Everyone deserves access to nature! We compiled some of our favorite paved, wheelchair-, walker- and stroller-accessible trails in Authority-funded parks and other open spaces across Santa Clara County.

The San José City Council unanimously approved the purchase and permanent protection of 937 acres in the North Coyote Valley through an innovative public and private partnership among Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (the Authority) and the City of San José. This conservation transaction secures a critical “last chance” wildlife linkage between the Santa Cruz and Diablo mountain ranges. This irreplaceable landscape features natural floodplains and wildlife habitat, mitigates wildfire impact and builds climate change resiliency for the citizens of the tenth-largest city in the nation.

Undeveloped and largely untouched, a 242-acre purchase made by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (Authority) in partnership with the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) completes another pivotal piece of the Santa Cruz Mountains preservation puzzle, opening new possibilities for growing an interconnected trail network.

As agencies across the state are beginning to emphasize the importance of protecting our natural lands and their resources, Assemblymember Ash Kalra (DSan Jose) today announced the introduction of AB 948, which would create the Coyote Valley Conservation Program to be administered by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. If the bill is passed, Coyote Valley will receive statewide recognition as a landscape of significant importance for its natural infrastructure benefits including flood risk reduction, wildlife protection, and climate resilience.

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (Authority) today announced the purchase of a 159-acre property that widens a vital linkage between the Authority’s Rancho Cañada del Oro and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s (Midpen’s) Sierra Azul open space preserves. This adjacency provides opportunities for connecting recreation options across the two preserves, while securing wildlife habitat and expanding a protected corridor between Highway 17 and Coyote Valley – a high priority area for both organizations in their shared goal of creating habitat linkages for native wildlife.

The value of sweeping open space, working lands, and a thriving natural world can be difficult to place a numerical value on, but a collaboration between the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County, and Sonoma County Ag + Open Space has done just that by estimating the monetary value of our soil, water, air, plants, and animals – in other words, our ‘natural capital.’

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen), and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (Authority) today announced the purchase of two properties that for the first time, link more than 31,000 acres of protected lands in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Open Space Authority Preserves First Redwood Property, Gifted by the McPhee Family San Jose, CA – February 26, 2018: The Julian McPhee family donated a 112-acre property adjacent to Uvas Canyon County Park in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority.