Thursday, October 2, 2008

Humans & Creeks, Living Together in the City

I have described my decades-long relationship to Coyote Creek in a prior post.

Coyote Creek is one of San Jose's most valuable assets, serving as:

  • A vital riparian corridor for fish, furry and feathered creatures

  • The sediment transfer mechanism through the watershed

  • A drainage system for conveying storm water runoff from paved surfaces and buildings

  • A walking and bikeway system of creek-side trails, allowing the members of this community the enjoyment of the natural, right in the midst of this thriving urban hardscape we call Silicon Valley.

For a short and inspirational video about local creeks, click here.

San Jose is now really growing UP, with ever denser housing in the urban core and even in the burbs, along the light rail lines and elsewhere, sometimes under the moniker of Affordable Housing.

The added stress that accompanies a denser human environment needs a way for all of us to release some of that stress through some contact with nature. Trips to Yosemite are wonderful, but costly in time, fuel and sometime peak use impacts, that greatly reduce the intended benefit of the trip.

Our creeks are right here. Some of the trails are already in place. More will be welcomed as the public input from local residents, students and workers in the urban core make their desires known.

If you want more access to local creeks, restored to their full spectrum of uses listed above, you may want to join and become active in the Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition or a more local group like Friends of Coyote Creek

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