Our local birds need your help...

Environmental Action Campaign

Despite the pandemic, city planning projects have not slowed. The full calendar of council meetings and environmental issues under debate have made our advocacy work even more urgent for birds and their habitats. With your help, SCVAS can remain deeply involved with the welfare of our wildlife and work with local city councils to make our voices heard. Here is a small sample of our recent work:

Bird-safe Design and Dark Sky

• We are leading advocacy for bird-safe design guidelines and standards for Santa Clara Valley cities. Substantial progress has been made in San Jose, Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Campbell.

• We are promoting Dark Sky ordinances in Cupertino and Sunnyvale, and actively opposing the proliferation of electronic billboards in San Jose.

Creek Corridors

• We are working to protect and improve creek corridors—supporting projects that restore creek ecosystems along Permanente Creek and the Sunnyvale West Channel, and opposing projects that choke the creeks, particularly along the Guadalupe River.

Open Space

• Our current engagement with the Moffett Park Specific Plan in Sunnyvale is already bearing fruit as the Vision and Guiding Principles show ecologically focused urban design. We continue to advocate for the protection and expansion of protected open space and wetlands by the bay.

• Decades of advocacy culminated in the historic campaign to protect Coyote Valley, which resulted in the preservation of 937 acres of prime bird habitat and a key wildlife corridor in San Jose. We are excited about the preservation of freshwater wetlands and habitat for Burrowing Owls and Tricolored Blackbirds.

Animals

• In Mountain View, we motivated the city to remove the spiked barriers that prevent Swallows from nesting on structures at Shoreline. We are now advocating for an expanded buffer zone around the island of the Sailing Lake to protect Black Skimmer and Forster’s Tern nests.

• We are working to reduce roadkill and improve wildlife crossing for amphibians and other small animals to and from water features, including at Lexington Reservoir and Valley Water infrastructure.

The increasing threats

Relentless development pressure continues in Santa Clara County, affecting all our important bird habitats: hills and valleys, creeks and wetlands, and remaining open space along the bay. You can help stop the fragmentation of irreplaceable habitat and the proliferation of structures that are dangerous to birds.

An urgent need

What we need most are financial resources to effectively resist the onslaught of destructive development proposals. These activities take time and perseverance. We need increased financial resources to fund the crucial research and presentations to city councils and other governing bodies that are necessary to promote and protect our birds and environment.

Please consider giving to our Environmental Action campaign today. By contributing, you will be helping protect our birds. You can make Audubon's voice be heard.

Thank you for your continued support!

Burrowing Owl. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne

Black Skimmer. Photo by Bill Walker

Laguna Seca OSP in North Coyote Valley. Photo by Matthew Dodder

Tricolored Blackbird. Photo by Tom Grey

Action Alert: San Jose Electronic Billboards

Dear San Jose Friends and Residents,

The City of San Jose proposes an amendment to the Sign Ordinance which will expand the locations available for electronic signs in the City (Phase II). The proposed change offers no economic benefits to the City of San Jose and comes at a great financial cost to the City. It will allow the proliferation of lighted digital advertisement in the City, with potentially dozens of freeway facing, free standing, energy wasting, driver distracting and hazardous to wildlife electronic billboards. It will also allow electronic signage on buildings and structures in some areas of Downtown San Jose.

And please call your city council member and express your opposition to electronic billboards. You can find their contact information HERE.

Here are some facts, questions and talking points:

• There is no economic benefit to the City. Why is this a priority at all?

• Science shows clear causation between electronic signs and distracted driving. - Why risk more accidents and put people's lives at risk with freeway facing Electronic Signs?

• Artificial light at night interferes with the internal clocks of all living things, disrupting hormones and physiological functions. It can increase health risks, including cancer (see link HERE) The City should not promote changes that increase the health risks of its citizens.

• The City is proposing the expansion of allowable signage lighting hours throughout the night. Most migratory birds fly long-distances at night, and alight to rest from their journeys during the hours just before dawn. The City should not interfere with the amazing phenomenon of bird migration.

• Highway 87 and I280 have been classified as “scenic highways” and are free of billboards at this time. Why abandon this policy?

• How will this impact the Lick Observatory? How will YOU be able to see Comet Neowise through the City Glow?

• City staff has said that electronic signs will replace regular billboards at a rate of 4:1 and that this would improve the aesthetics of San Jose. Do you agree that glaring lights at night improve the quality of life in San Jose? The City could find a better way to remove blight. What would this process set in motion? What will happen when these electronic signs become blight? Will they be replaced with even brighter signs?

• Proponents say that this change will create a legal path for this type of signage. They argue that these signs appear anyway, and Code Enforcement is weak. Does it make sense to legitimize hazards rather than strengthen code enforcement? Is permitting 90+ electronic signs the best solution? Will code enforcement be able to correct neighborhood complaints about the brightness of the lights?

• Proponents say they will study impacts to wildlife. There is already a large body of research detailing ways that light pollution harms birds, plants and animals. So many populations of flora and fauna are in decline. The City should not cause further unnecessary harm.

• Digital billboards are tracking you (see link HERE). The most intrusive aspect of the web is expanding into our daily lives, targeting us with political and commercial ads.

Please email or call your City council member and ask San Jose to stop this runaway process, and to focus on the critically important health, social and environmental issues that our society is struggling with. Please ask them to SHELVE THIS PROJECT.

Much appreciated,

Shani Kleinhaus
Environmental Advocate
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society

Conservation Corner Summer 2020

Shani Kleinhaus
Environmental Advocate

Cupertino

Snowy Egrets, Shani Kleinhaus

COVID-19 brings uncertainty which we all experience, but one thing seems certain: planning for future projects never stops.

While our government agencies continue toplan and approve projects large and small, it is incumbent upon us to do what we can to protect birds and their habitat, and to keep them in sight of decision makers at this challenging time.

Here are some of the projects we have been working on:

Proliferation of Electronic Signs and Billboards Envisioned

In San Jose, SCVAS is concerned with an amendment to the Sign Ordinance of the San Jose Municipal Code. This proposed amendment will promote the proliferation of electronic billboards along freeways, and other types of programmable electronic signs in the city, all to display commercial advertisement. In a joint comment letter with the Sierra Club, SCVAS expressed apprehension regarding light pollution impacts of programmable electronic billboards and signs to biological resources, the night sky, the aesthetic character of our region, and the health, safety and quality of life in San Jose. Audaciously, the City proposed that since the electronic billboards are expected to replace standard billboards at a 1:4 ratio, this amendment will beautify the City.

The amendment process will continue this spring, and there will be opportunities to engage. But if you are a San Jose resident, please contact your Council member's office and ask your representative to put an end to this initiative. The more they hear from the voters in their districts, the better. Please contact shani@scvas.org for additional information.

Nuttall’s Woodpeckers, Shani Kleinhaus

Burrowing owls

With the stay-at-home directive in spring, volunteers were no longer able to help maintain habitat for the burrowing owls of Alviso. Our staff continued to survey the habitat at the Regional Wastewater Facility, and maintain the burrow areas free of tall grass.

Also in San Jose, City council approved a new Airport Master Plan to allow great expansion of the airport capacity to accommodate 22.5 million annual passengers by 2037,
and an annual compounded growth rate of 2.4% in cargo tonnage. This translates to a new concourse, larger terminals, additional gates, a hotel, new parking garages, and additional aviation and cargo support facilities. The Environmental Impact Report proposes to mitigate the loss of only 32.4 acres of nesting habitat by paying Habitat Conservation Fees.

Ongoing expansion of the airport over the past 10 years eliminated much of the available habitat already. Mitigation failed to save the owls or replace their habitat. Indeed, the airport recognizes that maintenance of mitigation areas "has not been adequate", and that they no longer expect a viable population to be sustained at the airport. The lack of adequate maintenance was, in our opinion, one of the drivers of the decline in burrowing owl population in our region, and we are devastated at the loss of habitat at the airport which 10 years ago sustained the largest population in the valley.

In our comments on the Environmental Impact Report and in front of Council, we asked for additional mitigation funding for the Habitat Agency. But the airport, and the City Council, did not allocate additional funds. We hope that the meager mitigation fees to the Habitat Agency will help the owl population stay with us a little longer.

Bikes on Narrow Nature Trails

Townsend’s Warbler, Keith Wandry

The California State Parks Department is evaluating a Change-In-Use (CIU) for the trails within Castle Rock State Park to allow expansion of mountain bike trails in the park. We are working with the local Native Plant Society and Sierra Club advocates opposing this expansion. We submitted a comment letter that referred to a 1979 Sempervirens Fund study that identified Primary Avian Migration Routes and Concentration Areas for migratory birds in the park and mapped vegetation type areas, including sensitive habitats that contain knobcone pines; black oak woodland; ancient redwood forest; riparian areas and maritime chaparral, highlights the geological fragility of the area, and includes maps of seismic hazard areas and vulnerability to landslides.

Nearby parks provide at least 175 miles of bike trails and it is our experience that naturalists and birders (many of whom are seniors), tend to be wary of using trails that allow bicycling due to the risk of collision and because plant and wildlife resources near bike trails are often degraded.

Our letter asked for a sincere effort to avoid:

• Any additional encroachment and disturbance in Avian Migratory Concentration Areas

• Any additional encroachment and disturbance in habitat areas that could support nesting habitat of Pileated Woodpecker and Marbled Murrelet

• Damage to streams or fish habitat

• Segmentation of amphibian habitat
  (risk of running adults over during migration to and from breeding habitat)

• Encroachment and fragmentation of rare plant communities

• Damage to rare natural features of interest for scientific study

• Soil erosion, rutting, impairment of trail drainage, breakdown of trail shoulders, and other forms of trail damage

• Danger to the safety of hikers, birders and naturalists due to bicycle activity, steep grades, steep terrain, sharp curves, slippery or unstable trail surfaces, or limited visibility

• Displacement of hikers, birders and naturalists due to bikes on trails

The pressure on State Parks to open nature trails to bikes is substantial, and we hope this agency will not risk our natural habitats and trail users.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) has initiated a process leading to the adoption of a Proposed Wildland Fire Resiliency Program. The Program would be applied on all Midpeninsula open space preserves (OSP) and other areas under MROSD management in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The Program encompasses a Vegetation Management Plan, a Prescribed Fire Plan, Wildland Fire Pre-Plan/Resource Advisor Maps and a Monitoring Plan.
The impact to vegetation and habitat, especially alongroads, infrastructure and buildings, is likely to have significant impacts to habitat and species. SCVAS will continue to attend meetings and provide comments, hoping to help minimize the impacts.

Habitat for Birds with Native Plants

The nest boxes at the restored habitat site on the banks of Permanente Creek at Shoreline Park in Mountain View are being used again this year! During the 2019 bird-breeding season, nest boxes were used by 3 pairs of Western Bluebirds, 10 Tree Swallows and 1 Bewick’s Wren. So far this year, the monitoring effort observed 1 pair of Western Bluebirds and 8 pairs of Tree Swallows using the nest boxes.

Conservation Corner Spring 2020

Shani Kleinhaus
Environmental Advocate

Cupertino

At least once every decade, a developer comes to the City of Cupertino with a proposal to develop properties along the Stevens Creek Canyon. Recently, we joined Cupertino residents and successfully argued against a proposed the Canyon View General Plan Amendment that would change the permitted building requirements on hillsides, and allow 29 units where four units are currently allowed on an 86-acre hillside property adjacent to Linda Vista Park. This development on the steep rim of the Stevens Creek Canyon, with an average slope of ~48%, would pave small tributaries and wildlife corridors! We wrote and spoke to City Council about this fragile landscape: how critical it is to the welfare of wildlife species in the area, and how development in the urban/wildland interface would burden the City of Cupertino with geological hazards and significant fire risks. We congratulate the City Council for rejecting the proposed amendment. Always vigilant, we will keep watching for renewed proposals.

Lexington Reservoir

The ‘massacre’ of Pacific Newts continues on Alma Bridge Road, at Lexington Reservoir. This winter, iNaturalist volunteers documented over 3800 carcasses and found 27 other species that fell victim to this road, including deer, 5 species of rodents, 4 species of reptiles, 6 additional amphibian species, 4 species of birds (a barn owl, a yellow- rumped warbler, a hermit thrush, a house finch), and even a catfish! Santa Clara County signage, placed last year after the road claimed over 5000 newts, unfortunately seems ineffective. We are working with several agencies to identify solution and facilitate implementation.

We are also very concerned with the proposed Mid- Peninsula Open Space District Beatty Parking Area and Trail Connections Project on Alma Bridge Road – the traffic associated with this project is likely to exacerbate the hazardous conditions and the loss of tiny lives.

Sunnyvale

Last year, we advocated with Sunnyvale City Council to minimize light pollution by developing a Dark Sky/Lighting ordinance for outdoor lighting. In the Council Study Issue Prioritization process, Council initially voted in support of our request, but the issue was dropped during the budgeting discussions. We continue to advocate this year.

Also in Sunnyvale, at the request of Google and other Moffett Park landowners, the City has started the process that would update its current Moffett Park Specific Plan to add office space and include housing as a permitted land use. This area, North of 237, is currently an office park bounded by the landfill hills, the Sunnyvale water pollution control plant, Moffett Field and Sunnyvale parks along the Bay. SCVAS participated in several focus groups to provide input. We focused on:

• Potential changes to the Water District-approved Flood Control Project that includes tall walls on Charleston East and West Channels

• Protection of baylands and of open space near the baylands (the Yahoo Campus, Lockheed-Martin)

• Provision of parks and open space 

• Native plant landscaping

• Preservation of large trees

We expect an Environmental Impact Report in 2020, and will continue to advocate for a bird-friendly district as the plans are formed.

Burrowing Owls

Burrowing owl populations have suffered significant population decline in the Bay Area, as well as throughout most of their range. The main causes of the population decrease are linked to habitat loss, high mortality rates, low reproductive rates related to quality prey availability and human disturbance. Many organizations including SCVAS have played a pivotal role in trying to reverse the decline of burrowing owls through advocacy, education, conservation and research efforts.

One organization that just recently came to the aid of burrowing owls is the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency, which adopted a Habitat Plan in 2013 that includes conservation measures to protect 18 species including burrowing owls. The Habitat Agency has funded extensive research on burrowing owls and implemented habitat management agreements to address burrowing owl declines in the South Bay, its main focus is in Santa Clara County. Our habitat management project in Alviso has benefited from this funding.

One project that the Habitat Agency is presently implementing is a Juvenile Burrowing Owl Overwintering Project. Burrowing owl chicks have an approximate 70% mortality rate during their first year, thus with an already low reproductive rate very few chicks are surviving to adulthood to reproduce. During 2019, ten burrowing owl juveniles were removed from the population (only two juveniles per family were removed) and all the juveniles were relocated to an aviary at the Peninsula Humane Societies' facility in Burlingame. The burrowing owls were overwintered at the facility and will be returned to several existing breeding sites in Santa Clara County during the 2020 breeding season. The owls will be paired up based on DNA analysis, placed into a hacking aviary with artificial burrows until they lay a full clutch of eggs, then the aviary will be removed for the birds return to the wild as mature breeding adults. The purpose of the aviaries is to acclimate the birds back to the original breeding locations. Upon the success of this project and hopefully with an increase in the local breeding population the ultimate goal of the project is reintroduce burrowing owls to new locations in Coyote Valley in the future, to establish additional populations in more natural areas.

North Coyote Valley

Following the purchase of 937 acres in North Coyote Valley, we now focus on the process of updating the San Jose General Plan. We are advocating for an updated plan that will change the zoning of the purchased lands from Industrial to Habitat and Open space designation. For the privately owned lands in the valley, we seek Agriculture zoning that should help avert development into the future.

Join Us Our Environmental Advocate and Action Committee are busy working in YOUR neighborhood and throughout Santa Clara County – please let shani@scvas.org know if you’d like to get involved!