Stories

Identifying and visiting trails with shade cover is an excellent way to explore nature while staying cool.

Midpen staff identified a patrol road in a remote region of Sierra Azul Preserve as a priority area to reduce roadside vegetation and create and maintain a fuel break.

Recently, Midpen added 60 acres to its La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve with the help of Measure AA funding, a bond approved by local voters in 2014 to support Midpen’s Vision Plan projects.

In an effort to assist with visitor wayfinding and support emergency response, Midpen has completed a new trail-junction numbering system throughout the nearly 3,000-acre El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve.

New trails will soon be open at Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.

Armed with an array of clippers, shears and rakes, a group of determined high school students set off along the South Leaf Trail at El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve clearing the path of overgrown shrubs and tree branches under the guidance of Midpen field staff.

Canopy works to grow the urban tree canopy in Midpeninsula communities. The organization received a $50,000 grant from Midpen last year to support Canopy’s Teen Urban Forester (TUF) program.  

Longtime Midpen volunteer Hal Tennant celebrated his 91st birthday the "Midpen way.” Staff and Tennant’s family worked together to hold a volunteer event removing invasive French broom and thistle species from an ongoing restoration site at Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.

For years, the nesting site of a seabird called the marbled murrelet was a mystery to scientists. It wasn’t until 1974, when a tree trimmer doing work after an unusual winter snowstorm found an odd-looking bird with webbed feet high up in a Douglas fir tree at Big Basin State Park.

The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative held a tour for media and legislative representatives in the Lexington Hills last month to highlight the work it’s doing to create a fire resilient Santa Clara County.