Urban Ecological Planning Guide for Santa Clara Valley

Like most metropolitan areas, the urbanized Santa Clara Valley is a challenging place for plants and animals to make a home. Fragmented by highways, parking lots and buildings, the urban landscape is full of barriers to movement and stressors for wildlife. While some species can tolerate these conditions, many others have declined or disappeared in the urban core. With careful planning of urban greening projects (vegetation improvements), our local cities have the potential to support much greater biodiversity.

By integrating urban ecology, landscape history and analysis of local setting, this guide helps inform how to design, place and implement projects to support biodiversity in urban Santa Clara Valley. This guide can also aid the coordination of multiple stakeholders to plan many urban greening projects across the landscape. This strategic design and planning can ultimately help cultivate a sense of place and provide benefits to nature and humans alike.