Success (for now): Protecting the Ridgeline

For decades, Lehigh/Permanente Quarry has been mining the foothills on the outskirts of Cupertino. In 1972 Lehigh granted Santa Clara County an easement with the purpose of protecting the ridgeline and the surrounding environment and viewshed. However, Lehigh has consistently violated this agreement. Mining activities have resulted in landslides that eroded the ridgeline, degraded waterways, harmed surrounding wildlife habitat and damaged the viewshed of Rancho San Antonio Park.

We thank everyone who emailed the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The supervisors voted unanimously to study the potential for joint enforcement authority with Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) over the environmental easement. The results of the study will come back to the Supervisors on August 17th of this year and we will keep you updated. We hope the negotiations are successful and MROSD can help protect the ridgeline. For a bird’s eye view of the Lehigh Quarry and Cement Plant, watch this video.

Action needed (Los Gatos residents):

The Town of Los Gatos is updating its General Plan to guide the community and shape development for the next 20 years. Let's ensure that birds and nature are included in the plan! Please join the town’s virtual Community Meeting to learn more about the draft plan and share your questions and comments. This is an important opportunity to show support for our birds, natural environment, responsible development, and protection of our riparian corridors and hillsides.

Please attend this virtual Community Meeting on Tuesday, June 29th at 6:00pm to show support for included Bird Safe Building Design and Dark Sky Policies and provide stronger protections for our riparian corridors, specifically along Los Gatos Creek. To help reduce pervasive light pollution, ask for Town lighting to include dimmers, motion sensors, and timers and for LED lights to be at a warm color correlated temperature.

Google support for Monarch Butterflies

Last year, California recorded only 2,000 monarch butterflies during the winter. Now Google is looking to support monarch butterflies and pollinator habitats in the state! Visitors to the Google campus in North Bayshore, Mountain View can already see monarchs, swallowtail and other butterflies in areas where Google planted California native gardens, but the effort to help the monarchs will now expand in California to include Google's campuses as well as Coyote Valley.