Yurok Lands Act of 2019

Yurok Lands Act of 2019

This bill addresses the management of Yurok Reservation lands.

The Department of the Interior must enter into a cooperative agreement with the Yurok Tribe for protecting the natural resources of Redwood National Park.

The bill confirms the 2006 Cooperative Agreement between the Department of the Interior and the Yurok Tribe for the Cooperative Management of Tribal and Federal Lands and Resources in the Klamath River Basin of California and authorizes Interior to implement the agreement.

The Forest Service must transfer approximately 1,229 acres in the Yurok Experimental Forest and Six Rivers National Forest to Interior. That land must be held in trust for the benefit of the tribe and be managed by the tribe for conservation and research purposes. The land may not be used for gaming activity or for old growth logging.

Interior must revise the boundary of the reservation as depicted on the map titled Revised Yurok Indian Reservation Boundary and dated September 20, 2017. National Forest System land and National Park System land within the revised reservation must be administered by the Forest Service and the National Park Service, respectively.

The bill gives the tribe the option to expand its role in the environmental review process with respect to major federal actions within the revised Yurok Reservation.

The bill designates the Bald Hills Road, which runs from U.S. Highway 101 to the Klamath River, as the Yurok Scenic Byway.

The bill ratifies and confirms the tribe's governing documents.