Trail Overcrossing Selection - April 10, 2024 at 7 p.m.
On Wednesday, April 10 at 7 p.m., the Midpen board of directors will meet to select a trail overcrossing option. The overcrossing will link Lexington Reservoir County Park and St. Joseph’s Hill Open Space Preserve to El Sereno Open Space Preserve on the other side of Highway 17. This regional trail crossing will connect over 50 miles of existing trails, including the Bay Area Ridge Trail, Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail and the Los Gatos Creek Trail.
Highways connect us, but also divide the land and create barriers to safe passage for both wildlife and people. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, California state route 17 (Highway 17) fragments thousands of acres of open space, limiting the ability of wildlife to find food, mates and habitat, as well as preventing the completion of several regional trail systems. Together with private and public partners, neighbors and District constituents, Midpen is exploring the feasibility of developing two independent road crossings - a wildlife undercrossing and recreational trail overcrossing - to link over 30,000 acres of protected public lands.
The project also includes directional fencing that will help animals safely find their way to the wildlife crossing and a number of regional trail connections that will link the following Santa Clara County parks and Midpen open space preserves together across Highway 17: Sanborn County Park, El Sereno Preserve, Lexington Reservoir County Park, St. Joseph's Hill Preserve, Sierra Azul Preserve and Almaden Quicksilver County Park.