South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition

10/07/2026

Upcoming Events for the month of October.

We are scaling down our cleanup events to 2 cleanups per month from October to December to focus our efforts on the incoming Fall Chinook Salmon Run.

10/01/2026

Thank you to the awesome team at Amazon for helping us remove invasive plants from the Los Gatos Creek waterway. For this event we focused on Arundo Donax (Giant Reed), and Himalayan Blackberry. With the guidance of our partner ECI we removed as much invasive plant material from the area to get it prepped for the planting phase of this project. Once the site is ready for planting, the area will be populated with willow trees and other native plants. The goal of this project is to restore the riparian habitat to encourage more native plants and wildlife to return to this area. This would benefit the fall salmon run by providing more of the conditions and features Chinook Salmon need for successful spawning.

09/28/2026

There have been lot of changes along our waterways over the past couple of years. This year we saw a reduction in the amount of trash along Los Gatos Creek and the Guadalupe River which coincides with the city's efforts to reduce the amount of encampments along our local waterways. Although there is still trash in these sensitive areas, this year's cleanup events were focused on removing trash that has been in in our creeks and rivers for years, is hard to reach and often has become embedded in to the ground. We hope the city's continues this endeavor as less trash in our waterways will contribute to a healthier habitat for spawning Chinook Salmon.

09/25/2026

Over the past couple of weeks we have been updating our collection of upcycled art to make them last a little longer. The art pieces were created by different people and are made with materials we would usually find during our cleanup events. They are a good reminder that our trash can have a life of its own after if has been discarded.

09/24/2026

Today our midweek cleanup was on the Guadalupe River Trail and waterway off of Airport Blvd. The site for today was made accessible through work done by Valley Water a couple of weeks ago. The Valley Water crews removed swaths of Blackberry thickets exposing trash that had been buried under the plants. Our crew today removed as much trash as they could during the two hour event. We removed lots of plastic wrappers, packaging, bottles, and a couple of bigger items like a tire and a large cart out of a tree. Great job volunteers today we removed 2,020 lbs from the Guadalupe River Trail and waterway. We would also like to thank the team at San José Mineta International Airport for helping us secure parking for this event.

09/21/2026

Amidst budget shortfalls, shifting federal support, and a large homeless population Santa Clara County is creating a plan on how to reduce homelessness over the next 5 years.

https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-sees-challenges-for-5-year-homelessness-plan/?fbclid=IwY2xjawUeGNhwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR773XpxPHJBKI9GFQ9cAf0AKt2iIZXq9TYsJjibWVEvuckuuDedIFY0e5s9hQ_aem_Y_E5ODk-Zcxt0qOnPvZ-dg

Santa Clara County’s next iteration of its Community Plan to End Homelessness, a template to guide its priorities through 2030, will focus on homelessness prevention, housing retention, increasing services for people on the streets and investing in those with lived experience.

09/18/2026

A flashback to 2017 when Sharks Way used to be called St. Johns Street. Stories like these remind us of the abundance of salmon our local rivers and creeks once used to support.

09/17/2026

For this midweek Cleanup we went back to the Guadalupe River trail and waterway next to Autumn Parkway. We have frequented this site plenty of times in the past and slowly have been making progress removing trash from the edges of the river. This midweek event saw more of the same along with a lot of trash removed from under the railroad bridge. Volunteers removed the usual fare of paper plastic and fabrics from the waterway, but notable items this time included a music stand, lots of syringes, the frame of a bike, and various metal items. Unfortunately we had to leave a tire behind at the site due to it being too difficult to remove from the edge of the river. Thank you volunteers for helping us remove 4,745 lbs of trash from the Guadalupe River and Trail.

09/14/2026

This past Saturday we were joined by our volunteers along the Guadalupe River waterway to clean up trash on the service road off Hedding street. Volunteers made their way along the service road removing different types of trash in the area. Some of the notable items removed were, a long pvc pipe, tires, various metal pieces, and lots of plastic packaging, wrapper, and debris. Thank you volunteers for helping make our Team 222 event so productive. For this event we removed 3,680 lbs of trash from the Guadalupe River waterway.

09/14/2026

Our wonderful volunteers enjoying a special taco dinner. Thank you all for supporting our organization as we Reclaim, Restore and Revitilize our local waterways.