Just as we invest in traditional urban infrastructure, like transportation and waste and water treatment, strategic investments in nature or green infrastructure can also provide many valuable benefits to our urban communities. These benefits include flood protection, reducing greenhouse gases, increasing access to food, and resilience to climate change for both human and natural communities.
Here in Santa Clara Valley, Coyote Valley provides an example of the diverse mix of benefits nature provides. Coyote Valley is a conservation priority for the Authority for the role it plays in the health and sustainability of our urban region and its conservation values: floodplains, local water supply, wildlife corridor connection, agriculture, and recreation.
Conservation and restoration investments in Coyote Valley can help to reduce greenhouse gases, store carbon, and buffer the effects of increased temperatures and flood events. Funding this work can help protect our downstream neighborhoods and the local economy from the most damaging effects of climate change.
The Authority is working with other public and private partners to quantify the benefits of large-scale natural infrastructure investments, in Coyote Valley and elsewhere, and integrate them into long-range planning efforts for open space protection and restoration.
We are working closely with our state and local government partners to fund climate-smart land protection and restoration projects.
