The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative is celebrating completion of fire safety and forest health treatment of over 1,000 acres of open space across the South Bay after several years of work.

The collaborative is consists of several public and private entities and nonprofit organizations, including the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Santa Clara County Parks, San Jose Water and the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council. The collaborative aims to restore healthy forest ecosystems and reduce the severity of potential wildfires, enhancing the safety of surrounding communities and protecting watersheds that provide drinking water to the region.

The first phase of the project focused on reducing wildfire severity. It was funded with a $7.5 million forest health grant from Cal Fire.

“It’s all in service to help increase the resilience for the land in case a wildfire does occur,” said Midpen spokesman Ryan McCauley. “We know it’s not a question of if a fire will happen, but really when, so it’s really important for land managers to best be prepared.”

McCauley said that the project is named after the Los Gatos Creek Watershed, where water from the Los Gatos Creek flows into Lexington Reservoir, but spans a large area, stretching from South San Jose near Almaden Valley to Los Gatos and Saratoga and other nearby unincorporated areas.

Stephen Harrington, senior forest health project manager with the Saratoga-based FireSafe Council, said that about 60,000 people live near the Los Gatos and Saratoga creek watersheds, and there are about 100,000 people who use water from Lexington Reservoir.

Seth Schalet, CEO of the FireSafe Council, said the nonprofit started planning to apply for the Cal Fire grant in 2020. The grant required that a minimum of 800 acres of land be treated. The council saw that San Jose Water, Santa Clara County Parks and Midpen each held land that was somewhat contiguous and needed both wildfire risk reduction and improvements to forest health and resiliency, so the nonprofit decided to partner with them.

The first phase of the project was completed on Mach 31 and included incorporating fuel breaks, which creates a defensible line using roads or other natural barriers that fire cannot cross. McCauley said they also tried to “limb up” trees to prevent flames from a brush or grass fire from climbing up into the canopy.

McCauley added that a lot of the work was focused along access roads to make sure residents can escape in case of a fire, specifically around the Aldercroft Heights neighborhood and Lupin Lodge in the Los Gatos hills, a high-risk area for wildfires.

He said the California ecosystem evolved with fire, dating back to indigenous tribes practicing regular burns to reduce excess fuel loads, and the project reflects this through vegetation removal and thinning.

“It’s really about managing, as much as we can, our ability to fight a fire if it does occur and make sure we have the resources necessary to make sure it’s the least catastrophic possible,” McCauley added.

The collaborative has been awarded a second Cal Fire grant for $6.9 million to help treat wildfire-prone areas in south Santa Clara County, like El Sereno Open Space Preserve in Los Gatos, and 155 acres near Montevina Road, which is west of Lexington Reservoir.

McCauley said the collaborative contracted with BurnBot, which makes a remote-control device to break down vegetation, as part of the second phase of the project. According to Midpen, “These machines are lighter on the land and very precise in their operation.”

The second phase of work is expected to finish in the fall of 2027, bringing the acreage treated to over 1,800.