Happy Trails

The Authority funded Bay Area Wilderness Training's South Bay Capacity Building Project (Getting Underserved Youth Outside). This project expanded services in Santa Clara County through hiring a new South Bay Community Outreach Coordinator, conducting a Hiking Leadership Training course, conducting two Front Country Leadership Training courses, and expanding outdoor equipment lending and trip support services through the Milpitas Gear Library. This project will increase the number of program partners and environmental educators in Santa Clara County and boost the number of outdoor trips and diverse youth visiting Authority land and other area parks, including Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve.

While there are many trails in the Santa Clara Valley, none connect the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Diablo Range and tie the Santa Clara Valley into the Bay Area Ridge Trail, a 375-mile network of trails that unites the ridges circling the Bay Area. The Authority is helping to fund the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council’s feasibility study to consider and identify a preferred Ridge Trail alignment between Santa Teresa County Park and the Coyote Creek Trail as part of ongoing efforts to fix this South Bay “trail-gap.”

The Authority contributed funds towards Guadalupe River Park Conservancy's environmental education program, which supports the use of the Guadalupe River Park as an outdoor lab to help familiarize children with the outdoors, instill a sense of environmental stewardship, and to teach hands‐on, standards‐based science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) lessons, with a special emphasis on serving students from Title One schools.