The addition of the historic Gilroy Hot Springs to Henry Coe
State Park is welcomed.
The addition of the historic Gilroy Hot Springs to Henry Coe State Park is welcomed.
The state Parks and Recreation Department has purchased 242 acres of healthy oak woodland and riparian community from The Nature Conservancy for $2.4 million.
The purchase was made possible from Proposition 12 bond-act money.
Although state parks officials are non-committal about what the future will hold for the site which once included cabins, a bathhouse, a swimming pool, dressing rooms and a three-story hotel, we would hope the public will once again be invited to enjoy the healing waters there.
It features blue oak, black oak and coast live oak, and more than a mile of frontage on Coyote Creek, a watershed important as a source of drinking water and as a habitat for rare California red-legged frogs and foothill yellow-legged frogs.
An reinvigorated hot springs could become an important tourist draw for the entire South Valley.
Officials have pledged to seek public comment before the management plan is developed but have not yet determined if they will use a survey or public meetings. We suggest they use both.
