Coyote Creek Field Station Environmental Education Program

Measure Q funds will go towards Joseph George Middle School's Learning Lab/Community Garden, which will promote environmental education by expanding on an existing garden on the school's campus. Through apprenticeships, outside classroom lessons, and community meetings students, teachers, and parents in the Joseph George Middle School community will become more aware of environmental and land use issues. End results will include: improved student academic outcomes, increased knowledge and awareness of gardening and the environment for all involved constituencies, the beautification of the school campus and the neighborhood, and the introduction of freshly-grown produce into the diets of several families who currently live in a park-poor neighborhood within a food desert section of San Jose. Construction will begin in Spring 2018.

Bay Area Older Adults Trailblazers is an environmental education walking program that increases access to open spaces for our most vulnerable older adults: visually impaired and blind and widowed. Authority funds will help provide accessible and multisensory learning about nature, to increase environmental stewardship, encourage social engagement and physical activity to improve overall health.

The Authority contributed funds to the Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition for their Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition's Coyote Creek Homeless Stream Stewards Trash Free Coyote Creek project where they worked in collaboration with Friends of Coyote Creek Watershed and other volunteer groups and public agencies to achieve a trash free creek within the 10 mile stretch between Yerba Buena Road in South San Jose and Tasman Drive in North San Jose. Project coordinators worked with the homeless who reside along the creek by having them participate in the program. Over 100,000 pounds of trash was gathered in bags, removed from the creek, and hauled to a suitable sanitary landfill.