Changing How We Think about Coyote Valley, San Jose
by Alice Kaufman, Legislative Advocacy Director, Committee for Green Foothills
Coyote Valley is one of the last significant pieces of open space in Santa Clara Valley. As you travel on US 101 between south San Jose and Morgan Hill, you are traveling through Coyote Valley. Nestled between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range, it spans over 7,400 acres of valley floor habitat — that’s seven times the size of Golden Gate Park.
This surviving remnant of the habitat that once covered all of Santa Clara Valley is beautiful, but also offers us so much more:
- It provides critical habitat for wildlife migration
- It recharges our drought-drained aquifer and acts as natural infrastructure to prevent future flooding
- It offers us locally-grown food
- It contributes to San Jose’s fight against climate change
- It connects people to nature
For decades, Coyote Valley has been under threat of industrial development, but miraculously it has survived and is still mainly open space today.
With help from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a new campaign to Protect Coyote Valley aims to permanently preserve this beneficial open space and defend it from sprawling industrial development.
Why Is Coyote Valley Important?
Wildlife. Although every remaining piece of open space in Silicon Valley is precious, Coyote Valley carries a special significance as the primary migratory route between the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west and the Diablo Range to the east. As the closest point between these two ranges as well as the least developed, north Coyote Valley is a critical wildlife corridor. Animals living in these hills need to migrate and maintain their biodiversity or face extinction.
POST has been following bobcats using radio-collars that specialize in determining when one is on the move versus at rest, providing insights into specific place-based behaviors and identifying road-crossing hotspots, habitat preferences, seasonal differences in travel routes, and more. Check out the interactive map of one of the bobcats here.
Water. Groundwater is another important environmental resource that benefits from Coyote Valley’s open space. The Coyote Watershed is the county’s largest — 322 square miles — and because of local geology, Coyote Valley is one of the few places where the aquifer — which supplies a significant percentage of Santa Clara County’s drinking water — can be recharged.
Moreover, Coyote Valley acts as natural green infrastructure to help disperse the water from heavy rainfall and prevent future flooding, which is a much better solution than investing in man-made levees or concrete structures.
Farmland. Coyote Valley contains much of Santa Clara County’s remaining prime farmland soils. Silicon Valley, earlier famed as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for the blossoming orchards that covered it, has lost most of its historic agricultural land. It is vital to preserve what remains if locally-grown food is to be available in the future.
Farmland, like other open space, plays a critical role in providing the green infrastructure that cleans our air and water and fights climate change.
People. Coyote Valley connects more people with nature. Keeping it as open space offers more opportunities to enjoy its scenic landscapes and precious natural resources for present and future generations. As the region continues to grow, protecting Coyote Valley’s iconic hillsides, creeks, and streams is increasingly important to maintain the high quality of life in Santa Clara County.
Coyote Valley Must Be Preserved
The Protect Coyote Valley campaign is working to change the the City of San Jose’s attitude towards Coyote Valley. For decades, it has been viewed as little more than a place to put future jobs. And we are making progress.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has stated:
“We have a common obligation to preserve what was here before we got here … I used to bike through Coyote Valley and I am still as inspired as ever. We have had a General Plan in the City of San Jose that has called for a very large development of jobs here in the Valley. We are increasingly recognizing that there are other opportunities for what can happen here in Coyote Valley, certainly with regard to the wildlife corridor that already exists here; certainly with regard to water retention and flood control; certainly for water recharge for our underground aquifer which have been so badly depleted through the last drought. We have so many opportunities here in Coyote Valley. And we have some enlightened landowners who are quite willing to engage with us and talk with us about how we can preserve what is precious here.”
What You Can Do
1. Sign up to receive our email alerts and we will notify you when and how you can take action to Protect Coyote Valley.
2. Tell your friends and neighbors about the wonders of Coyote Valley and how special it is for all of us! Get to know us by follow and liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Together, we can save this jewel of open space for future generations.
3. Enjoy Coyote Valley — take a hike, participate in a bike ride, bird watch or just refresh your spirits by visiting the valley and enjoying this remarkable place.
To pledge your support to protect this remarkable place, go to Protect Coyote Valley.
About Protect Coyote Valley
The Protect Coyote Valley campaign is led by the Committee for Green Foothills and supported by Greenbelt Alliance, Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, and SAGE — Sustainable Agriculture Education. It aims to preserve Coyote Valley, San Jose as open space that offers flood-buffering wetlands, an essential wildlife habitat and migratory area, and active farmlands.
Visit our blog to read more on how we’re protecting Coyote Valley!
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Alice Kaufman is a Legislative Advocacy Director at Committee for Green Foothills. She is a founding member of Redwood City Neighbors United, a community group working to oppose the massive Cargill/DMB Saltworks development on the Redwood City salt ponds.
