POST Purchases 80-Acre Property in North Coyote Valley

Peninsula Open Space Trust Purchases 80-Acre Property, a Keystone “Missing Link” in the Conservation of North Coyote Valley

The $6.375 million acquisition connects protected lands to enable wetland restoration and protect wildlife corridor along Fisher Creek

PALO ALTO, Calif. (January 16, 2025) – The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) today announced the purchase and permanent protection of 80 acres within an ecologically important flood plain and wildlife corridor in Coyote Valley. The thirteenth such conservation purchase by POST on the valley floor, this property, which POST is calling Midway Fields, enables a critical multi-year restoration of the historic Laguna Seca floodplain to begin. 

This transaction increases the number of protected acres on the floor of Coyote Valley to more than 1,600. Located south of Bailey Avenue and west of Santa Teresa Boulevard, Midway Fields connects to several POST-protected properties that stretch north-south along Fisher Creek. Conserving these 80 acres creates a 1.5-mile contiguous corridor of protected creek-side lands within the 100-year floodplain that extends across 1,000 acres south of Bailey Avenue. 

“Coyote Valley is regionally significant in that it provides a natural first line of defense for the greater San José area against the impacts of climate change. This land along a creek corridor provides both connectivity for wildlife movement across the valley and a place for groundwater to be absorbed and stored naturally,” said Gordon Clark, president of POST. “Protecting this keystone parcel along Fisher Creek enables POST and our partners to dream bigger in terms of restoration and help return this landscape to its historic ecological function over time.”

About the Property

POST purchased the property for $6.375 million from a private party. Midway Fields lies within North Coyote Valley in an area identified in the 2017 Coyote Valley Landscape Linkage Report as a necessary wildlife linkage. Coyote Valley, known as a “last chance landscape,” enables species to migrate between the Santa Cruz and Diablo Mountain Ranges, thereby protecting regional biodiversity and ecological health in an era of climate change and land fragmentation. This network of protected lands connects more than 1.1 million acres of core habitat and protected areas in the Santa Cruz and Diablo Mountain Ranges surrounding the Santa Clara Valley, representing a public-private investment of more than $3 billion. 

All of Coyote Valley constitutes part of the ancestral lands of numerous Indigenous peoples who stewarded the land for millennia. Members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Tamien Nation continue to reside in and steward the region today. 

Future Plans

This property is strategically vital to the restoration and “naturalization” of the entire Fisher Creek corridor. The creek was created as a manmade channel over 100 years ago to drain water from the landscape for agricultural use. Over time, it has come to play an important environmental role. Restoring the creek to its natural function as part of the Laguna Seca floodplain will allow excess floodwater to spread across the landscape, where the land can absorb it. As a seasonal lake, Laguna Seca acts as a stormwater buffer, helping to prevent downstream flooding in nearby areas and protecting the city of San José from significant damage. This wetland and its vegetation also serve as natural storage and filtration systems for drinking water supplies, capturing carbon from the atmosphere and helping to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Expanding the Laguna Seca wetlands will also help to provide a resilient habitat for a diverse range of native fauna – including rare and protected species such as the tri-colored blackbird, California red-legged frog, Northwestern pond turtle, California tiger salamander—and migratory birds, among many others that inhabit and move through this landscape.

“This latest acquisition is a key Coyote Valley puzzle piece that opens possibilities for restoring the Fisher Creek corridor at scale,“ said Andrea Mackenzie, general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (the Authority), a close partner of POST in this work. “Through our Coyote Valley Conservation Areas Master Plan (CVCAMP), we aim to restore, re-engineer and rewild this landscape to look and act more like it did before it was channelized, providing millions of dollars in environmental and climate resilience services to our communities each year, naturally.”

Per a 2020 agreement governing their collaborative work in Coyote Valley, the Authority will manage Midway Fields for POST as part of its CVCAMP efforts for several years. A transfer of ownership from POST to the Authority is anticipated in time.

The Authority’s comprehensive master planning process is already underway to consider habitat protection and restoration and to explore opportunities for ecologically responsible human recreation. Information on public participation in the CVCAMP process is available at https://www.openspaceauthority.org/coyote-valley-conservation-areas-master-plan.

POST is continuing to raise funds in support of the ongoing conservation work in Coyote Valley. Details are available at openspacetrust.org/coyote-valley-program.

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About Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority

The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority conserves the natural environment, supports agriculture, and connects people to nature by protecting open spaces, natural areas, and working farms and ranches for future generations. Since 1993, the Authority has protected almost 30,000 acres of open space, natural areas, and working lands, watersheds, and wildlife habitat – providing ecologically friendly outdoor recreation and preserving the natural beauty and environmental health of the Santa Clara Valley. For more information, visit openspaceauthority.org.