In July, a mountain lion often called P-89 was struck by a automobile and killed on the 101 Freeway in Woodland Hills. His physique was discovered on the shoulder of the freeway.
The two-year-old, one in every of 13 offspring born in the course of the 2020 “Summer time of Kittens,” was the fourth collared mountain lion within the Nationwide Park Service research of the cougars in and across the Santa Monica Mountains to be killed on a street since January. Two others not within the research have additionally been killed by autos this yr within the space of the research. Over the two-decade course of the research, researchers have documented 31 lions killed by autos within the research space, which ranges throughout the Simi Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains, the Verdugo Mountains and Griffith Park. (Solely 14 of these 31 lions have been within the research.)
Crossing multi-lane highways and fast-moving roads is treacherous for each type of wildlife, from slow-moving tortoises to swift-footed pumas. Some get fortunate and evade site visitors, however no animal, regardless of how wily or predatory, is a match for autos. If we wish mountain lions and different creatures to outlive, the state has to do a greater job of making secure passageways for animals.
That’s why the state Legislature ought to move Meeting Invoice 2344, the Secure Roads and Wildlife Safety Act, which might require the California Division of Transportation to create crossings the place wanted when it builds new highways and improves current ones. The invoice, written by Assemblymembers Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) and Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), and co-sponsored by the Middle for Organic Variety and Wildlands Community, is anticipated to come back up for a vote within the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.
This isn’t an extravagant measure. That is actually a lifeline for the wildlife we treasure in our state as they face increasingly threats — from automobile strikes, rat poisoning, shrinking habitat and wildfires — to their existence.
The invoice requires the Division of Fish and Wildlife and Caltrans to establish areas essential for wildlife motion and different particular areas recognized to be roadkill scorching spots. Any new transportation initiatives in these locations must reduce their danger to wildlife with some kind of passageway or use the chance to repair a spot that’s harmful to cross. The businesses must create an inventory of high-priority wildlife connectivity initiatives, however the preliminary requirement {that a} sure quantity be accomplished annually has been dropped from the invoice. We have now a regulation requiring the state to find and cut back obstacles to fish passage. Shouldn’t we’ve the identical protections for terrestrial wildlife?
Not each — in reality, not most — passageways might be as elaborate because the state-of-the-art $87-million Wallis Annenberg Liberty Wildlife Crossing, which is able to span a 10-lane stretch of the 101 in Agoura Hills when it’s accomplished in 2025. That mission was largely privately financed however included some public funds.
Generally it’s a matter of upgrading culverts, putting in roadside fencing to information animals to underpasses, or elevating segments of roadway so creatures can get beneath it.
And there’s funding for these sorts of initiatives: Caltrans can faucet a number of federal sources together with the Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act (2021), which established a $350-million Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program that dedicates the funding over 5 years to scale back wildlife-vehicle collisions and enhance habitat connectivity.
These collisions between animals and autos are expensive in different methods as nicely. The Highway Ecology Middle at UC Davis has estimated the full value of reported collisions between massive wildlife (resembling mule deer, bears and mountain lions) and autos in California to be not less than $1 billion in injury from 2016 to 2020. And the injury isn’t restricted to vehicles. In 2018 alone, based on the invoice, “not less than 314 individuals have been injured and 5 individuals have been killed in California in car collisions with wildlife.”
If we consider that defending the atmosphere contains giving wild creatures an opportunity to maneuver in regards to the land, then this invoice is their finest hope to outlive the maze of speedways we’ve created.
