MORGAN HILL
– Despite a flash flood watch by the National Weather Service,
Croy Road residents successfully braved the storm in their rural
mountainous neighborhoods over the New Year’s holiday.
MORGAN HILL – Despite a flash flood watch by the National Weather Service, Croy Road residents successfully braved the storm in their rural mountainous neighborhoods over the New Year’s holiday.
Instead of mudslides like the ones in the fire-denuded San Bernadino Mountains that killed 14 people on Christmas, land held firm in the Croy area New Year’s Day while more than five inches of rain fell on parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“We had no calls and didn’t see any slides ourselves,” said Mike DiMarco, spokesman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District – the flood management agency for Santa Clara County. “There were no major events. I don’t think there were even any minor mudslides in the area.”
Fears that substantial rains could move tons of mud, boulders and trees down the Santa Cruz Mountains have been kept alive because not all of the area’s soil-retaining vegetation has grown back fully. In September 2002, more than 3,000 acres around Croy Road burned.
“That land now is as secure as it ever was if not better,” Croy Road resident Roy Guist said on New Year’s Eve.
Guist, who spent Wednesday using his bulldozer to dig culverts alongside dirt roads in the Croy area, has spearheaded much of the mountain community’s efforts to reinforce the hillsides. Already last year, the former NASA engineer and other residents – against the admonitions of the county – hand-planted 1,200 pounds of seed along hillsides months before county crews did the same.
Guist says those plantings laid the groundwork, literally, for the Croy Road area’s apparent ability to stave off seemingly inevitable destruction.
“It’s kind of a success story up there. The roots have gone wild. There are 30 or 40 types of indigenous plants growing well,” Guist said. “Mother nature really cooperated. We lucked out.”
In response to the threatening weather pattern that continues to dump rain on the South Valley and its surrounding hillsides, the water district kept additional crews on patrol for mudslides Thursday.
Also, the county delivered sandbags earlier this week to Croy Road and 10 other areas for residents who thought they may need to protect their homes from water and mud flows.
Guist said sandbags dropped off at 7800 Croy Road – the heart of last year’s fire – got snatched up within a couple hours.
Steve Slusser, whose Croy Road home was damaged severely in the fire, did not need sandbags to protect his newly rebuilt house. However, Slusser spent New Year’s Eve placing tarps on eroded hillside to keep mud flows at bay.
“We’ve had minor mud flows so the house is in no immediate danger,” Slusser said Wednesday. “But if you don’t address it now, they’re going to get bigger and bigger.”
Year-old to everyday watchdogging and maintenance efforts by themselves and county work crews helped Croy Road residents enjoy the New Year’s holiday comfortably. In addition to Guist’s and Slusser’s work, the water district spent $125,000 hydroseeding the Croy hillsides in December 2002 with 3,000 pounds of seed and 30 tons of pelletized straw.
When the straw gets wet from the rain, it catches seeds from indigenous plants, allowing them to grow and stabilize their root system.
“The reseeding worked,” water district spokesman Mike DiMarco said. “We’re seeing indigenous plants grow there that haven’t been seen in the last eight decades.”
Among those native species are the tall and slender Lodgehole Pine trees and the California rose.
Although he gave kudos to the water district for reseeding the hillsides, Guist said Mother Nature had more to do with the success of Croy flora.
Since the September 2002 fire, Guist has seen manzanita, lilac and other plants grow back thicker than before. He said pine trees may have been the primary benefactor of the fire.
Before the blaze, a beetle had been killing off pines. But after thousands of the trees exploded during the Croy fire, those trees’ pine cones fell to the ground. Now, those pine cones are growing thousands more trees.
“The pines seemed doomed before the fire, now there are millions of seedlings around. They almost look like grass,” Guist said. “I’m learning as a I go. It’s quite amazing to see how some of these plants seem to need fire.”
