County Funds Fish Passage Improvements for Stevens Creek
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN JOSE – The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors today voted unanimously to approve $7,500 in funding for improvements to fish passage barriers on Stevens Creek, ensuring the project will be fully funded and able to move forward.
“The environmental issues we face today require collaborative solutions, on efforts both large and small,” said Simitian. “This is an effort that should have a very real and immediate benefit to our local environment and the creatures that call it home.”
The Friends of Stevens Creek Trail have been studying ways to improve fish passage at barriers on Stevens Creek, and were awarded a grant to study eight passage barriers by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. One of the key findings in that study, completed in November of 2017, recommended removing a barrier at the Deep Cliff Golf Course in Cupertino.
Removal of the Deep Cliff Golf Course barrier would allow passage of juvenile steelhead trout in Stevens Creek during the rearing season, supporting the sustainability of a healthy population of steelhead trout.
The estimated total cost of the project is $176,850. The County’s funding adds to funding from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Cities of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Los Altos, and the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District, as well as the Deep Cliff Golf Course and the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail.
“Regional issues require regional solutions,” said Simitian. “This is something that affects folks all across the North County and West Valley, and I’m gratified to see so many communities come together to address it.”
Stevens Creek is a natural creek approximately more than 20 miles long that flows through Stevens Canyon and then through Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View, on its way to join the San Francisco Bay. In Santa Clara County, Stevens Creek flows northeast from the 1,000-acre Stevens Creek County Park through Deep Cliff Golf Course, McClellan Ranch Park, and Sunnyvale. In Mountain View, it runs parallel to Highway 85 then it flows into the Bay between Moffett Field to the south and Shoreline Park to the north. Stevens Creek has been identified as a priority for steelhead population restoration by the Fisheries and Aquatic Habitat Collaborative Effort, which includes federal, state, and local stakeholders.
Simitian is a longtime advocate on environmental issues. During his time in the State Legislature, he served as Chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, and authored bills on coastal and waterways protections, renewable energy, green chemistry, and water quality, among other issues.