Water district, volunteers, environmentalists team up
Chris Bone – Staff Writer
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GILROY
Oscar Flores wanted to give back to the community and Herman Garcia wanted to help save endangered species, so the two hooked up to help out the water district.
But they were not expecting to sweat and toil as much as they did along the Uvas Creek last weekend near Hecker Pass Highway: Hauling off 1,000 cubic yards of bamboo for the Santa Clara Valley Water District is no easy chore.
Three to four months ago, district officials went through the creek bed to slash thousands of six- to ten-foot-tall stalks of arundo, according to Marc Klemencic, the district’s deputy operating officer for the Uvas and Llagas watersheds.
Arundo is an invasive bamboo-like plant native to Asia, and its rapacious hankering for creek real estate means it obstructs water flow and inhibits the travel of endangered species like the steelhead trout. And what good is cutting it down if the dead stalks remain in the creek?
No good at all, said Garcia, president of the local non-profit Coastal Habitat and Environmental Restoration.
That is why he decided to get nearby property owners’ permission to cross through their land to get to the creek so he could collect the debris with the help of volunteers from the Victory Outreach Ministry, a 15-year-old Pentecostal rehabilitation home on Hanna street for people usually coping with drug problems.
Thirteen men stay at the house now, according to its director, Jason Wilson, who said those who volunteered bettered themselves and the environment by helping out.
“If it weren’t for CHEER and the Victory volunteers, these places would not get as clean,” Wilson said. Klemencic said the district was planning on leaving the piles of arundo in the creek since they could not reproduce, but Garcia wanted to clear the bed, and he could not have done so without some extra muscle.
“We have some pretty big guys in our home, so we can cover a broad range of stuff,” Wilson said.
One such guy is Flores, who has spent the past four months at the house. He and six others proved their might Nov. 9 and 10 by putting in eight-hour days, hauling the bamboo back and forth.
Though they did not join a few CHEER volunteers Sunday, the men helped the non-proft fill two shipping-container-size bins that the district provided and then hauled away to the landfill.
“My muscles don’t heel like they used to,” Flores said, chuckling a little about his sore back last week. “It was pretty tough, but it was worth the sweat and hard work when you’re out there doing it for a cause. I had a good time.”
There are still patches of arundo up and down the creek because “it breeds like rabbits,” Garcia said, and Klemencic said the district cleared more than 1,600 non-native trees, mostly Eucalyptus, throughout Uvas Creek between Miller street and U.S. 101 last month, as well.
The plants are certain to spawn again, but helping fish and facilitating the creek’s current are important tasks, Sisyphean or not, Garcia said.
