SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 7 (Santa Rosa News Online) — California has cleared the final state hurdle to transfer 136 acres of Blues Beach and surrounding bluffs in Mendocino County to Kai Poma, the nonprofit founded by representatives of three Northern California tribes.
The California Transportation Commission approved the transfer on June 26, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited Kai Poma attorney and adviser Neil Thapar. Caltrans staff are expected to record the deed next, moving title from the state to the nonprofit.
The land sits just south of Westport on the Mendocino Coast. The Los Angeles Times reported that the transfer is the first time Caltrans-managed land has been returned to Indigenous tribes.
The move was enabled by SB 231, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Mike McGuire and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, according to a California Senate release and McGuire’s March 31, 2025 letter to the California Coastal Commission. The legislation requires the land to remain open to public access, bars commercial activity and limits use to habitat protection, environmental protection and Native American cultural resources.
Kai Poma was founded by representatives of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians. McGuire said in the Los Angeles Times that the 136-acre transfer was “about damn time,” and his office said he began working with the tribes and local residents on the property in 2019.
