forests, and ensure our children and descendants can preserve our way of life.”
The acquisition cost was $60 million, funded by $25 million through Washington’s Climate Commitment Act and its Natural Climate Solutions Account, approximately $20 million from the Quinault Indian Nation, and $15 million raised by The Nature Conservancy from private donors and foundations.
