Small Grant: $5,000
The Permanente Creek Watershed tour was developed by the Committee for Green Foothills (CGF) in partnership with GreenTown Los Altos and took place on Saturday, May 04, 2013. The tour was filled to capacity and included 60 guests – including community members, students, and environmental activists – on a 7-hour tour of the watershed. The tour included twelve speakers from Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Committee for Green Foothills, Sierra Club, Acterra, Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition, De Anza College, San Jose State University, City of Mountain View, and a few engaged community members.
The tour took guests to five stops along the watershed:
- Rancho San Antonio Bridge overlooking Permanente Creek (topics: the characteristics of a healthy natural watershed, riparian setbacks, and urban challenges)
- Permanente Creek Flood Retention Basin in Rancho San Antonio (topics: flood control, proposed plans, impacts of construction, fish passage, and habitat management)
- Diversion Channel at Eastwood and Miramonte (topics: diversion channel, fish passage, and habitat management)
- McKelvey Park (topics: flood control basins, 100-year floods, and climate change impacts)
- Permanente Creek Trail (topics: habitat management, burrowing owls, hands-on restoration project, and habitat restoration)
This tour was a great success and with the support of SFEP, Committee for Green Foothills was able to provide discounted tickets to local students from De Anza College, who found this tour to be highly valuable. They had the opportunity to meet experts in the field and requested additional information and resources from CGF after the tour to be used in their classes to analyze local watershed conditions. CGF continues to partner with local organizations to develop educational programs specific to each community in an ongoing effort to inspire and inform.
Photos by Committee for Green Foothills