Thumbnail photo by Persephone Rose Del Norte County could lose $162,000 in revenue, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard said, urging his colleagues to oppose what he called “an erosion of our tax base” — the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s latest fee-to-trust land acquisition efforts. The properties the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation seeks to place into trust are close to three miles away from its boundaries in the Smith River townsite, Howard told his colleagues Tuesday, and are homes that “generate a substantial amount of revenue to the general fund.” Howard called on his colleagues to reach out to any contacts they might have within the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs as well as their national representatives. “That dollar goes to the bottomline of our general fund to provide services throughout the entire county,” he said, adding that changes to the fee-to-trust process that took place in January 2024 puts the burden on counties to prove that they would be harmed should the application move forward. “My greatest fear is not being able to communicate the reality of what that means to the bottomline of us being able to provide services here to Del Norte County.” The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation seeks to place two parcels within the Bradford Subdivision into trust, according to a notice the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent to the Board of Supervisors on April 23. These two parcels total about 0.48 acres of land and consist of homes that are housing tribal members and their families. Though the application states that the property isn’t contiguous to Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation land it is in close proximity. “There will be no change in use of the land,” the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s application states. “Adding these parcels into trust will expand the land base in an area which the tribe has historical and modern connections to.” On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to send a letter of opposition to Amy Dutschke, regional director of the BIA’s Pacific Regional Office. In its letter, the Board raises concerns about the parcels’ distance from the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s boundaries and its focus on acquiring single-family residential homes. According to the county’s letter, the parcels generate roughly $3,940 in property taxes annually along with $233 in special assessments for College of the Redwoods, Del Norte Unified School District and the Smith River Fire Protection District. The county also states that the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation currently owns or controls 44 parcels outside of its boundaries, 35 of which aren’t yet undergoing the fee-to-trust process. “… approval of this application risks setting a precedent that could encourage further acquisitions — accelerating cumulative losses to the county’s tax base and jurisdictional authority,” the letter states According to the county’s letter, if all 35 parcels were taken into trust, Del Norte County could lose $162,655. Other losses include $7,079 to Del Norte County Unified School District, $325 to College of the Redwoods and $1,161 to the Smith River Fire Protection District, the letter stated. The county’s letter also refers to changes to the fee-to-trust process adopted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in January 2024. According to the letter, those changes eliminated more stringent standards that had been applied to off-reservation fee-to-trust transfers. “[It] took into account local considerations on services provided using the lens of a ‘bungee cord’ that required greater scrutiny the greater the distance from the reservation,” the county’s letter states. “Under the revised rule, this standard no longer applies and, consequently local governments who provide services within the community are burdened with providing analysis relating to the impacts of the application.” While urging his colleagues to approve the letter, Howard referred to the county’s no net loss policy. The intent was to oppose lands the California Department of Fish and Wildlife acquired “back in the day” as well as the California State Parks’ acquisition of Rellim Redwood Company land, he said. Howard also mentioned an item his colleague District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short brought to the Board, a letter encouraging lawmakers in Washington D.C. to support the Secure Rural Schools Act. That legislation compensates counties with large tracts of U.S. Forest Service land for lost timber receipts and sales tax revenue, but hadn’t been included in the budget Congress approved in March. Howard, whose district includes the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s reservation, also mentioned having “four federally recognized tribes in our backyard.” “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing,” he said. “But what has been allowed to occur without a great deal of thought, I believe, by our Congressional representatives is the impact of fee-to-trust acquisitions, or applications in this case … moves that dollar out of our control. Basically there is no dollar collected at that point.” District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson, who represents areas within the Yurok Tribe’s boundaries, mentioned housing and impacts to the Klamath Fire Protection District from developments on tribal land that he says aren’t taxed. Wilson also brought up Public Law 280, a 1953 Congressional act that gave “certain states” criminal and civil jurisdiction over federal Indian lands. Public Law 280 did not give states the power to tax those lands, however. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, one of those states is California. “We have seen a good growth of housing developments being put in place,” said Wilson, who was Del Norte County sheriff from 2002 to 2014. “But as housing developments go in, calls for services go up and yet we get no tax base from these developments that are going into tribal lands, which there are many in Smith River and new ones going in in Klamath.” Wilson also criticized the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s current fee-to-trust application regarding the two Bradford Subdivision properties. “They’re far away from where their main tribal activities and tribal lands are and, so, to add these would make no sense other than just allowing the tribe to own them without having to pay taxes,” he said. According to Howard, the California State Association of Counties, or CSAC, is putting together a tribal working group to focus on intergovernmental affairs between sovereign nations and local governments. But, he said, a conversation really needs to take place amongst the National Association of Counties’ tribal working group. “These are the kinds of conversations we really need to take up with our representatives and figure out how best to address this issue because I don’t see it getting any better,” he said. “And we’re just a small voice in a larger piece of this puzzle.”