A local agency has proposed creating a giant artificial lagoon in San Francisco Bay that could result in deadly algae blooms, destruction of wetlands, and other harmful impacts to the Bay. This unprecedented project would construct a 2.65-mile-long offshore barrier stretching from San Francisco Airport to the San Mateo border and walling off 670 acres of the Bay. Green Foothills is urging that the proposal be rejected. Should we experiment with the health of the Bay? In October 2023, the San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District (known as “OneShoreline”) announced a proposed project to protect the...
Victory! San Benito County Landfill Expansion Defeated
San Benito County celebrated a victory for open space and rangeland in March when a proposal to expand the John Smith Road Landfill to five times its current size was withdrawn by the landfill operator after overwhelming public opposition. The County had been considering a massive expansion to the John Smith Road Landfill for years. The landfill operator, Waste Solutions, had proposed expanding the landfill from 95 acres to 483 acres in order to accommodate bringing in up to 2,000 extra tons of garbage from other counties every day. Green Foothills and local organizers worked to educate the public on...
Tamara Smith-Jones: The Need for Healing
Tamara Smith-Jones is the founder of Helping Others Maintain Earth (H.O.M.E.), an organization whose mission is community empowerment. She participated in the Green Foothills Leadership Program in 2022 and created a capstone project focused on social justice in East Palo Alto. “The Leadership Program lit a fire under me in terms of realizing the urgency of the environmental crisis we’re facing,” Tamara said. “The crisis is real, it’s happening, and we need to start making changes now – yesterday, in fact. People think of climate change as something that’s far in the future, but a big part of San Francisco...
More than 10,000 Comments Express Concerns about Proposed Mine at Juristac
A public comment period has revealed overwhelming support for protecting Juristac, a nearly pristine landscape of rolling hillsides, sycamore riparian woodlands, serpentine grassland, freshwater wetlands, and unique natural tar seeps in southern Santa Clara County. More than 10,000 letters were submitted to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors during the public comment period for the Sargent Quarry Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) regarding a proposed open-pit mine at Juristac. The majority of letters came from Santa Clara County voters, plus scientists, academics, and interested parties from across the region. Of those comments, the overwhelming majority – 99.99% of submissions...
Species Spotlight: Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse
The story of the salt marsh harvest mouse is the story of the San Francisco Bay wetlands – once abundant, now extremely scarce due to human development and increasingly at risk from sea level rise. But we can save both the salt marsh harvest mouse and our Bay wetland ecosystem if we act now. Meet the “salty” Salt marsh harvest mice, known as “salties” to their many fans, live only in the tidal marshlands of the San Francisco Bay. They are highly adapted to this challenging environment – they can drink salt water, and their diet consists primarily of salty...
Controlling Invasive Plants: An Important Tool to Maintain Biodiversity in San Mateo County Parks
Did you know that San Mateo County Parks are home to 138 rare, threatened, and endangered species? County Parks natural resource managers are responsible for ensuring that these species continue to survive in the face of climate change, which is bringing hotter, drier seasons, increased fire risk, greater extremes in precipitation patterns, and rising seas. Notably, the most profound threats to biodiversity in County Parks, as well as throughout the State of California, are from habitat loss due to aggressive, invasive weedy species that can out-compete native plants, potentially eliminating many irreplaceable wildlife habitat areas. Not all non-native plants are...
Stop San Benito from Becoming the Region’s Largest Landfill!
Update 3/22/24: Good news! Waste Solutions, the operator of the John Smith Road Landfill, withdrew their appeal. This means that the Planning Commission’s decision stands, and the expansion will not be moving forward as it is currently proposed, and will not be discussed by the Board of Supervisors on 3/26. There is a possibility that Waste Solutions could come back with a new proposal for a reduced size expansion, so we will continue to watch this issue. We will keep you informed as we learn more. Thanks to a massive outpouring of public opposition, the San Benito County Planning Commission...
Launching Green Foothills’ Upper Pajaro Watershed Program
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...
San Benito County Considers Expanding Landfill into the Region’s Biggest Mega Dump
San Benito County is considering whether to approve an expansion of the John Smith Road Landfill, located just east of Hollister, from its current size of 95 acres to 483 acres – the size of 365 football fields. This massive expansion is not because San Benito County’s residents generate that much trash, but because the landfill operator is hoping to accept waste from neighboring counties in order to increase their revenue. Instead of the approximately 300 tons of trash per day generated by San Benito residents, the John Smith Road Landfill would become a mega-dump, receiving up to 2,300 tons...
“Builder’s Remedy” Projects Threaten Local Nature
The builder’s remedy, a provision of state housing law that allows some residential developments to bypass local zoning, is threatening to create sprawl development that will destroy hillsides and farmland in Santa Clara County. This development would pave over open space, increase greenhouse gas emissions, and put residents at risk of flooding, wildfire, and landslides. We believe these proposals fail the criteria required by the builder’s remedy, and should be denied. What is the “builder’s remedy”? State law requires cities and counties to adopt plans for accommodating future residential growth, known as Housing Elements. The builder’s remedy is a provision...