Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition

Advocates for Living Streams

Friends of Stevens Creek Trail moving to remove fish migration barrier on Stevens Creek here.

  

Click here to see our Self-Guided Walks Brochures for Three Locations Along the Creek

 

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           Coyote Creek:

    Beauty of a Living Stream

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           Stevens Creek:

    Our Dream of Living Streams

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Restore and Protect Our Streams for all to Enjoy!

Become a member or renew your annual membership with a secure, tax-deductible gift (suggested donation is $50 per membership). When you join the Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition, you’re supporting the efforts to make our creeks healthy and beautiful once again – reversing the damage done to them through decades of urban development – and creating opportunities to enjoy them in many ways. All members will receive our electronic newsletter three times a year and updates on our work.

Environmental Restoration

Trash Free North Coyote Creek

Between August 2014 and September 2015, the Creeks Coalition with the help of over 1900 volunteers removed 82,000 pounds of trash from the banks of Coyote Creek between Yerba Buena Road and Tully Road in San Jose.   Then, in July 2016, we began another similar project - this time in north San Jose in the 5 mile stretch between Watson Park and Tasman Drive.    We will complete this project in early 2018.   We are recruiting volunteers from high schools, neighborhood and faith organizations and the corporate community  to remove trash identified in our trash surveys of the creek banks.    We are working closely with the City of San Jose and Santa Clara Valley Water District to coordinate our efforts with their contractors to haul the trash we collect to a suitable landfill.

Unique to this year’s project is the participation of the homeless who live along the creek.  Through the organizing efforts of the Coyote Creek Homeless Stream Stewards, the homeless have removed 222,000 pounds of trash in the 2 year period between October 2015 and October 2017.  Their help is essential in enabling the volunteer groups to achieve the trash free goal.

This project also created a docent training program and led 10 guided nature walks along Coyote Creek between January and June 2017.

Fish Passage Improvement Project on Stevens Creek

We assisted the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail to secure a Water District grant to create a plan with budget to address fish migration problems along Stevens Creek running from Cupertino to  Mountain View.   Kickoff meeting of stakeholders was held in September 2016 and the final report was submitted to the Water District in December 2017.     We are exploring the possibility of removing 2 of the 8 barriers we investigated in 2018 or 2019.     

          Fish Passage and Habitat Improvements on Coyote Creek

We assisted the Campus Community Association to secure a Water District Grant to create a plan to address fish migration and habitat issues at the Metcalf Ponds on Coyote Creek.  This complex of ponds is owned by the Water District and the County of Santa Clara and was indentified as a high priority in 2003.    Kickoff meeting was held November 2016 and the final report is expected in the spring of 2018.

Invasive Plant Removal and Native Plant Revegetation on Coyote Creek

We assisted Working Partnerships USA to secure a Water District grant to evaluate the costs and feasibility to hire the homeless to remove invasive non-native plants, such as the Giant Reed, for the banks of Coyote Creek and replace them with native plants.   The intent of the project is to achieve environmental enhancement of the creek and to help the homeless along the creek achieve the work skills necessary to empower them to secure gainful employment in the landscape management business and thereby relocate to off-creek stable secure healthy housing.  By relocating the homeless to off creek locations, the pollution and vegetative impacts of homeless occupation of the creeks will be eliminated.   Final implementation plan is anticipated in the spring of 2018.

     

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