Tule elk scamper away through the hills – credit – released by Gov. Newsom’s office
A California Indian nation celebrated the return of 17,000 acres of ancestral lands by releasing several of the region’s native Tule elk to roam the hills again for the first time in decades.
The Tule River Indian Tribe elders and community members gathered around the large steel transport containers and watched the animals scurry off into the foothills of the southwestern Sierra Nevada in a ceremony sweet closure decades in the making.
The 17,030 acres are made up of former ranch properties that connect the Tule River Tribe’s existing reservation with a large block of US Forest Service land that connects with Giant Sequoia National Monument in Sequoia National Forest.
By turning the land, known as the Yowlumne Hills, over to the tribe, a substantial conservation corridor for animals including these Tule elk will be established.
“The tribe is very invested in doing a lot of these kind of key species reintroductions, not only for their members, but also for the health and wellbeing of the ecosystem,” Geneva E. B. Thompson, deputy secretary for tribal affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency, told SFGATE by phone, adding that the tribe also reintroduced beavers to the South Fork Tule River last year.
The Tule elk is the smallest elk subspecies of North America, with males topping out at around 550 pounds and females at 425 pounds. They are a conservation success story, as overhunting reduced their population in California’s Central Valley marshlands to just a single breeding pair as far as we know. Conservation action has seen their numbers grow to 4,000, and they can be seen in many California reservations and parks.
CALIFORNIA WILDLIFE: Smashing 6 Million Sea Urchins with Hammers Saved a California Kelp Paradise Thanks to Volunteer Divers
The Tule tribe partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to reintroduce the elk, with the animals brought in from another managed population.
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) loved the idea of the land-back program, as it allows the Tule Tribe to steward the area and its animals, protect them from wildfires, and preserve the integrity of important regional watersheds. The agency’s Tribal Nature-Based Solutions program saw 1,000 acres of historic land returned to the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel in San Diego County earlier this year for the same purposes.
TRIBAL LAND RETURNING: Yurok Tribe Celebrates Again as Ancestral Homelands are Returned–in Wake of Historic Dam Removal
“This land return demonstrates the very essence of tribal land restoration, which expands access to essential food and medicinal resources,” Tule River Tribal Council Chairman Lester R. Nieto Jr. said in a CNRA press release.
“It also supports the ongoing preservation of cultural sites, deepens environmental stewardship, and restores wildlife reintroduction efforts. The Tribe envisions this land located in the Yowlumne Hills as a place to gather, heal, and simply be, for members of the Tule River Indian Tribe.”
WATCH the elk run off into the hills…
SHARE The Return Of This Land To The Animals And Tribes Of Its Past…