October 2026 Conservation Corner

California Condor: Teresa Cheng

Vote NO on Proposition 45

Prop 45 is a sweeping attack on California’s environmental protections. It could fast-track sprawl into fire-prone areas, wetlands, wildlife habitat, and other sensitive lands, along with polluting projects such as roads, warehouses, and data centers. It would weaken the California Environmental Quality Act by limiting public input, consideration of less harmful alternatives, and court remedies when projects are approved unlawfully. These safeguards help communities protect public health, clean air and water, and wildlife.

Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance has joined more than 400 organizations opposing the measure, including Sierra Club California, the California Native Plant Society, the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Wildlife Federation, other Bird Alliance chapters, the County of Santa Clara, the League of Women Voters of California, and the American Lung Association.

Don’t fast-track pollution and sprawl.

Vote NO on Prop 45.

Data center proposed along Hwy 237 and Zanker Road

San Jose is developing Uniform Guidelines for Data Centers

San José is developing standards for data centers and other large energy projects. The draft addresses recycled water and renewable energy, but relies on existing air pollution rules and offers little protection from noise and light pollution. Those gaps matter: NBC Bay Area reports that South San José residents already describe a constant hum and bright lights from nearby data centers. Nighttime light and continuous noise can also disturb birds and other wildlife. San José needs clear, enforceable limits that protect neighborhoods and habitat.

SCVBA is working with San José community groups and residents to strengthen the standards. At the same time, we are asking the City to stop accepting and processing data center applications, including those already in the pipeline, until strong standards are adopted. Contact advocate@scvbirdalliance.org to get involved.

October 8: Google’s 250 MW Alviso data center - who will pay?

Google is seeking approval of a PG&E agreement to supply 250 megawatts of electricity to its proposed data center, next to Alviso Elementary School and across Disk Drive from the Burrowing Owl preserve. Google would pay substantial grid costs upfront, but could receive refunds over 15 years. How much of the cost could ultimately fall on other electricity customers?

Governor Newsom has just signed a law intended to protect ratepayers from data center grid costs, but the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has not finished updating its rules. The CPUC is expected to consider Google’s agreement on October 8. Please urge commissioners not to approve it unless they can show that other ratepayers are fully protected. Alviso schoolchildren, Burrowing Owls, and the rest of us should not bear the impacts and costs of Google’s AI needs.

If you are available and willing to speak at the October 8 CPUC meeting, please contact advocate@scvbirdalliance.org 

Bear Creek Redwoods OSP: Carolyn Knight

Speak up for roadless lands by October 6

The U.S. Forest Service proposes to repeal the Roadless Rule, which protects designated roadless areas on Forest Service lands from most new road construction and logging. New roads can fragment wildlife habitat, damage watersheds, and bring more sources of wildfire ignition into remote areas. Please submit a comment by October 6 urging the Forest Service to keep the rule.

SB 954 vetoed

We are deeply disappointed that Governor Newsom has vetoed SB 954, legislation that would have closed a major loophole created by last year’s SB 131.

SB 131 created a sweeping California Environmental Quality Act exemption for qualifying “advanced manufacturing” projects. SB 954 was passed by the Legislature to narrow that exemption and restore environmental review for projects that can have significant impacts on wildlife, habitat, air and water quality, and nearby communities.

SCVBA joined environmental and community organizations across California in supporting SB 954 because projects with potentially significant environmental impacts should not receive a blanket exemption from environmental review simply because they fall within a broadly defined industry category.

The Governor’s veto means the SB 131 exemption remains in place. This makes local land-use decisions even more important, particularly where advanced manufacturing facilities are proposed near sensitive habitat, open space, waterways, or communities already burdened by pollution.

Thank you to everyone who contacted legislators and the Governor in support of SB 954. The bill passed the Legislature because of a strong statewide coalition, and we will continue working with our partners to protect meaningful environmental review and public participation.

The Author of SB 954, Sen. Catherine S. Blakespear of Encinitas, has expressed her disappointment. We expect her to try again next year.

Sept. 30: Lehigh community meeting

Join Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga for an update on demolition, Permanente Creek restoration, the upcoming environmental review, and the future of the Lehigh-Heidelberg Cement Plant and Quarry on Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Zoom.  

Cupertino: Vote YES on Measure L

Measure L would protect Cupertino’s parks, open space, wildlife habitat, recreational areas, and safe bike and school routes by requiring voter approval before these protected lands can be converted to other uses.

September 2026 Conservation Corner

This month has been another reminder of just how important the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is for birds, wildlife, and the places they depend on. 

CEQA is fundamentally a disclosure law: it requires us to look before we leap. Before approving a project, agencies and developers must identify significant environmental impacts, consider less damaging alternatives, mitigate those impacts where feasible, and give the public an opportunity to understand what is proposed and weigh in. Many of the protections we routinely seek, for creeks and wetlands, mature trees and habitat, nesting birds and wildlife movement, bird-safe design and better lighting, come through this process. 

But CEQA is being steadily weakened. Most housing development has already been exempted or streamlined, and recent state laws are extending exemptions to other kinds of development. For SCVBA, that makes our work protecting open space, creeks, oak woodlands, Baylands, and the urban-wildland edge even more important. Without environmental review, impacts to birds and wildlife may never be fully disclosed, less damaging alternatives may never be considered, and mitigation that could make a project better may never be required.

We saw why this matters in projects across the Valley this month. In Los Gatos, we called for a full EIR for Twin Oaks, a residential development proposed amid creek, oak, and riparian habitat. In Saratoga, we joined residents in asking for denial of the Masson Estates development, where CEQA review identified significant and unavoidable wildfire risks. In Los Altos, we submitted comments on the demolition of Halsey House, seeking better protection for Adobe Creek and wildlife during work at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve. In the City of Santa Clara, we asked that CEQA review address the removal of mature trees and potential impacts to nesting birds from the reconfiguration of Pruneridge Golf Club. And in Morgan Hill, we commented on a Builder’s Remedy housing proposal, raising concerns about groundwater, wildlife habitat, and the project’s reliance on new private wells and an onsite wastewater treatment system.

In San José, we challenged the rezoning of part of the former IBM Almaden Research Center, where new industrial zoning could allow future projects to avoid CEQA review altogether. With no project proposed, why give away environmental review now?

Read Shani Kleinhaus's opinion: Almaden IBM Rezoning: When CEQA Disappears, So Does Your Voice — San Jose Inside

The lesson from this month's work is simple: protecting birds means protecting habitat and protecting the laws and public processes that give us a chance to defend it.

November Ballot Measures

1. SCVBA opposes Proposition 45, which would weaken CEQA review for projects ranging from data centers and highways to dams and mines and energy facilities and development in open space.  Vote NO on Prop 45. 

2. SCVBA endorses Cupertino’s Parks and Open Space Protection Measure (Measure L), which requires voter approval before designated parks and open space can be rezoned or developed. Cupertino residents:Vote YES on L.

August 2026 Conservation Corner

Trump Administration Weakens Endangered Species Protections

For decades, the federal Endangered Species Act prohibited not only directly killing endangered wildlife, but also destroying habitat essential to species’ survival. It also required federal agencies to ensure that projects they funded, permitted, or approved did not destroy or adversely modify designated critical habitat.

The Trump administration has now eliminated the longstanding regulatory definition of “harm” that included significant habitat destruction. This could allow development, logging, mining, and drilling to destroy places endangered species need to survive, so long as the animals are not directly killed or injured.

California cannot easily fill this gap. The California Endangered Species Act prohibits killing or capturing listed animals, but unlike the longstanding federal rule, it has no equivalent protection against habitat destruction itself. California must instead rely on a patchwork of CEQA review, state permitting, and other resource laws. Federal protection has therefore been an essential backstop for California species and habitats. Removing it places our most imperiled birds and other wildlife at even greater risk.

Vote No on Proposition 45 This November

At the very moment the Trump administration is dismantling federal protections for nature, including protections against habitat destruction under the Endangered Species Act, California should be strengthening its environmental safeguards, not weakening them.

Yet Proposition 45, sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, would make development faster and cheaper by curtailing review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Its attack on CEQA goes far beyond housing. It would reduce transparency and weaken the public’s ability to influence highways, data centers, dams, reservoirs, energy facilities, and sprawling development in undeveloped areas.

Prop 45 would rush reviews, limit consideration of less damaging alternatives, restrict public participation, and make harmful approvals harder to challenge. Developers could reap the profits while communities and taxpayers absorb the costs: polluted air and water, depleted water supplies, increased traffic and wildfire risk, and the destruction of wetlands, streams, open space, and wildlife habitat. Birds and other wildlife would lose the places they need to nest, feed, migrate, and survive.

With federal wildlife protections already being stripped away, California cannot afford to weaken its own environmental safeguards. Vote No on Proposition 45 this November.

July 2026 Conservation Corner

A Win for Biodiversity in Mountain View

After several years of grassroots advocacy, Mountain View has officially adopted its Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan and Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. This is a major milestone and a victory worth celebrating. Together, these plans establish biodiversity as a core community value and recognize that parks can support wildlife and healthy ecosystems, not just recreation.

SCVBA was proud to work alongside GreenSpacesMV, Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning, the California Native Plant Society, Santa Clara Valley Chapter, the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, and many passionate community members to help advance this effort. Together, we encouraged the City to think intentionally about biodiversity, habitat, and the role parks can play in supporting both wildlife and people.

The adopted Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan includes the concept of a Biodiversity Anchor, which sets aside space in every park to support biodiversity and ecological function. We are pleased that many of our recommendations were incorporated into the final plans and that Mountain View has committed to making biodiversity part of its long-term vision for parks and urban forestry.

One area where we hope to see continued progress is the use of locally native plants within Biodiversity Anchors. Biodiversity depends on relationships that have developed over millenia between native plants, insects, pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. Local native plants are often best able to support these ecological connections and the food webs that sustain biodiversity. While the adopted plans allow a broader range of species, the City has committed to adaptive management and periodic review of the program. As Biodiversity Anchors are implemented and evaluated, we look forward to working with the City to strengthen their ecological value over time.

Most importantly, the adoption of these plans reflects a growing community commitment to creating a city where people and nature can thrive together. We are excited to help turn that vision into reality.

Measure D Passes: A Big Win for Open Space

This spring, voters approved Measure D, renewing funding for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. SCVBA endorsed the measure, which will help protect natural open spaces and waterways, reduce wildfire and flood risks, restore habitat, and expand public access to nature. The measure's success reflects the community's strong commitment to conservation and the places that make Santa Clara Valley special. 

San Mateo County Adopts Bird-Friendly and Dark Sky Standards

This spring, the County of San Mateo adopted updated Design Review Ordinance standards that include bird-friendly design and dark sky protections for new development in portions of the unincorporated county. SCVBA supported these provisions, which will help reduce bird collisions, minimize light pollution, and lessen the impacts of development on wildlife.

Jain Temple Expansion Project (Santa Clara County)

We reviewed the plans and environmental review documents for the Jain Temple project near Harvey Bear Park, and identified concerns related to outdated biological surveys, nesting bird protections, wetland habitat, wildlife movement, and lighting impacts. We submitted detailed CEQA comments requesting stronger analysis and mitigation measures. The County has not yet responded to those comments, so the project remains under review.

Agrivoltaics Proposal Advances in Santa Clara County

Supervisor Lee's proposal to explore regulatory options for agrivoltaics on lands zoned Agricultural-Large Scale is moving forward. SCVBA and Green Foothills opposed this proposal and urged the County to take a more comprehensive look before proceeding.

While agrivoltaics is often presented as a way to combine agriculture and renewable energy, it remains largely unproven at scale and could ultimately create a pathway for utility-scale energy development on agricultural lands. We urged the County to evaluate not only solar panels themselves, but also the substations, transmission infrastructure, utility corridors, interconnections, battery storage facilities, fencing, and other infrastructure that may accompany large energy projects.

We are particularly concerned about what this could mean for Santa Clara County's rural landscape. Areas characterized by farms, ranches, and open vistas could gradually give way to a patchwork of solar arrays, power lines, substations, battery facilities, access roads, and security fencing, fundamentally changing their character. That is a very high price to pay to help meet the growing energy demands of data centers and other energy-intensive uses.

Despite these concerns, the Board approved the referral. Many important questions remain unanswered, and the County's work is just beginning. We will continue to participate in the process and advocate for farmland protection, wildlife habitat, open space, and the rural character that makes Santa Clara County unique.

Help Us Engage on the Joseph D. Grant Master Plan

Santa Clara County Parks is well underway with a Master Plan update for Joseph D. Grant County Park, one of the County's largest and most ecologically important parks. The plan will help guide future decisions about trails, camping, recreation, habitat management, and natural resource protection for years to come.

Because Grant Park encompasses thousands of acres of grasslands, oak woodlands, streams, and wildlife habitat, the decisions made through this process could have lasting impacts on both visitors and the park's natural resources. SCVBA is beginning to engage more closely in the planning effort and would like to better understand the opportunities and concerns from the perspective of people who know the park well.

If you regularly hike, bird, camp, ride, volunteer, or otherwise spend time in Grant Park, please contact advocate@scvbirdalliance.org - we are especially interested in hearing about sensitive habitats, recreation conflicts, restoration opportunities, and areas of the park that you believe deserve special protection. Your local knowledge can help inform our advocacy as the planning process moves forward.