Green Foothills

Advocacy: Green Foothills champions climate resilience and biodiversity by advocating for protecting nature, wildlife, and people in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito Counties through advocacy, education, and grassroots action. Our work helps to advance California's 30x30 strategy by protecting biodiversity, expanding access to nature, building resilience to climate change, advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, strengthening tribal relationships, and sustaining our food supply. The desired impacts of our work are: 1) Land use decisions affirm and support open space, biodiversity, climate resilience, and natural resources and 2) Diverse leaders and communities champion conservation and inclusion. We achieve these impacts by 1) Engaging in Local Land Use Issues: We engage in land use policy, proposals, and planning processes that pose an opportunity or threat to our natural environment. We conduct thorough research and seek community input to inform our advocacy goals, 2) Educating Decision Makers and Community Leaders: We provide the support and information needed for current and future decision-makers to be champions for conservation and inclusive public processes, and 3) Partnering With and Mobilizing Community Members: We bring together and mobilize people to navigate the land use process effectively. We train, mentor, and learn from diverse leaders and communities in equitable, inclusive environmental activism. In 2023, we won stronger protection for wildlife habitat in the Stanford Foothills, ensured a healthier environment with the closure of the cement kiln at Lehigh Quarry, and protected 227 low-income families in the Pillar Ridge community in Moss Beach from the ongoing health and safety threat of an adjacent propane facility. We launched our Upper Pajaro Watershed program with the addition of a new advocate dedicated to protecting this area's vast natural landscapes from urban sprawl and its wildlife linkages from inappropriately located development. We were steadfast in our ongoing work to protect Bay wetlands from excessive office development, Coyote Valley from increased commercial development along the Coyote Creek corridor, the Amah Mutsun's most sacred site - Juristac - from a proposed open-pit sand and gravel mine near Gilroy, and supporting new, safe, affordable, farmworker housing along the San Mateo County coast. In addition, we continue to build trust with local tribes and Indigenous groups and provide resources to add capacity to their tribes and nonprofit organizations, including leadership development and grant writing assistance. 2023 Impact metrics: From the coast to the Baylands, from the valley to the hillsides, our advocates engaged on 28 land use issues in 2023, speaking up for the most at-risk habitats. We worked on 22 issues in collaboration with 110 tribes, organizations, and community leaders. We achieved 6 victories out of 7 concluded land use issues resulting in 3,453 acres of open space protected or benefited, 7 key wildlife and plant species benefited, 2 policies or plans were adopted by governmental agencies, 21,464 comment letters sent in response to our 10 calls to action with 5 favorable outcomes, and 3 outcomes still pending. 145 additional letters were sent in response to our call to thank legislators for their votes.

Leadership Program (Community Building): We launched the 10th Leadership Program cohort of local change-makers in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito Counties in 2023. The program trains and invests in community members of all backgrounds in equitable, inclusive environmental activism to advance the transformation of the local conservation movement. This was the first year we offered the program tuition-free and in Spanish and English to help remove barriers to building an inclusive environmental movement. The Program aims to shift power by creating viable pathways for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to engage in and lead climate action, and by building community leader capacity that harnesses the power of collaboration within communities and mobilizes change agents to advance equitable, inclusive environmental activism locally. Leadership Program alumni 1) assume leadership roles where they apply a lens of environmental advocacy and cultural humility in their work; 2) initiate and join successful campaigns that advance Green Foothills' mission and vision; and 3) are involved in the Green Foothills community. 2023 Impact metrics: 17 local changemakers graduated (including 6 Spanish speakers) for a total of 259 alumni since 2014. 13 alumni took on new leadership roles for a total of 122 since 2014, 13 initiatives were won by alumni for a total of 50 initiatives since 2014, and another 13 initiatives were launched or joined by alumni for a total of 53 since 2014.