DL Trail Project: More Houses=Less Nature

By: Shreeya Indap

The DL Trail Project is Dandilyonn’s newest initiative to catch up with our local trails in the Bay Area. The idea was born on a red and yellow train chugging through the rolling hills of the Alps. There, I was overwhelmed with the beauty that Mother Earth has gifted us but ashamed that humans are not realizing how unfortunate it is that they are destroying this gift with their very own hands. In Switzerland, we were visiting new mountains and trails everyday and I thought to myself, “Why don’t we do this in our hometowns and learn about preserving the nature?”  What will see on your trip? Which problems do we observe? You’ll find all this information and more in our upcoming DL Trail Project articles!

This week, I had the chance to visit the Sabercat Creek Trail, in the Mission San Jose area of Fremont. Overall, the 2-mile trail itself is very pleasant. There are many native plants around the path; tall trees and some grasses line each side and you can hear the calming sound of running water in the middle portion of the walk. It’s a nice escape from our busy lives that’s only a few minutes away from our homes.

FUN FACT: The Sabercat Creek Trail used to be an archeological dig site where fossils like mammoths, giant sloths, and cave bears have been unearthed!

In addition, seeing some of the good effects of the Sabercat Creek Restoration Project was comforting. There are plenty of young trees growing in the designated areas, but I noticed that some of the other trees that had been planted around the same time were now turning brown and were also withering. It’s not certain why this is happening, because drips have been placed next to each newly-planted tree, but it’s possible it could be because of the California drought that these trees aren’t getting the amount of water that they need to survive.

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Although I did not find many problems at Sabercat, it got me thinking about the future of our natural areas in Fremont. A few months ago, Fremont City office sent out a newsletter to its residents introducing the Georgetown University Energy Prize, a contest of over 50 cities to reduce overall energy usage, with a grand prize of $5 million. Yet, everywhere I look from the Mission area to places around Patterson Ranch, hundreds of new homes are being built every single day, destroying natural fields full of grasses, flowers, and animals and inviting thousands of more people to join in on releasing greenhouse gases in Fremont. I’d like to ask the Fremont City this: How do you expect to win this prize for energy conservation when it seems like every request to build new homes is being permitted? All of these new homes will generate more and more energy usage in their communities harming our environment and, also, ruining our chance to win this prize.

With the current rate at which the city is permitting new constructions, these creeks and trails might not even exist in the next 10 years! And it doesn’t help that all of these native plants and animals will have to combat the harsh realities of climate change in the near future, like pollution, droughts, and global warming. **I will be emailing the Fremont Environmental Services to inquire if these areas are in protected lands and will update you shortly.**

We need to start focusing on our planet and the long term effects on what these problems are going to do to every living being on Earth in a few hundred years. Instead of building more homes, we should  be centering our time on enriching areas like the Sabercat Creek Trail; making them more extensive, healthy, and beautiful.