Peninsula Open Space Trust buys hundreds of acres of land near IBM campus
The Peninsula Open Space Trust has bought 207 acres of land in South San Jose for $5.5 million.
According to the trust, the land is at the intersection of Bailey Avenue and McKean Road near the Calero Reservoir. It's part of the Coyote Valley between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range.
"This property is a strategic link in the chain of protected lands across North Coyote Valley, connecting the Santa Cruz and Diablo Mountain ranges at a point where they are only one mile apart," said Gordon Clark, president of POST.
"In addition to providing landscape connectivity for species of all types, this property also helps connect Santa Clara County Park lands with the North Coyote Valley Conservation Area, which POST helped establish in 2019. Now that we own this key linkage property, POST and our partners will study the potential for a trail connection that is compatible with the needs of wildlife," Clark went on to say.
According to the Peninsula Open Space Trust the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band both previously lived on the land. It was used as a dairy farm for years run by the Holthouse family who sold most of the land to IBM for a campus in 1975.
The trust says they will study the possibility of putting in trails to connect Calero and Santa Teresa County Parks.
The land trust was formed in 1977. Since then, the trust said they have saved more than 90,000 acres.
