WA Legislature Gives Quinault Tribe $25M to Buy Land

[bigtex]

This happened almost a year ago but I didn't see it posted anywhere.

March 13, 2024

WA tribe receives funding to return forest lands to tribal stewardship

A Washington state tribe is getting funding to return forest lands to tribal stewardship.

The Washington state Legislature has approved $25 million in Climate Commitment Act funding to the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula to purchase 11,000 acres of privately owned forest lands on their reservation.
Guy Capoeman, president of the Quinault Indian Nation, said the Climate Commitment Act is an important law for the state.

"It shows that the efforts of not only the Nation but the state as a whole and the concern for habitat and the environment is real," Capoeman emphasized.

The Climate Commitment Act was passed in 2021 and created a cap-and-invest program to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions, with 10% of revenue generated committed to tribes. The Nature Conservancy in Washington partnered with the tribe on the purchase.

Capoeman pointed out reacquiring the forest land for the tribe is momentous.

"Repatriating your lands back, I mean, what bigger goal for a tribe is there, right?," Capoeman noted. "Other than the wellness of their members. Those are all things that are instrumental in our existence as a people."

Capoeman added Indigenous people around the world have a significant role to play in combating climate change, given their connection to the land.

"Knowing how to manage and deal with those resources can show and help the rest of the world in how we mitigate and adapt to what's happening in the world today," Capoeman concluded.

https://nativephilanthropy.candid.org/news/wa-tribe-receives-funding-to-return-forest-lands-to-tribal-stewardship/

[BA Mongor]

So, all of the WA taxpayers just paid for 11,000 acres that we gave away.
How special. Is there a reason we couldn't have made the purchase and added them to our State Lands??
Is the state that inept at "stewardship"?? We have that much money that we can just give away $25M...

Wow....

[Skyvalhunter]

Capoeman pointed out reacquiring the forest land for the tribe is momentous.

Of course it is a benefit for the tribe because what I can bet, they do is to make it so ONLY tribal members have access. Who's to say that the Tulalip or other tribes won't come along ask for a similar deal and purchase more land thus locking non tribals out of current Public land. As I stated before near me the tribe purchased a small amount of land (50 or less acers) which bordered a huge chunk of Private land. They then talked that public landowner into gating the land way down where it bordered USFS land and locked out public access.
  Just remember the Tulalip tribe hired the head person away from Forterra (a private land purchaser that allowed public access on the land it purchased) with the intention of acquiring more private land and keeping nontribal members out. This is just the beginning.

[trophyhunt]

The tribes run this state, it will only get worse.  The whole climate change BS such a joke, the tribes have a bigger connection to the land??? Horse crap! 

[Mtnwalker]

We are having public works projects pulled right now because the state is operating at a $12B deficit but hey... priorities right?

[Humptulips]

I fail to see how changing ownership of this forest land does anything about climate change but it won't affect nontribal sportsmen. They will be buying land on the Res that only tribal members can hunt on now anyway.
It's a gift to the tribe financed through this carbon reduction climate commitment act. Hey, we all knew that money was going to be wasted.