David Muir visits North Coast redwoods, Yurok Tribe

This weekend, anchor David Muir featured the North Coast as part of a special edition of ABC World News Tonight. That broadcast was part of the network's multi-platform, 24-hour live "Disney Celebrates America" broadcast on the occasion of the semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

As part of the broadcast - airing across ABC, National Geographic, Hulu, Disney+ and several other platforms - Muir went to Redwood National and State Park, met with Yurok Tribe chair Joseph James and Save the Redwoods League's Ben Blom and even toured Eureka's Sequoia Park Zoo Skywalk, touting the North Coast's old growth coastal redwoods as one of the "Seven Wonders of America."

In addition to visiting national parks, Muir met with Indigenous leaders throughout the U.S., including members of the Havasupai Tribe at the Grand Canyon and Yurok tribal authorities locally.

"We can't change history, but we can learn from it and grow from it. Every person grows, no matter how old you are," James told Muir during the broadcast. "And it's a growing moment, not just for the tribe, not just for the environment, not for this project. It's for everybody."

In a press release on the occasion, the Yurok Tribe highlighted a number of initiatives and improvements that the tribe has recently undertaken or will undertake this summer to continue to grow as a community.

Those include breaking ground on a new 10,500-square-foot Yurok Youth Behavioral Health Center and planning a future groundbreaking for the 26,000-square-foot, 53-bed Wah-sekw Won Yurok Health and Wellness Center. They also include continuing to work "restoring critically important prairie habitat in the Blue Creek watershed and within the boundaries of a 47,000-acre property the Tribe regained last year," introducing a new cohort of young California condors to the wild, working on fisheries restoration along the Klamath River, bringing high-speed broadband and solar energy to community members and more.

"We are still here, and we are getting stronger every day," said Chairman James. "Through our sovereignty and strong partnerships, we are building a brighter future for the Yurok people."

The Yurok Tribe also noted, in its press release, that "multiple Tribal Councils and numerous tribal elders made extraordinary sacrifices and overcame extreme adversity to put the Tribe on this positive trajectory."

Robert Schaulis can be reached at 707-441-0585.

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