OC WAVES 3.9

FUNDING
AWARDED FOR
COASTAL
RESILIENCE
Siletz Tribe to
acquire land on
Cape Foulweather
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 treatyguaranteed
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 familysafe
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
Photo by Jeremy Burke
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.
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