![](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Coyote-Valley-Landscape-Ron-Horii.jpg?w=978)
After Green Foothills and other conservation groups fought development in the area for years, in November 2019 San Jose, the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, and the Peninsula Open Space Trust has reached a $93 million deal to purchase 937 acres in Coyote Valley. San Jose’s southern tip protects the grounds for wildlife, open space, and flood control. (Photo Ron Holly, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority)
A leading Bay Area environmental organization that has worked for more than 60 years to curb Silicon Valley sprawl and preserve open space in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has elected a new leader.
Julie Hutchison will be the new executive director of Green Foothills, the group announced Tuesday. Palo Alto-based Greenfoothills was founded by novelist Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner at a time when explosive post-World War II growth was turning orchards and country roads into freeways and office parks. It was founded in 1962 by his community leaders and 26 others.
Over the past few decades, the group, formerly known as the Green Foothills Committee, has won long-term battles to preserve thousands of acres of farmland and open space in Coyote Valley on the southern edge of San Jose. This area was once the focus of Cisco and Apple for their global headquarters. in the 1980s and 1990s. It also helped convince Caltrans to abandon plans to reroute Highway 1 over the Devil’s Slide hill near Pacifica and instead build a tunnel through the Coast Range. .
The group is calling on tech billionaire Vinod Khosla to reopen Martin’s Beach near Half Moon Bay to the public. It also advocates preserving former Cargill industrial salt evaporation ponds around the southern end of San Francisco Bay and turning them into wetlands for fish, wildlife and public recreation.
Hutchison has held various roles with the group since 2013, including as legislative advocate. She succeeds Megan Fluke, who served as executive director for 10 years until her departure to serve as a nonprofit consultant and leadership coach.
Hutcheson said some of his main priorities in the coming years include continuing to oppose the organization’s plan to build a gravel quarry on the Sargent Ranch south of Gilroy, as well as protecting the wild lands between the Santa Cruz and Diablo Mountains. He said the goal is to expand biological corridors and support efforts. To protect and restore the Bay’s wetlands and develop a new generation of environmental advocates from diverse backgrounds.
“In the face of the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis, our work is more important than ever,” she said.
The group is also pushing to convert a major limestone quarry in the Cupertino Hills, owned by Lehigh Cement, to be restored as a 3,500-acre open space or wildlife preserve. The company closed its cement factory at the quarry earlier this year after committing hundreds of violations, including air and water pollution.
Hutchison is the co-author of two publications on Santa Clara Valley agriculture. “Small Farms, Big Potential: Growing a resilient local food system” (2020) and “Santa Clara County Food System Assessment” (2013). She holds a master’s degree in Slavic Linguistics from the University of Virginia.