News!

Community Connections - Richard Tejeda

Community Connections highlights the many leaders, partners, and neighbors who make a difference in our community. This month we are featuring Richard Tejeda, Founder and Executive Director of Saved By Nature, a San Jose-based nonprofit organization focused on changing lives through nature.

Heal Nature, Help Ourselves

If you are having trouble sleeping, focusing, or are feeling anxious, you are not alone.

In a recent national poll, 77% of American women and 66% of men surveyed reported feeling increased personal stress. Worries about the possibility of getting sick, potentially losing a job or business, and managing finances, paired with the new tensions and challenges of sheltering in place, it’s no surprise that we are feeling overwhelmed.

Open Space During COVID-19

Nature and open space are here for you.

During this time of global uncertainty caused by COVID-19, outdoor open spaces offer a refuge for reducing stress, anxiety, and anger while improving mental and physical wellness.

Community Connections - Tanya Diamond

Community Connections highlights the many leaders, partners, and neighbors who make a difference in our community. This month we are featuring Tanya Diamond, wildlife ecologist and co-principal of Pathways for Wildlife, a research firm that specializes in identifying, monitoring, and implementing connectivity designs for wildlife movement within our communities.

Celebrating Native Species on California Wildlife Day

Did you know that California has an official a state holiday to celebrate wildlife?

California Wildlife Day was established in 2017 to recognize our state’s diverse and unique ecosystem. This holiday is celebrated each year on the Spring Equinox, or March 21 in 2020, around the time when many native animals emerge from hibernation and migratory species return home.

Urban Open Space Corner: Santa Clara County Food System Alliance Works to Save Small Silicon Valley Farms

A new report by the Santa Clara County Food System Alliance is making the case that farming is both economically feasible and a crucial part of our community and economy.

Helping Reptiles and Amphibians Move Through Coyote Valley

To guide our efforts in restoring and conserving open space, the Open Space Authority regularly supports research to help understand local wildlife and how they live in and move across landscapes. There have been extensive efforts to understand mammal movement in one of the Authority’s priority conservation areas, Coyote Valley, but less attention has been paid to how other critical threatened species use and move through this landscape. Until now...

5 Trails We Love

Valentine’s Day is typically celebrated with candy, chocolate, and cards, but this year consider enjoying time with each other outdoors while sharing your love for the natural environment.

Saving San Jose’s Largest Remaining Wetland

Did you know that one of the Bay Area's biggest freshwater wetlands lies right in San Jose's backyard? While this vitally important landscape, called Laguna Seca, has faced threat of development and drainage over the years, the wetland has been permanently protected, thanks to the recent purchase of 937 acres in North Coyote Valley. Now, the Open Space Authority and local partners are planning to restore Laguna Seca.

Local Students Plant a Hedgerow to Help an Organic Farm

What do you get when you bring two buses of enthusiastic elementary school students to an Open Space Authority agricultural property? Environmental restoration on an epic scale!