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“Wildlife
are facing unprecedented challenges in California from the impacts of
climate change such as historic drought, heat and fires,” noted John
Donnelly, director of the Wildlife Conservation Board. “One of the main
strategic priorities for the Wildlife Conservation Board is enhancing
connectivity throughout the state to increase the resiliency of both flora
and fauna to these challenges. We are pleased to provide this grant to a
project that will connect an entire regional ecosystem and help ensure we
preserve the incredible biodiversity of the Santa Monica Mountains.”
“The
wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon will be the largest in the world, and
we cannot thank California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the state legislature
enough — especially Senator Henry Stern, Assemblymember Richard Bloom,
Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Laura Friedman and California
Natural Resources Secretary, Wade Crowfoot — as well as the California
Wildlife Conservation Board director John Donnelly and California
Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham, for working to match
the historic private investment by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg
Foundation,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife
Federation. “As the National Wildlife Federation works to restore wildlife
corridors across the nation, the wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon is the
absolute best example in the world of how we can reconnect fragmented
wildlife habitat even in the most dense urban areas.”
“Time is running
out for these mountain lions,” said Beth Pratt, California Regional
Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation and leader of the
#SaveLACougars campaign. “All that stands between us and groundbreaking is
$6.5 million — we hope other philanthropists will step up and get us past
the finish line so these remarkable cats can have a future in the Los
Angeles area.”
The wildlife
crossing at Liberty Canyon is a project for the next century, and the
structure will endure for decades, providing a lasting benefit to wildlife
for generations to come. Two decades of study by the National Park Service
in the Los Angeles area has shown roads and development are not only
proving deadly for animals trying to cross, but have also created islands
of habitat that can genetically isolate all wildlife — from bobcats to
birds and lizards. This visionary wildlife crossing will preserve
biodiversity across the region by re-connecting an integral wildlife
corridor, and most critically, help save a threatened local population of
mountain lions from extinction. Without intervention, they could vanish
from the area within our lifetime. In April of 2020, the California Fish
and Game Commission unanimously voted to advance a petition to declare this
population of cougars as threatened under the state’s Endangered Species
Act for final consideration.
When
complete, the crossing will be the largest in the world, the first of its
kind in California, and will serve as a global model for urban wildlife
conservation. As evidenced from decades of wildlife crossing projects
across the world, such as the successful structures in Banff National Park,
and the array of animals seen using an overpass in Utah in a recent viral
video, wildlife crossings work. As a major green infrastructure project for
the state of California, construction for the crossing will generate jobs
in the region and economic benefits into the future.
The wildlife
crossing is a public-private partnership of monumental scope that has
leveraged the expertise and leadership of dozens of organizations and
institutions. The core partners include Caltrans, the National Park
Service, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy/Mountains Recreation and
Conservation Authority, Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica
Mountains, and the National Wildlife Federation. The project partners also
added a world-renowned design team led by a landscape architectural
practice, Living Habitats LLC, that collaborates with Caltrans and
coordinates with a broad team of wildlife crossing experts in the planning
and design development of the wildlife crossing.
To learn
more about the #SaveLACougars campaign and its efforts to build the
wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon visit https://savelacougars.org/
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