Look Up! It's a Bird, It's a Plane...it's Another Helicopter!
Why do helicopters fly so often, and often so low, over Los Gatos and Cambrian Park?
The problem is significant enough that the Town of Los Gatos even has included the question of whom to call if there's a low-flying helicopter or plane (answer: the FAA, local phone number 408-291-7681).
Along Highways 17 and 85, of course, there are, understandably, flying traffic vehicles (both planes and helicopters) - but they don't go too low and normally they don't circle repeatedly.
Some of the choppers are Coast Guard, flying from Moffett Field to the bay or ocean, where they have to pluck hapless sailors out of the water. Sometimes it's Air National Guard, also going out of Moffett - perhaps to Monterey?
Ocassionally helicopters are needed by firefighters: there are mountain fires and the agile airbirds are used to collect and dump water from Lexington Resevoir into hard-to-reach spots. And some of the lowest-flying noisy things are police vehicles, looking for troublemakers, usually prowlers. (Though once there was a small child who'd apparently run away from home and one of the copters was flying low and calling the boy's name over a loudspeaker, something like "Danny, go home..." Small town stuff.)
But there are big legal issues that seem to cause a reason for the ongoing appearance of helicopters near the hills. About 18 months ago, there was a large marijuana bust in the heavily wooded hills off Shannon Road in which an officer was killed while staking out a pot farmer. There were lots of helicopters circling around that day - I remember it well as it was not so far from our home. Because the densely forested hills over Los Gatos and Almaden Valley and throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains are sometimes the location of these huge marijuana farms, some of the helicopters you hear and see may be working for MET, the Marijuana Eradication Team.
Sometimes, though, you just can't tell what they're doing. It's as if they are just practicing, going around and around in circles over east Los Gatos and Cambrian Park. And the worse thing is that it may be getting worse, rather than better.
How can it get worse?!? Logging. If you live locally, you have to have heard that the San Jose Water Company wants to clear out about 20% of the old growth redwood and fir trees near Lexington Resevoir. They make the argument that by clearing the forest, the fire danger will go down and the watershed will be better protected. The Sierra Club isn't buying it. And Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging has got Al Gore behind them to fight this too. But regardless of how you feel about fire danger and old growth, it is certain that if they are allowed to harvest these trees, helicopters will be used for about 24% of the work there, and logging would be permitted up to 12 hours a day all year long.
That's a lot of helicopters.
And don't we have enough of them already? Sure, some are needed. Some, I'm not so sure about. But more? I can't think it's a good idea.
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