Green Foothills has historically focused on Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. Mountain lions and other wildlife, however, are unaware of county lines, and development impacts don’t stop when one county ends and another begins. As land further north becomes scarce, developers are turning their attention to lands further south in San Benito County. So is Green Foothills.
While committed activists and community members have often come together to fend off harmful development proposals, the threats to open space in this beautiful region are increasingly frequent and alarming. Green Foothills’ new Upper Pajaro Watershed program, focusing on San Benito County and southern Santa Clara County, is intended to address this.
I am thrilled to be joining Green Foothills specifically to work on issues in the Upper Pajaro Watershed region. I first fell in love with this area while working on the campaign to ban fracking in San Benito County in 2014. Since 2018, I have been building relationships and strengthening my ties to this land as co-founder and co-executive director of Terra Cultura, an educational eco-arts farm based in Aromas.
San Benito County desperately needs revenue for basic services and infrastructure, and developers have proposed a slew of projects that they promise will bring in needed funds. However, many of these, such as truck stops, warehouses, and quarries would destroy critical landscapes and the natural beauty that makes the area exceptional. Development in key wildlife corridors and sensitive habitats would harm wildlife already struggling to survive. Proposed projects would pave over valuable farmland and rangeland, making it increasingly difficult for the few young farmers entering the profession to access land on which to grow our food. Increased traffic would congest already deteriorating roads, pollute our air, and drastically degrade the uniquely peaceful feeling of leaving city bustle behind.
This region is special and the people who live here care deeply about it. Working together, we can take care of each other and our communities and provide for local needs without sacrificing farmland and wildlife habitat or encouraging the type of sprawl development that ends up being more costly to residents than compact infill growth. I am looking forward to building a resilient region where wildlife thrives, everyone has natural beauty to enjoy, and communities live in balance with nature.
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