By Tomas Iriarte
When Sandra Murillo struggled to pull an abandoned mattress out of Coyote Creek, her colleague Jaxen Werne dropped what he was doing to give a helping hand. Murillo and Werne were two of 135 volunteers at Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful’s site for Coastal Cleanup Day.
At this regional event held on September 16th, 50,838 lbs. of trash was removed, with volunteers cleaning 67.57 miles of creeks. Across 45 sites spanning Santa Clara Valley, 1,892 volunteers came together to make our waterways a cleaner and safer place.
This month we’d like to give thanks to the volunteers that removed trash at the Tully Ballfields site on Coastal Cleanup Day. Members from Boy Scout Troop 489, Bright Futures, Cupertino High School Tino Octagon, Homestead High School, SJSU, Alpha Phi Omega, South Bay 142 Academy, Prospect High School and UPA High School Creature Conserve came out to collect 6,000 lbs. of trash from this location alone.
Looking to the future, the Coyote Creek trail, that starts at Tully Road and heads south to Anderson Dam, along with the proposed Three Creeks and Five Wounds trails, have the potential to connect 20 miles of usable walkway to get around San Jose. Building these trails may raise awareness of the value of clean creeks, but we are mindful of the plants, trees and increased flood concerns with their development.
Along with our creek cleanups, we hold monthly Explore Coyote Creek walking tours so people can learn about future projects and give recommendations on what should be done with our creek trails. Ideas for the trail by Senter and Story Roads include murals, tree houses, picnic tables, playgrounds and ponds. And the area north under the 280 overpass, has brought ideas for more parking and as a place to hold events.
As we move into October, look for upcoming events on Oct. 21 when we explore Coyote Valley by bicycle and on Nov 5 when we explore Ogier Ponds. And thank you again to all the volunteers for the hard work you do to make our creeks a safer place.
Until next time!