Wildlife corridors are vitally necessary to help animals cope with man's seeming endless alteration of the landscape.
US Person has written before about this species saving land use in this space.
{05.09.13} Ventura County, California, wedged into the burgeoning megalopolis of LALA land, has made a life affirming decision to provide wildlife space for travel between natural areas despite intense opposition from a public whipped into a frenzy by right-wing organizers.
At a Planning Commission hearing which lasted five hours, opponents became vocal in their opposition. One citizen even resorted to a threat during the public comment period, shouting that County’s planners and planning commissioners “should be taken out and shot." The death threat was duly noted for the record, and sheriffs deputies whisked the overwrought citizen out of the hearing room. No doubt he will be booked for disturbing the peace or some other appropriate misdemeanor. Another tactic used by opponents was
labeling. "Wildfire corridor" is what they branded the proposal, contrary to the ecological evidence that landscape left in a natural state is more resistant to fire than land cleared and then invaded by highly inflammable weeds. Despite the fierceness of the opposition, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the plan to create a corridor, but given the frontier mentality of those opposed, it will undoubtedly end up in the state supreme court on the grounds that the regulations prohibiting development constitute an "unconstitutional taking of land". Hello--have the MAGA people heard of the Wall of Shame?
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| William Wendt ,1915 |
Perhaps the greatest threat to wildlife survival in California are the network of freeways and highways that cross-cross the state, fragmenting remaining habitat. These rivers of concrete deter animals from foraging and reproducing naturally, thereby reducing genetic diversity and a specie resiliency. A good example of these effects are the cougars that still hang on the hills surrounding the LA basin.
{08.12.18} A leading scientist, Paul Beier, on the subject of habitat fragmentation wrote a treatise,
Missing Linkages: Restoring Connectivity to the California Landscape, 2000 which has proven influential. California biologists decided at a 2000 conference in San Diego that corridors are needed as an antidote to anthropogenic habitat modification. One outcome of this thinking is the proposed overpass of the Ventura Highway (US 101) in the Agoura Hills area. When completed it will be the largest wildlife crossing in the United States connecting habitat in the Santa Monica mountains with Los Padres National Forest. The fifty-foot wide vegetated crossing will allow mule deer, mountain lion, bobcat, grey fox, and badger to fully share the landscape with humans.
Much less urban Washington state is already building wildlife crossings as part of refurbishing I-90 at Snoqualamie Pass. The project is planned to include 32 medium size crossings, and two large bridges. The first major wildlife underpass is complete at Gold Creek. The crown jewel of a wildlife overpass at Noble Creek is building, scheduled to be completed in 2021. The project has cost $525 million as of 2014, funded by a voter approved gas tax. It has proved to be an engineering challenge, because the design is intended to mimic natural habitat.
[photo left] The 15 mile project spans diverse habitats and two ecotones, from the state's dry interior to the wet coastal zone. I-90 splits the state on an east-west axis, so crossings are vital to the survival of deer, elk, mountain goats, bobcats, black bears, foxes, mink, otters, cougars and wild turkeys.
The decision by the Ventura Planning Commission in the face of seething anger is courageous, but it is also supported by impeccable science and a century of conservation tradition in this country. Now faced with the existential threat of global warming, preserving natural landscape is a more important goal than ever. Other jurisdictions with remaining wildlife populations should pay attention to the action of Ventura County and make decisions that support the survival of Earth's other inhabitants. The specie we save may be our own.
