Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Group

Larry Johmann made contact with Stanley Robert from KRON-4 News, People Behaving Badly, and discussed with him about the squatters in downtown San Jose while the King Salmon are spawning and how serious the problem is. You’ll see a lot of things that belonged to homeless in the creeks. This third storm we had washed away many homeless encampments and carried their things down stream wrapping them around trees and bridges. These pictures were taken at E Brokaw Rd and Ridder Park Dr. I brought Stanley Roberts downtown to areas of the Guadalupe, Los Gatos Creek and Coyote Creeks to do a follow-up segment on the significantly increasing occurrences of squatters, pollution and poaching problems they are causing. He aired a report on the news last night. He did a great job but don’t watch it when you are eating!

Garbage from the homeless in the Guadaluipe River

Garbage remaining at an abandoned homeless encampment

Larry and myself are finishing up about 8 miles of GPS mapping on locations of Homeless communities in our streams and rivers. We’ve captured hundreds of photos about these large homeless encampments and the bad things happening in our streams and close by communities. The list of problems keeps growing, Ten wildfires put out this year, steeling of copper wire from homes, business, city and utilities, tunneling into banks of the stream to construct homes, one with a staircase to the second floor, and the unsanitary conditions and waste covering the creek banks.

Noting that these photos were taken after the recent cleanup they show the amount of garbage still remaining in the river and now flowing out to the San Francisco Bay and estuaries. I will be submitting this to officer Bryon Jones when completed on behalf of Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Group. To see additional info from last year about homeless affecting spawning areas and the stream log visit us at www.silichip.org

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Tully Rd adjacent to community garden East bank coyote trail City San Jose, and west bank SCVWD in 2011 I was escorted by a Sgt. of the San Jose police department to get photos and hand delivered them to the SCVWD board members at an evening meeting. Recent photos at this location 10/24/2012 of camp and piling structure over water.

Following up on the homeless encampment or in stream communities on the Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek. City of San Jose and Santa Clara Valley water District started their sweeps on October 21 of 2012 on Coyote Creek within Kelly’s Park at Keys Street at Center Road.

It took SCVWD and City of San Jose over one week to clear the area with bulldozers, backhoes and other large equipment tearing down these large structures that were built in the banks of the coyote Creek.
Heavily constructed Homes large fenced in encampments and farms and animals. I found fenced in coops with chickens running around and being raised along the river bank.

The flood conveyance on the south east bank is ranging from 300 to 400 yards across and about 400 yards in length to the nearest bridge at Keys St. This is roughly proportional to a half a block in size. I estimate that there are up to 500 or more people living on the banks of the Coyote Creek in this location alone.

It really was a heartbreaking experience. As I heard children playing in the banks of the homeless encampment, I spoke to a young woman who said that she was a nurse who had lost her position and could no longer afford her rent. She also explained that there are construction workers, plumbers, electricians, families with elderly and many other people that had lost their jobs. It was really sad.

It’s not the first time I’ve encountered this problem. For years we have performed fish rescues due to the fact that the homeless were living on the Trout and Salmon migrating in the river and trapping them in shopping carts and volleyball nets. This has seriously hurt the population that was inhabiting the local river systems. I myself have been rescued several times by the San Jose Police Department from a few of the more seriously aggressive homeless people I’ve encountered while observing the river in these areas.

With the help of Park Rangers and the San Jose Police we have successfully removed many of the traps that have been set up. Unfortunately they are put right back after several weeks. I have been reporting the problem to the Santa Clara Valley Water District, City of San Jose and the Park Rangers in the downtown area as early as 1995. And I have continuously requested that the Fish and Game Wardens enforce the protection of the Salmon and Trout. However they are not able to do their job because the homeless encampment areas may be too hazardous and they are not allowed to go there. To follow up on last years complaints. So I have recently hrlped the Game Wardens by working with them to files complaints allow them to finish their work in these areas

I work with several departmental of Fish and game wardens in filing the complaints for them not being
To follow up on last years complaints I also surveyed the areas from capitol expressway and Tully road and found worst conditions. On both properties is east bank San Jose own West Bank Santa Clara Valley water District property. The creeks are there toilets what are we going to do. I found a structure built over water pilings structure encampment.

My estimates are roughly around 14,000 people living in our streams currently today. Living off endangered King Salmon and Steelhead Trout. PS zoom in on right side of Large Log. photo DSCN1409 10/25/2012 Tully Rd west bank. Photo DSCN1387 chicken and fencing center ground chicken in coop. Kelly Park at Key rd 10/21/2012 photo DSCN1397. Survey October 25, 2012 all of the people are back in the area again due to the fact of in adequate facilities for these people to go to. What are the next steps for us to get the problem resolved?

Underground water that flows through the water table beneath the city is pumped from areas where Buildings basements, garages and roads are lower than Sea Level. This water is continuously pumped and dumped into the river. with a bit of management this water could be used to restore local Salmon and Trout habitats in the Guadalupe and other rivers in the Bay Area. This video demonstrates the available water flow from a few locations on the Guadalupe River.

In 2005, Roger Castillo, a local environmentalist, was walking his dog, Jenna, in the Guadalupe River. They were walking in the same area where Roger discovered Chinook Salmon in the 90’s near the West Trimble Road overpass crossing the Guadalupe River.

KQEDs “This is us” a program about people with active interest in our local communities, featured Roger and his find of Lupe and his active participation in the Guadalupe river environment.