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

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.
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.