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Los Gatos Creek

Watershed Collaboration

Forest Health Grant Update

Status Update

Project Updates for Forest Health Grant First Collaboration 

Forest Health Grant has been working in Santa Clara County Parks, San Jose Water, and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Treatment acres for May 2024 in San Jose Water property was 6.93 acres, 21.57 acres in Santa Clara County Parks, and 17.84 acres in Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. The month of May total acres equaling 46.34 acres.

Santa Clara County FireSafe Council hosted a Legislative and Media Tour on June 7, 2024 for the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaboration Forest Health Project. The tour highlighted how this CAL FIRE funded, collaborative project is making our forest ecosystems healthier while reducing risk of catastrophic wildfire to the environment and our community.

Project Updates for Forest Health Grant Second Collaboration 

For Forest Health Grant Second Collaboration we are working on the planning phases, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and expanded Project Specific Analysis (PSA). 

The Loma Prieta Road and Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat Habitat Pilot Project

The Loma Prieta Road and Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat Habitat Pilot Project has been awarded to Bay Area Tree Specialists. The portion of the project for this bid is approximately 79.5 acres, primarily along roadsides. These treatments will thin underbrush and remove dead and dying trees to improve forest health and fire resilience. 5.5 acres of the 79.5 will be for a pilot project for Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat habitat. This project is tentatively set to begin at the end of June 2024. Additional information can be found on the project at LGwatershedhealth.com.

Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat

Within the large expanse of the Sierra Azul Open Space preserve lives a small rodent, known as the Santa Cruz kangaroo rat (SCKR). Although small in stature, kangaroo rats are considered a “keystone” species, meaning its activities have great influence on the plants and animals that make up its habitat. As granivores that cache seeds in shallow burrows, SCKR have a mutualistic relationship with manzanita, and other plant species that make up their diet. Manzanitas are fire adapted plants and by burying manzanita seeds, SCKR protects them from getting too hot when a fire passes through. The smoke and ash from fire will promote germination of these cached seeds, leading to a new cohort of manzanitas. Click here for more information. 

Facts about the Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat:

• Neither a kangaroo nor a rat -- more closely related to gophers and chipmunks
• Large hind legs with an unusually long tail
• Live in burrows, but poor diggers - requires loose/sandy soils
• Bipedal locomotion - need clear/open ground to hop, including under shrubs
• Majority of diet is seeds, so vegetation types and plant species diversity is important
• Non-hibernating - collect and cache seeds
• Does not need water - can get it from foods; bathes in sand baths

Through the Forest Health Grant there is an upcoming Loma Prieta Road and Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat Habitat Pilot Project. The project site is an environmentally sensitive area where the Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat has recently been found again. Contractor shall take all precautions and measures necessary to protect the environmental integrity of the site. Manzanita trees will be flagged for retention and project work will enhance the SCKR habitat. 

To implement forest health treatments on approximately 1778 acres of strategically identified areas, The Santa Clara County Firesafe Council has partnered with the San Jose Water Company, Santa Clara County Parks, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District and smaller, private landowners, to form the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaboration.

The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative Forest Health Grant is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Santa Clara County FireSafe Council 

A local 501(c) non-profit organization

Info@SCCFireSafe.org

408-975-9591 

www.sccfiresafe.org

Tax ID Number: EIN 56-2368255