July 17, 2024 • 37 mins
In this special episode of Farm Talk, sponsored by petrx.com, we delve into an extraordinary wildlife conservation project with our esteemed guest, Beth Pratt, the California Regional Director of the National Wildlife Federation. Join us as we explore the groundbreaking animal crossing over highway 101 near Agoura Hills CA. Beth shares the inspiring story of her "BFF" and the world-famous mountain lion, P-22, whose journey highlighted the dangers of highway crossings for wildlife. Discover how freeways not only pose fatal risks to animals but also genetically isolate them, threatening their survival. From the project's inception in the late 2000s to Beth's involvement in 2012, learn about the collaboration between the National Park Service, Caltrans, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and the National Wildlife Federation. Beth recounts overcoming skepticism, the challenges of building in a difficult location, and the impressive dimensions of the crossing. Hear about the vital role P-22 and other wildlife play in this project, the research and fundraising efforts, and the significant contributions from figures like Wallis Annenberg and Leonardo DiCaprio. Discover the local support from Agoura Hills, the Save the L.A. Cougars campaign, and the community’s enthusiasm, including spectator interest during construction. Learn about volunteer programs and how you can stay informed via their online platforms. Join us for an inspiring journey into wildlife conservation and the heroic efforts to save California’s mountain lions. Special thanks to our sponsor, petrx.com!
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What you will learn in this episode:
0:00 This is a special episode of Farm Talk that is sponsored by PETRX.com (See above for 20% off your first order with petrx.com)
0:33 Introduction of our episode guest, the California Regional Director of the National Wildlife Federation, Beth Pratt and our topic: The animal crossing over highway 101 in The Santa Monica Mountains.
1:10 Beth Pratt tells us the story of who her, self-proclaimed, “BFF,” and world famous mountain lion, P-22
1:37 Paul explains the problem with animal deaths because of trying to cross major highways
2:36 Beth Pratt describes the beauty of the LA area and its surroundings and how P-22 brought attention to the fact that not only are the freeways in these areas causing animals to be killed by vehicles when the animals are trying to cross, but that the freeways are genetically isolating the animals and causing them risk of extinction
6:08 The history of this project is explained by Beth Pratt starting from its infancy in the late 2000’s to when she got involved in 2012.
8:25 The core group collaborating on this project has been The National Park Service, Caltrans, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and then Beth’s group, the National Wildlife Federation
10:02 Beth Pratt shares how in the beginning there was a lot of skepticism about the project and some of things that they had to overcome to get the project started
11:13 This crossing was built in the one of the most difficult places it could be built
12:01 The dimensions of the crossing are shared by Beth
12:50 Beth Pratt shares how P-22 and mountain lions are most at risk of extinction and the reasons why
14:27 Other wildlife and how they are impacted by the building of the crossing
15:48 From inception to now, Beth talks about the research, grants, etc
16:39 Funding for this project has come from both government grants and private donations, which The National Wildlife Federation worked hard at fundraising for.
18:07 More about mountain lions, the territo
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
This is a special episode ofFarm Talk sponsored by petrx.com.
An online pet pharmacy. Petrx.comis located in Westlake Village,
California, near thewildlife crossing. Petrx.com,
delivered right to your door with care.
In this episode of Farm Talk,
we're talking about the animalcrossing over Highway 101.
(00:33):
Hi, friends. It's Paul Wardand welcome to Farm Talk.
The Santa Monica Mountains are thelargest urban national park in the United
States, and actually theworld. And with that,
animals have to co-exist withmillions of cars. And of course,
if there are accidents, the animalspretty much lose every time.
And so folks are trying to finda solution to this problem.
Who better to discussthat than Beth Pratt,
(00:53):
the California Regional Director ofthe National Wildlife Federation. Beth,
welcome to Farm Talk.
Thanks for having me. It's a great day.
Absolutely. And I must addthat you're also BFF to P-22.
Yeah. Or former BFF, but stilleven in his passing. Yeah.
I feel like we're still connected. Yeah.
Yeah., and for folks thatdon't know, P-22 was a mountain lion.
(01:14):
P-22 was this, you know,
incredibly beloved and worldwidefamous mountain lion that lived
in LA like I'm talking inLA under the Hollywood sign.
And he sadly passedaway in the end of 2022.
But he's kinda like a Jim Morrison orMarilyn Monroe. Like even in his death,
he's still very much with people so yeah.
(01:35):
He lives on in the true Hollywood style.
. Right. Awesome.So, you noticed, or,
and other folks as well, that animaldeaths are just kind of staggering.
I read recently that it's a millionanimals a day are killed by cars in the
United States (01:51):
billions a year, globally.
And so, we have this urbanmetropolis Los Angeles,
which sprawl for hundredsof miles. And, you know,
interesting that we also have thelargest national park right next door,
which people don't realize that the SantaMonica Mountains is a national park.
(02:11):
With that, you have animals
coexisting or forcedto coexist with people,
and they try to cross theroad and splat, they're dead.
And Highway 101, it's kind oflike the great wall of China.
The animals can't get across.
Exactly.
And so,
(02:31):
you and others spearheaded thisproject to build an animal crossing.
You know, to me, there's so much tothis project that's wondrous. But also,
I think, myth busting in some respectstoo. I mean, first of all, you know,
people think of LA, and theyjust think of concrete and smog.
And LA has an incredibleamount of open space
(02:54):
that I don't think people realize now.I mean, the Santa Monica Mountains,
which run right into the middle of LA;Griffith Park and are just incredible.
And sometimes I'm on trailsand I think I'm in Yosemite.
But what happens is that is overlaid with,
I'd say the only myththat is true about LA,
which is the traffic and thefreeways. I mean, you know,
(03:15):
it's almost become this fun, "The 405,the 101." The Saturday Night Live skit,
right. You can run 'em down. So,
you have this great wildlife habitatwhere people like the Santa Monica
Mountains Conservancy spentdecades insuring was here.
And you have a lot of wildlife. Wehave mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes.
You know, you can just go down the list.
But the problem is you havethese formidable freeways,
(03:38):
some of the busiest freeways inthe world, like the 101, the 405,
and the five intersectingthat habitat. And as you said,
when the cars and animals meet, thecar is gonna win every time. So,
it was actually P-22, the Mountain Lion,
that we opened with that introduced meto kind of what was happening when I
first started with theNational Wildlife Federation in
(04:02):
2011. You know, I was workingmore in traditional conservation.
My background's been morein Yellowstone and Yosemite.
I've worked in these remote areas, youknow, national parks my whole career.
And when P-22 came on the scene in 2012.
This mountain lion popsup in the middle of LA.
I didn't even believe it at first.You know, it was a headline. I'm like,
there is no way that is true.
But I met with the National ParkService biologist, Jeff Sikich.
(04:26):
I had maybe even after20 years in California,
been to LA maybe a half a dozen times.
I had never been toGriffith Park at this point.
And he meets me in Griffith Park,
and he is telling me about what allthese mountain lions were going through,
not just P-22, how these freeways work.
Not just defining their habitat butputting them at risk of the extinction.
Because it's not just themgetting killed by the cars.
(04:50):
But it is,
these freeways are genetically isolatingthem so that their only options for
breeding is with their own family. So,
they're inbreeding themselves outof existence because they cannot.
Their home territories aredefined by these freeways. So,
it then that led to the solution.
It was actually that very daywhen I met with Jeff Sikich,
the National Park Service biologist.
(05:10):
He's telling me about not just P-22being trapped by these freeways,
but this whole population that theyliterally didn't think was gonna make it.
And I remember thinking, "Well, howcan I help?" And naive me, you know,
Jeff was like, "Well,
there's this little crossing we've beentrying to get built." I'm like, "Sure.
How hard is gonna be?" Not knowing it'dbe 13 years of my life and counting,
and a hundred milliondollars plus. But, yeah,
(05:33):
for me it was just a moral imperative.Like we knew how to solve it.
How could I, on my watch,
let these mountain lions goupstate if there's a solution?
Right. So, you and Jeff andothers got together and,
and then determined that thebest solution for the cats,
but not just mountain lions,but other animals as well,
was to build a crossing a significantsize. It's not just a little,
(05:58):
you know, footbridge for pedestrians,
in a strategic location thatwould connect the Santa Monica Mountains
to another open space area.
Yeah. so, you know, this has so many, Imean, the history of this goes back to,
I think actually the late eighties whereyou have the Santa Monica Mountains
Conservancy.
(06:18):
It's right here in Agora Hills where thisliterally one of the most significant
conservation projectsof our time was born.
The Santa Monica MountainsConservancy, of course,
was reserving open space for decades.
And Paul Edelman and JoeEdmondson at the time,
this is in the late eighties beforecorridors and connectivity were really in
kind of the commonscientific thought. You know,
(06:40):
back then when I was coming up inconservation and getting my education,
the dominant view was still, "Okay, youput aside a Yosemite or a refuge here,
or a park here,
check preserved it for wildlife."We now know scientifically not true.
And that's what I love aboutscience. When we get more evidence,
we change our mind. We now knowthat connectivity is important.
You just can't have a landscape,you know, an island. But back then,
(07:02):
that wasn't as prevalent.
And you had visionaries like Paul Edelmanand Joe Edmondson saying, "You know,
there's just a thing intuitive." Andthis is born out in letters and reports
they were sending at thetime about continuous space.
They kind of instinctuallyknew that was important.
And that's the only reason we'reable to put this crossing now,
is they were able to connectwhere Liberty Canyon connecting
(07:23):
the Santa Monica Mountains toopen space to the north. You know,
you get into the Santa Susanaas you get into, you know,
all the way up to Los Padres,
and it's the last 1600 feet in the entirearea that has that connected space on
both sides.
Interesting.
So, I love that, you know,
even instinctively years ago that theykind of knew something had to be done.
(07:44):
But I'd say the most recent, you know,sort of this recent push started,
I'd say in the late2000s, like 2008, 2009,
the Park Service had had starteddoing their research in 2002,
at least on the Mountain Lions. They werestarting to see some alarming results,
such as the genetic decline. And so,
they started talking with theconservancy, with Caltrans,
(08:06):
Senator Fran Pavley, again, Fran PavleyMeadow, right here at Agora Hills,
you know,
she was the first mayor of Agora Hillsand went on to become a state senator.
She was one of the folksthat led the early charge,
at least starting to get peopletalking about what was impossible.
A tunnel was thrown out, youknow, what do we do here?
And then I got involved in 2012,
(08:30):
kind of behind the scenes fora couple years. I looked at,
did some feasibilitystudies, looked at where,
what the dominant view from allthe scientists was overcrossing,
and it had to be in that location.And then we were off and running.
And it's just been areally great collaboration.
The main partners of theNational Park Service, Caltrans,
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy,and then my group, the,
(08:53):
which was the last partner, myselfand the National Wildlife Federation.
But of course, it takes a village.
There are so many morepartners involved in this.
But that was sort of thecore group that has really,
like day-to-day working on this project.
Right. And Caltrans had never doneanything like this before. I mean,
they were known for highwaysand that's it. I mean,
(09:14):
maybe some surface streets,but not really helping animals.
You know,
what's interesting is none of thepartners had done any of this before.
The Park Service hadn't built acrossing, at least in California.
Santa Monica Mountain Conservancyhadn't built a crossing.
National Wildlife Federationhadn't built a crossing.
Caltrans hadn't built a crossing.But what was really wonderful,
we had just had the dream team of thesevisionary folks who have all of them
(09:35):
have been with this project for 13years now. But yeah, at first Caltrans,
you know, was like, "Well, we'll build it,
but we don't have a budget." Theirhangup wasn't that we can't do it,
but that there's no budgetsfor this stuff. Then you know,
park service was like, "We need todo this." Conservancy is like saying,
"We're a land agency. We don't docrossings." So, it's been wonderful.
Definitely back then,
(09:58):
although everybody was kindof willing to explore this.
Certainly.
I think there were a lot of more, well,
"This is crazy." Even myown organization was like,
"This will never happen."The project manager shake,
who's been on it now since 2016, Ithink he told us ground groundbreaking.
We didn't notice at the time. He wasthe fifth project manager we got,
and he told us a groundbreaking that hewas actually told when it was handed off
(10:20):
to him. Don't worry, just humor him.This is never gonna happen. Meanwhile,
but we joke about that. So theredefinitely was some, if not skepticism,
just like, Hey, this isn't gonnahappen, and why would you? Yeah.
We had to counter a lot of,
why would you put it in urban area becauseof that myth that there's no wildlife
here. But yeah, none of us had done it.
And that's why we brought in a lot ofoutside help consulted with experts like
(10:42):
who had built the bancrossings. And indeed,
we did this a little differently inthat we actually fundraise more money to
bring in experts to workside by side with Caltrans.
Nobody does it better than Caltrans inbuilding a bridge and doing our roads.
So the largest transportation agencyin the country, if not the world,
but they had never done thebiological overlay. This is a.
(11:03):
Mammoth project, and thisisn't just some, you know,
two lane road with a dirtfloor for the animals to cross.
I mean, this is like a whole habitat.
Yeah. You know, what I findinteresting? We picked,
and I've toured crossing sites all overthe U.S. We picked the hardest place to
put a crossing in the country,
easily one of the biggest freewaysand busiest freeways in the country.
(11:29):
You only have one place to put it.
You can't pick like thebest place to engineer it.
There's only 1600 feet rightthere where you can put it,
because there's then there'sdevelopment. And it's massive. Listen,
we get asked a lot,
"Why is it so big?" I would happily havebuilt the smallest wildlife crossing in
the world, but we had to go over the101 and the access road. You know,
(11:49):
Agoura Road is right there, and we areputting a full-fledged habitat on top.
So, you need to handle asoil load, which is actually,
and I didn't know this goinginto this. It surprised me,
but I guess it makes sense now. I thought,"Oh, if you're not having cars on it,
you need less of a structure. Youneed more because of water, the soil,
because we're putting vegetation on top.
(12:11):
You have to make it wider becausethe animals will not feel safe.
We have to mitigate for sound and light.
And if you just put a narrow bridgeacross, you might get an animal here,
and they're using it for the most part,
they're gonna know they'restill on the freeway. So,
this came with so many designconsiderations to actually erased
the freeway from the animals,both sound and, you know,
(12:35):
vision all those things. So, it's massive.
It's 210 feet long by, that's,
this is just the structure over the 101.
We're not even talking theaccess road by 175 wide.
Wow.
You can see how some animalswill like make it their home.
(12:56):
That was the other thing. You know,
we use P-22 and the mountain lionsas kind of the poster cat for this,
because everybody loves cats.
Right.
And they are most at risk andstill are of extinction. They,
because of their territory needs, youknow, they have enormous territories.
They need to be able to navigate thesefreeways because they're inbreeding
themselves out of existence. This101 is like the Great Wall China,
(13:19):
or the border wall. It'salmost impenetrable. And so, mountain lions, literally
the only breeding options theyhave are with their family members.
Really?
Imagine you're on Tinder and you'reswiping, and all you get is your
daughter and your great granddaughter.
Yeah.
Not knowing it. And that's what theNational Park Service Research is shown,
(13:40):
is literally they are getting to the pointwhere they will be sterile. You know,
birth defects showed up in 2020, nota good sign. But having said that,
this freeway impacts allwildlife from monarch butterflies
to wrenits to western fence lizards,you name any, almost any animal,
the Santa Monica mountainsis impacted by this. So,
(14:02):
the habitat is being designed for allwildlife. So, you may be driving under,
and yeah, you may have a mountain lioncrossing over you during your commute,
but you might have a fox family on topraising its young or a monarch butterfly
on some native milkweed. So, for me,
it's really hopeful in that it's not justabout getting animals from point A to
point B,
it is reconnecting the entire SantaMonica mountains ecosystem for both flora
(14:25):
and fauna, for all wildlife. And that'sa little different than most crossings.
Most crossings just are designed forbig animals, get 'em across the road,
you throw some gravel and on top, andyou're good. Nothing wrong with that.
But we had a bigger problem.
We actually don't get as muchroadkill as you'd think there.
It's more that it's such a big barrier.The animals don't even attempt.
(14:47):
And just to show you, it impactsall wildlife, even animals,
you might not think birds.And even butterflies,
I know during butterflymigration season, you know,
I feel like I'm a mass murderer.But birds also, you know,
you see dead birds all thetime on these roadways.
Right.
We just put the girders up. So,
(15:08):
you now have a bridge platform,
but what that also did was now blockout the light in that area for the first
time in, what, 70 years? I don'teven know. And some students,
and Dr. Travis Long, whoactually studies light pollution,
how it impacts wildlife,
they were out there measuring lightlevels one night and they saw barn owl,
and they saw him fly across the freewayOver the new platform, because to him,
(15:33):
the lack of light meant safety.
Interesting.
So it's already working.And for an animal,
you might not even experience a barn owl.
Wow! That's really fascinating. So, yousaid this has been going on it 13 years,
kind of in the making fromkind of its inception to today.
I date back kind of theidea of something here,
(15:53):
you know, decades. But I would say,like, they started talking about,
again, something moreseriously, I'd say like 2009,
2008 when the Park service,
some of the early results of the parkservice research was coming back.
And then it got seriouswhen I came on board,
they had just applied for a, what,
(16:13):
a Federal Tiger Grant to actuallylook at feasibility, doing a tunnel.
That was an early idea, which wasruled out pretty quickly. And so that,
and I'd say, yeah, this current, likeserious push was about, you know, 2010,
2011. And then I cameon board in, in 2012.
Was it mostly private funding that justkind of took off and then they kind of
(16:35):
you know, got the governmentgrants kind of as it progressed?
It was both. I mean, so that was my job.
Like you had these entities who werepretty much talking about this behind
closed doors, because that's what youdo. You gotta figure out if it can work.
Right.
But when we started seeing, you know, how,
how big it was gonna beearly on, we're like, yeah,
(16:56):
we're gonna have to go forsome private funding here.
We need the private community becauseit was so visionary and different.
This is a landmark crossing.It's not that wild.
Wildlife crossings are nothing new, butnobody's ever done one like this before.
Again, in an urban area,this large scale. It was
just different in so many ways. So,
(17:19):
the National Wildlife Federation,my group when I came on board,
we're the only ones that canfundraise and advocate. You know,
the other agencies cannot.Right. The Park Service. So, that
was my job then to take the scienceand their need and figure out how to
implement it. And yeah. Myassessment and, you know,
the group's assessment early on is we'regonna have to go private here. Like,
(17:40):
you know, "A," becausefor a few reasons. One,
it is so different in, you know, public,
public are not as good atrisk taking. Right. Two,
the urgency, these mountainlions were out of time. Right.
Like game over the National Parks Serviceresearch was showing if we don't do
something...
How many mountain lions were thereestimated to be in the Santa Monica
(18:02):
mountains versus kind ofnorth? If they could get north,
that could have a biggerpool to breed with?
Well, yeah. It's just sortof an exchange program.
Where the mountain lions should beboth in the Santa Monica mountains and
beyond. They are, like the mountainlions are extremely self-regulating.
They do not share territories.So, they live alone.
They have enormous territories,100-150 square miles.
(18:23):
Wow, each can?
Yes.
That's huge.
Enormous.
Wow.
So, it's not that the, you know,
there wasn't mountainlions where they should be.
And I always like to stress that this isnot about bringing more mountain lions,
it's just about that mountainlions from the south can leave,
and mountain lions from the north cancome in and you've had this genetic
exchange. Right. So, they estimate inthe greater Santa Monica mountains area,
just because of the math, since we knowthey don't share territory, you know,
(18:47):
probably anywhere between10 and 12 to maybe 15.
And kind of like Venturaall the way up to, you know,
even going into like the Simi Hillsand then all the way to Gritffith park.
So Right. It's not a hugepopulation. But yeah,
the crossing itself willagain help facilitate that
genetic exchange. It's also,
(19:09):
like we talked about goingto help with all wildlife.
And it has a specific name, theWallis Annenberg Wildlife Corridor.
Wallis Annenberg WildlifeCrossing. And yeah. When you,
when getting back to the funding question,
the reason is we knew we neededto at least go partly private.
"A," it was visionary, it was big two,the timeframe, as we talked about,
(19:29):
these mountain lions were on theirway out. If we didn't do this now,
they probably weren't gonnabe here. Right. And three,
the other thing we didn't wanna dowas take away transportation dollars.
Right. We don't wanna take away moneyfrom bridge repair and road repair. Right.
and that, you know, earlyon we're like, yeah,
that the optics on that aren't great. So,
(19:49):
we really started with a big private push,
and that was my job as the only entitythat could fundraise and advocate and do
the public outreach. Although we allworked together on that. And we had,
I think, two pivotal afew pivotal moments here,
both on the private andpublic side early on was, yes,
this caught the attention ofsome pretty big visionary folks.
(20:11):
Leonard DiCaprio which wasone of our first donors,
just believed in this project.
and Wallis Annenberg in 2015,she donated the first million,
private million dollar donation.And we were kind of off and running.
And then on the public side we had, again,
(20:31):
an agency that was really early on,
this is still when we were beingtold we were crazy by most people.
I have a special place in my heart forthose people now. You know, like, yeah,
I guess we were crazy. But,theState Coastal Conservancy
put up the million for ourenvironmental documents,
and then we were off and running it.
So we had some really great early privateinvestors. On the public side, I'm
(20:55):
pretty sure it was from the Prop 117Habitat Conservation fund from the State
Coastal Conservancy. So, thenwe're able to do, you know,
this steps in the process,
the environmental permittingand 30% design with those two
donations. And then at that point,
Caltrans could do their work indesigning, but then we had to, you know,
(21:15):
start raising funds forconstruction and all that.
And that's where Wallis Annenberg, youknow, she just did not donate you know,
write a check.
Her and Cinny Kennard and the whole teamat the Annenberg Foundation were with
us every step of theway. And as we proceeded,
we turned that million thatthey donated into 10 million.
Wow. And then with the matching funds?
(21:37):
Yeah, exactly. Matching and justshowing. And then of course,
Wallis said, "We're gonnagive the lead donation,
which was 25 million." We wouldn'thave a crossing without her.
And that's why it is namedfor the Annenberg Foundation.
Wonderful.
Yeah. But then I willsay on the public side,
we then had I, I can't thankGovernor Gavin Newsome enough,
(21:59):
and Wade Crowfoot and others.
But you know I was privileged enoughwith some of the project partners
to give Governor Newsome a privatetour. This is, I think about 2018.
His dad was instrumental in mountainlion protection here. So, for him,
this is a legacy project. And
(22:20):
we gave him a tour of the crossingno press. It was just, you know,
me and some of the partners.And after that, he's like,
whatever help you need,we're gonna get this done.
And he has been instrumentalon the state side. So,
it's actually turned out to bealmost a 50/50 split, With, again,
state funds.
But these are funds that have to bespent on conservation for the most part.
(22:41):
Right. So like bond measures thatare voted for the environment. Right.
And then the private communitystepping up at the half. So to me,
this is such a greatexample of a public-private partnership where both sides
said, "We gotta do this.
How do we make it work?" Andmeeting each other halfway.
Now, do you see this as amodel for the future? I mean,
it's not the only place inCalifornia or the United States,
(23:03):
or the world that needsanimal crossings. I mean,
and there are other animalcrossings in the world.
But this is certainly probablythe biggest of the United States.
Yeah, it's the biggest in the worldfrom at least what we're being told.
I hope somebody knocks us off. I wouldlove for it to be but yeah. You know,
wildlife crossings are nothing new.
(23:23):
But I think what P-22 andthis crossing did was opens
people's eyes. I mean, a lot ofthese crossings are in rural areas.
You just never see 'em. And I thinkit showed people it, you know,
P-22 really his story. You know,
this cat who made this miraculous journey,
he grew up right here in thecentral Santa Monica Mountains.
(23:43):
We know that from genetic testing.
He had to find a newhome when he came of age.
It's a mountain lion whenthey're about one or two,
which is equivalent to kindof our teenage years. Again,
they don't share territories, sothey have to go find a new home.
And if you're in the middle of the, youknow, greater L.A. Metropolitan area,
that ain't easy. Right. So, he did whathe had to do. He just kept walking.
(24:04):
Most of the males in this area get hitby cars or do not make it to the age of
two. He made a journeythat most others die doing,
which is he crossed both the 405 andthe 101 roads that I am terrified
driving on most of the time.
And here's this cat who walked it on footand is somebody who has retraced that
likely journey got almost two dozentimes. Now, I don't know how I make it.
(24:26):
Never mind, him.
This kind of like winning the lottery.
I mean, yes. He won the lottery.
It's almost impossible. You thinkabout it. And if you're local,
you know how crazy that is.Right. If you're not, I mean,
just have to look it up.
You're walking, see, you get to walkto Beverly Hills and mall and drive.
I mean, it's insane.Right. He had to, you know,
cross these freeways that arejust 10 lanes of traffic. I mean,
(24:47):
I've stood on both those freeways at2:00 AM which is when mountain lions are
active. I still wouldn't runacross for a million bucks. I mean,
they just don't slow down much. Soyeah, he makes this miraculous journey.
And then he is kind of trapped inGriffith Park, you know, for 10 years.
I think he made a very reasonedmountain lion decision that,
"I'm not going acrossthose freeways again.
Griffith Park no other mountainlion, lots of deer. Okay.
(25:11):
Bachelorhood ain't sobad. I'm staying put.".
But that put a real humanstory to this mountain lion.
And I think people related to morethan a scientific paper, which is,
they were watching it real time,
him trapped and trying to makeit in la which for, you know,
I think a lot of us,
we can identify how challenging itis to have a dating life in L.A.,
(25:31):
Especially with the 405divide. Right. So, you know,
I think his world fame andshowing the impact of these
freeways on him day today. Right. You know,
you'd have reports ofwhat he had to go through.
Because there were cameras set upand he had followers and a website.
And then you have cameraseverywhere. You know,
he'd pop up now and then, like whenhe took a nap and a crawl space, and,
(25:54):
you know, so you'd havethis, you know, the term,
"Brad Pitt of Mountain Lions," you know,
sort of his story playing out in realtime that showed people what this cat had
to go through to survive in an urbanlandscape and what we needed to do,
which was connect space. It's not thathe shouldn't have been in Griffith Park,
but he should have beenable to come and go safely.
And so that along with justthe utter audacity of us
(26:18):
to think we could build a crossingin the busiest freeway in the world,
I think elevated the cause of crossingsin a way that they are now part of the
public consciousness. Peoplelove 'em. They're bipartisan.
Doesn't matter if you're a red state,blue state, people widely support them.
Now they're just being talked about,
which is what I love that P-22 and theWallis Annenberg did was just put them in
(26:39):
the public consciousness in away they hadn't been before.
And now you're just seeingthis wave of more crossings.
You're seeing like Governor Newsome andnot this budget year, but the last two,
150 million towards morecrossings in California.
Wow.
So, we're looking at more in California.
Maybe the Bay Area. Other urban areas.
There is no shortage. There'sa, in the Bay Area, you know,
there's this Newt Crossing I'mlooking at where thousands of
(27:03):
newts are killed everyyear. You have just,
even in Southern Californiaon the 15 down near San Diego,
same mountain lion situationplaying out you have crossings on
395 for mule deer. Listen,
there is a list that wecould knock out, you know,
no shortage of projects, but also acrossthe country. I love that. You know,
(27:25):
California's typically an influencer.Right. And there's no different here.
We've seen, because I think it's that,"Hey, if LA can do that ambitious thing,
then we can." You're seeingstate budgets putting money.
You're seeing states like NewJersey passing connectivity plans,
New Mexico you know, you name it. So,
I think it really elevatedcrossings in a way that
(27:48):
for me is the best outcome of thisproject. That it's not a one-off,
we're gonna do more. Right.
It's kind of the beginning of a movementand other people took notice and now
it's moving.
That to me, is the bestoutcome of this project.
Now you mentioned with the sciencethat this was the only spot that
it would work.
Yep. Right.
Connecting the bigger Santa MonicaPark to the northern region.
(28:13):
But then you also had to getlocal public support. And we're
sitting in a horse barn right now, andpeople here, you know, love the outdoors.
But you also had to getpolitical support locally. So,
it kind of all had to come together.
All had to come together. And I can'tthank Agoura Hills enough. Agoura Hills.
I consider it my second home.It's an incredible community.
(28:35):
For those who don't know whereAgoura Hills in California is.
You probably know where Calabasas isbecause the Kardashians are from there.
That's the next town over. But yeah,
Agoura Hills and all the surroundingcommunities have been supportive
since the beginning, that's what was sointeresting about this project. Right.
I've been working in conservationfor, God, my whole life really. So,
(28:58):
we're talking 35 years now.Maybe a little less, but,
you know, usually it's a fight. Okay.but there was no bad guy here. Right.
You know, the land was protected.There was no new fight there.
Caltrans wise was like, "We'll do it. Wejust need the money." Which, you know,
wasn't easy, but that's an easyproblem. Easier problem to solve, just,
(29:18):
you know, writing checks. Right. And yeah,
the city and all the surrounding citiessince the beginning have been ultra
supportive. I knew that we were just,
were not gonna have aproblem when we had our,
literally our first public rally in 2014.
We did a lot of work behind the scenesfor about a year, year and a half.
And then we launched the Save L.A.Cougars campaign in 2014. And we did,
(29:41):
that's when we sort of made our firstbig first public announcement about we
were looking at and we needed support.
I think we were going after agovernment grant at that point,
and we put out a release about acommunity meeting and a public rally,
and we figured we'd getlike 20 to 50 people.
It was 9:00 AM you know, nobodylikes to drive in rush hour.
(30:02):
450 people show up.
Wow.
The mayor of Agoura Hills, you know,
for school kids with posters,Agoura Hills residents, I think,
you know, you had with posters saying,
"We want the Crossing." Myfavorite poster was, "Protect
the Local Cougars for guys likeme." I still love that poster.
(30:22):
And we were just off the cityof Agoura Hills and all the
surrounding cities, ThousandOaks, Malibu, you name it.
All passed resolutions early on supportingthis. So, I just, I can't thank,
especially the city of Agoura Hills,
who has just been with us every step ofthe way. They're such a great partner,
both the, leaders and the residentswho have just stepped up and said,
(30:44):
"Yes." I mean, I'm tearing up. Right.
We want these mountainlions to have a future.
We want wildlife to have a future onthis landscape. And I just, you know,
Agoura Hills, you're doing this visionaryconservation project of our lifetime.
And so, we see people coming out tolike, watch the animals cross. I mean,
I kind of envision like Noah's Ark,they're like, you know, they're just like,
(31:07):
come out and watch the animalscross. I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if it'll quite be like that.I will tell you before I answer that,
that people come out and watchthe construction. Oh my God. Like,
is every step of the way people willpost and they are emotional. Like, oh,
the bridge is up the, so it is funto see people get emotional. So,
crossings are not quitegonna be like Noah's Ark,
(31:28):
where I think if you are gonna comeout and wait for animals to cross.
You'd get bored.
You might get bored. I mean, you know,a mountain lion might cross. You know,
I don't even know. You know, I mean,
it's not like the animalsjust queue up every,
we are gonna have some observation thatthe crossing itself people won't be
allowed on. But we're gonna haveboth a high educational platform.
(31:49):
And talk about another amazing donor,
Frank and Joanne Randalldonated a sizable amount,
and they will have twoeducational platforms named for them. One on both sides.
One will be a lower one,a little more accessible.
The other will be kind of a hike upwhere you can look down in the crossing.
And yeah. I'm sure at somepoint people will see, you know,
deer or something go over. Right. Butyeah, these crossings, even, you know,
(32:11):
all the ones I've toured, it's not likeyou're having this parade of animals.
You know, they'll come in kind of cycles.
Sure. Seasonal or the monarch butterfly.
Yeah, exactly. Seasonal or, youknow, deer, they'll, you know,
they'll pass through, but not every day.So Yeah. It'll, it'll be interesting.
We are actually taking bets onwhat animal will cross first. Now,
nobody had barn owl ontheir bingo card, so Right.
(32:32):
This barn owl already usedit. But we are taking bets on,
like once it's completed, what'sthe first animal? Two, two criteria?
What's the first animal actually cross it?
And then what's the firstanimal will use it? I mean,
that could be like a fencelizard or something. Right.
But what is the first animal to crossit? My money's probably on a coyote.
They're pretty bold andright. And extroverted.
So, you'll have a crossing cam, right?
Oh, they'll be...I'll tell you this site.
(32:55):
The Park Service has been monitoringwith cameras for decades now.
We have cameras now that construction'sgoing on, and yeah, there'll be,
we actually, there is a whole monitoringplan the Park Service put together post
construction. So, we're not gonnado it real time. 'cause Yeah,
we don't want peoplerunning to the crossing,
but we will be sharing all of thefootage from animals using it.
(33:16):
It's gonna be quite exciting.
I understand that you havevolunteers that are gonna be helping,
helping folks kind of learnabout the crossing and,
and the habitat that's gonna be created.
Yeah. The volunteers have been so keyto this effort since the beginning.
We've had volunteers that have beenwith us literally since we started.
You know, a couple people thatcome to mind, Agoura residents,
like George Coleman, he was insince the beginning. Sherry Fervor,
(33:39):
who lived literally right inLiberty Canyon. But, you know,
as this crossing started gettingconstructed there was, I mean,
we were getting calls for tours all thetime, even before something was built.
People wanted to see the site.They wanted to learn more.
So the National Wildlife Federationwe needed to assemble a docent
program. And so one of the partnerswe work with in our work, the,
(34:01):
the Conservancy, we funded andcharged to manage that for us,
it didn't just to getus started, you know,
this was a couple of years agoand they did a, an incredible job.
But we are to the point nowwhere literally we are now taking that back because
the demand is so big, we're actuallyhiring a person to manage that program.
(34:21):
I mean, the tours we're doing, not evenjust the docent tours, but we're doing,
you know, sometimes five toursa week. Oh. And then the docent.
Oh, wow.
And those are like more forlike, you know, engineering.
We'll call us up or electedofficials. And then the docents,
weekend tours are filling up. So yeah,
we actually are right nowhiring for somebody to lead it.
(34:42):
And the National Wildlife Federation willbe kind of taking that back and house
the conservancy, though, a greatpartner who they're real, you know,
docents really weren't their main focusof their nonprofit. They do coexistence.
In fact,
we're doing a coexistenceworkshop at King Gillette Ranch on
June 29th. But yeah, the docent, theyare such a dedicated group. Like there's,
(35:04):
you know, volunteers of everyilk for this project. So,
we have some that do events like P-22 day,
they but the docents is a real commitment.
You have to go through a prettyintensive training. You have to graduate,
you have to stay up onthe latest information.
And we just have such a great core groupof docent folks who are out there in
(35:25):
the heat and the, sometimesthe rain doing tours.
And the interest has been so high. I mean,
these tours just keep filling up andthis thing isn't even built yet. Right.
Can you imagine, and I think that thatleads to the next part that, you know,
we're thinking about now. You know, thisis gonna be complete sometime in 2026.
I mean, we're just gettingstarted. I mean, you know, we do,
(35:47):
the news is already, you seethis in the news every week.
I probably do five mediainterviews at least a week.
Think about when it's finished. So,
we are starting to think about thelong-term interpretation and education.
You know, I think the docenttours are only gonna increase.
What is the interpretation?
We're about to put an exhibit up in theAgoura Hills Library so people can come
(36:07):
learn about it. But yeah,we're just getting started. I think with the outreach,
it's pretty excited to think about.
That's incredible. And for folks thatwanna learn more, just generally,
or maybe they're local and they'reexcited and maybe they wanna be a docent.
We'd love it.
Yeah. How, how, is there awebsite or Facebook and Instagram?
Oh, yeah. There are so many ways you canconnect. There are two main websites.
There's savelacougars.org, and thenthere's 101wildlifecrossing.org.
(36:31):
We manage both.
One is kind of focused more on theeducation and fun and fundraising.
That's savelacougars.org. Andthen 101wildlifecrossing.org is the partner site.
We have FAQs and it's really focusedjust on like the crossing and
things like that. So, either of thosewebsites you can follow me on Facebook.
I post a lot about it. Beth Prattor P-22 on Facebook or Instagram.
(36:56):
But and then obviously, you know, any ofthe Caltran sites if you're interested,
obviously, and like traffic informationor stuff like that. But yeah,
we'd love it. I mean, there's so manyways to get involved, donate, volunteer,
spread the word you know,help with coexistence.
No shortage of ways to get involved.
We'll, Beth Pratt, with theNational Wildlife Federation,
thank you so much for beingour guest on Fun Talk.
(37:17):
Thanks for having me. It wasreally fun day to talk to you.
Absolutely. And of course,
be sure to tune in next time forthe next edition of Farm Talk.
This episode of Farm Talk wassponsored by petrx.com. Petrx.com
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This is a special episode ofFarm Talk sponsored by petrx.com.
An online pet pharmacy. Petrx.comis located in Westlake Village,
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delivered right to your door with care.
In this episode of Farm Talk,
we're talking about the animalcrossing over Highway 101.
(00:33):
Hi, friends. It's Paul Wardand welcome to Farm Talk.
The Santa Monica Mountains are thelargest urban national park in the United
States, and actually theworld. And with that,
animals have to co-exist withmillions of cars. And of course,
if there are accidents, the animalspretty much lose every time.
And so folks are trying to finda solution to this problem.
Who better to discussthat than Beth Pratt,
(00:53):
the California Regional Director ofthe National Wildlife Federation. Beth,
welcome to Farm Talk.
Thanks for having me. It's a great day.
Absolutely. And I must addthat you're also BFF to P-22.
Yeah. Or former BFF, but stilleven in his passing. Yeah.
I feel like we're still connected. Yeah.
Yeah.
(01:14):
P-22 was this, you know,
incredibly beloved and worldwidefamous mountain lion that lived
in LA like I'm talking inLA under the Hollywood sign.
And he sadly passedaway in the end of 2022.
But he's kinda like a Jim Morrison orMarilyn Monroe. Like even in his death,
he's still very much with people so yeah.
(01:35):
He lives on in the true Hollywood style.
and other folks as well, that animaldeaths are just kind of staggering.
I read recently that it's a millionanimals a day are killed by cars in the
United States (01:51):
billions a year, globally.
And so, we have this urbanmetropolis Los Angeles,
which sprawl for hundredsof miles. And, you know,
interesting that we also have thelargest national park right next door,
which people don't realize that the SantaMonica Mountains is a national park.
(02:11):
With that, you have animals
coexisting or forcedto coexist with people,
and they try to cross theroad and splat, they're dead.
And Highway 101, it's kind oflike the great wall of China.
The animals can't get across.
Exactly.
And so,
(02:31):
you and others spearheaded thisproject to build an animal crossing.
You know, to me, there's so much tothis project that's wondrous. But also,
I think, myth busting in some respectstoo. I mean, first of all, you know,
people think of LA, and theyjust think of concrete and smog.
And LA has an incredibleamount of open space
(02:54):
that I don't think people realize now.I mean, the Santa Monica Mountains,
which run right into the middle of LA;Griffith Park and are just incredible.
And sometimes I'm on trailsand I think I'm in Yosemite.
But what happens is that is overlaid with,
I'd say the only myththat is true about LA,
which is the traffic and thefreeways. I mean, you know,
(03:15):
it's almost become this fun, "The 405,the 101." The Saturday Night Live skit,
right. You can run 'em down. So,
you have this great wildlife habitatwhere people like the Santa Monica
Mountains Conservancy spentdecades insuring was here.
And you have a lot of wildlife. Wehave mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes.
You know, you can just go down the list.
But the problem is you havethese formidable freeways,
(03:38):
some of the busiest freeways inthe world, like the 101, the 405,
and the five intersectingthat habitat. And as you said,
when the cars and animals meet, thecar is gonna win every time. So,
it was actually P-22, the Mountain Lion,
that we opened with that introduced meto kind of what was happening when I
first started with theNational Wildlife Federation in
(04:02):
2011. You know, I was workingmore in traditional conservation.
My background's been morein Yellowstone and Yosemite.
I've worked in these remote areas, youknow, national parks my whole career.
And when P-22 came on the scene in 2012.
This mountain lion popsup in the middle of LA.
I didn't even believe it at first.You know, it was a headline. I'm like,
there is no way that is true.
But I met with the National ParkService biologist, Jeff Sikich.
(04:26):
I had maybe even after20 years in California,
been to LA maybe a half a dozen times.
I had never been toGriffith Park at this point.
And he meets me in Griffith Park,
and he is telling me about what allthese mountain lions were going through,
not just P-22, how these freeways work.
Not just defining their habitat butputting them at risk of the extinction.
Because it's not just themgetting killed by the cars.
(04:50):
But it is,
these freeways are genetically isolatingthem so that their only options for
breeding is with their own family. So,
they're inbreeding themselves outof existence because they cannot.
Their home territories aredefined by these freeways. So,
it then that led to the solution.
It was actually that very daywhen I met with Jeff Sikich,
the National Park Service biologist.
(05:10):
He's telling me about not just P-22being trapped by these freeways,
but this whole population that theyliterally didn't think was gonna make it.
And I remember thinking, "Well, howcan I help?" And naive me, you know,
Jeff was like, "Well,
there's this little crossing we've beentrying to get built." I'm like, "Sure.
How hard is gonna be?" Not knowing it'dbe 13 years of my life and counting,
and a hundred milliondollars plus. But, yeah,
(05:33):
for me it was just a moral imperative.Like we knew how to solve it.
How could I, on my watch,
let these mountain lions goupstate if there's a solution?
Right. So, you and Jeff andothers got together and,
and then determined that thebest solution for the cats,
but not just mountain lions,but other animals as well,
was to build a crossing a significantsize. It's not just a little,
(05:58):
you know, footbridge for pedestrians,
to another open space area.
Yeah. so, you know, this has so many, Imean, the history of this goes back to,
I think actually the late eighties whereyou have the Santa Monica Mountains
Conservancy.
(06:18):
It's right here in Agora Hills where thisliterally one of the most significant
conservation projectsof our time was born.
The Santa Monica MountainsConservancy, of course,
was reserving open space for decades.
And Paul Edelman and JoeEdmondson at the time,
this is in the late eighties beforecorridors and connectivity were really in
kind of the commonscientific thought. You know,
(06:40):
back then when I was coming up inconservation and getting my education,
the dominant view was still, "Okay, youput aside a Yosemite or a refuge here,
or a park here,
check preserved it for wildlife."We now know scientifically not true.
And that's what I love aboutscience. When we get more evidence,
we change our mind. We now knowthat connectivity is important.
You just can't have a landscape,you know, an island. But back then,
(07:02):
that wasn't as prevalent.
And you had visionaries like Paul Edelmanand Joe Edmondson saying, "You know,
there's just a thing intuitive." Andthis is born out in letters and reports
they were sending at thetime about continuous space.
They kind of instinctuallyknew that was important.
And that's the only reason we'reable to put this crossing now,
is they were able to connectwhere Liberty Canyon connecting
(07:23):
the Santa Monica Mountains toopen space to the north. You know,
you get into the Santa Susanaas you get into, you know,
all the way up to Los Padres,
and it's the last 1600 feet in the entirearea that has that connected space on
both sides.
Interesting.
So, I love that, you know,
even instinctively years ago that theykind of knew something had to be done.
(07:44):
But I'd say the most recent, you know,sort of this recent push started,
I'd say in the late2000s, like 2008, 2009,
the Park Service had had starteddoing their research in 2002,
at least on the Mountain Lions. They werestarting to see some alarming results,
such as the genetic decline. And so,
they started talking with theconservancy, with Caltrans,
(08:06):
Senator Fran Pavley, again, Fran PavleyMeadow, right here at Agora Hills,
you know,
she was the first mayor of Agora Hillsand went on to become a state senator.
She was one of the folksthat led the early charge,
at least starting to get peopletalking about what was impossible.
A tunnel was thrown out, youknow, what do we do here?
And then I got involved in 2012,
(08:30):
kind of behind the scenes fora couple years. I looked at,
did some feasibilitystudies, looked at where,
what the dominant view from allthe scientists was overcrossing,
and it had to be in that location.And then we were off and running.
And it's just been areally great collaboration.
The main partners of theNational Park Service, Caltrans,
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy,and then my group, the,
(08:53):
which was the last partner, myselfand the National Wildlife Federation.
But of course, it takes a village.
There are so many morepartners involved in this.
But that was sort of thecore group that has really,
like day-to-day working on this project.
Right. And Caltrans had never doneanything like this before. I mean,
they were known for highwaysand that's it. I mean,
(09:14):
maybe some surface streets,but not really helping animals.
You know,
what's interesting is none of thepartners had done any of this before.
The Park Service hadn't built acrossing, at least in California.
Santa Monica Mountain Conservancyhadn't built a crossing.
National Wildlife Federationhadn't built a crossing.
Caltrans hadn't built a crossing.But what was really wonderful,
we had just had the dream team of thesevisionary folks who have all of them
(09:35):
have been with this project for 13years now. But yeah, at first Caltrans,
you know, was like, "Well, we'll build it,
but we don't have a budget." Theirhangup wasn't that we can't do it,
but that there's no budgetsfor this stuff. Then you know,
park service was like, "We need todo this." Conservancy is like saying,
"We're a land agency. We don't docrossings." So, it's been wonderful.
Definitely back then,
(09:58):
although everybody was kindof willing to explore this.
Certainly.
I think there were a lot of more, well,
"This is crazy." Even myown organization was like,
"This will never happen."The project manager shake,
who's been on it now since 2016, Ithink he told us ground groundbreaking.
We didn't notice at the time. He wasthe fifth project manager we got,
and he told us a groundbreaking that hewas actually told when it was handed off
(10:20):
to him. Don't worry, just humor him.This is never gonna happen. Meanwhile,
but we joke about that. So theredefinitely was some, if not skepticism,
just like, Hey, this isn't gonnahappen, and why would you? Yeah.
We had to counter a lot of,
why would you put it in urban area becauseof that myth that there's no wildlife
here. But yeah, none of us had done it.
And that's why we brought in a lot ofoutside help consulted with experts like
(10:42):
who had built the bancrossings. And indeed,
we did this a little differently inthat we actually fundraise more money to
bring in experts to workside by side with Caltrans.
Nobody does it better than Caltrans inbuilding a bridge and doing our roads.
So the largest transportation agencyin the country, if not the world,
but they had never done thebiological overlay. This is a.
(11:03):
Mammoth project, and thisisn't just some, you know,
two lane road with a dirtfloor for the animals to cross.
I mean, this is like a whole habitat.
Yeah. You know, what I findinteresting? We picked,
and I've toured crossing sites all overthe U.S. We picked the hardest place to
put a crossing in the country,
easily one of the biggest freewaysand busiest freeways in the country.
(11:29):
You only have one place to put it.
You can't pick like thebest place to engineer it.
There's only 1600 feet rightthere where you can put it,
because there's then there'sdevelopment. And it's massive. Listen,
we get asked a lot,
"Why is it so big?" I would happily havebuilt the smallest wildlife crossing in
the world, but we had to go over the101 and the access road. You know,
(11:49):
Agoura Road is right there, and we areputting a full-fledged habitat on top.
So, you need to handle asoil load, which is actually,
and I didn't know this goinginto this. It surprised me,
but I guess it makes sense now. I thought,"Oh, if you're not having cars on it,
you need less of a structure. Youneed more because of water, the soil,
because we're putting vegetation on top.
(12:11):
You have to make it wider becausethe animals will not feel safe.
We have to mitigate for sound and light.
And if you just put a narrow bridgeacross, you might get an animal here,
and they're using it for the most part,
they're gonna know they'restill on the freeway. So,
this came with so many designconsiderations to actually erased
the freeway from the animals,both sound and, you know,
(12:35):
vision all those things. So, it's massive.
It's 210 feet long by, that's,
this is just the structure over the 101.
We're not even talking theaccess road by 175 wide.
Wow.
You can see how some animalswill like make it their home.
(12:56):
That was the other thing. You know,
we use P-22 and the mountain lionsas kind of the poster cat for this,
because everybody loves cats.
Right.
And they are most at risk andstill are of extinction. They,
because of their territory needs, youknow, they have enormous territories.
They need to be able to navigate thesefreeways because they're inbreeding
themselves out of existence. This101 is like the Great Wall China,
(13:19):
or the border wall. It'salmost impenetrable. And so, mountain lions, literally
the only breeding options theyhave are with their family members.
Really?
Imagine you're on Tinder and you'reswiping, and all you get is your
daughter and your great granddaughter.
Yeah.
Not knowing it. And that's what theNational Park Service Research is shown,
(13:40):
is literally they are getting to the pointwhere they will be sterile. You know,
birth defects showed up in 2020, nota good sign. But having said that,
this freeway impacts allwildlife from monarch butterflies
to wrenits to western fence lizards,you name any, almost any animal,
the Santa Monica mountainsis impacted by this. So,
(14:02):
the habitat is being designed for allwildlife. So, you may be driving under,
and yeah, you may have a mountain lioncrossing over you during your commute,
but you might have a fox family on topraising its young or a monarch butterfly
on some native milkweed. So, for me,
it's really hopeful in that it's not justabout getting animals from point A to
point B,
it is reconnecting the entire SantaMonica mountains ecosystem for both flora
(14:25):
and fauna, for all wildlife. And that'sa little different than most crossings.
Most crossings just are designed forbig animals, get 'em across the road,
you throw some gravel and on top, andyou're good. Nothing wrong with that.
But we had a bigger problem.
We actually don't get as muchroadkill as you'd think there.
It's more that it's such a big barrier.The animals don't even attempt.
(14:47):
And just to show you, it impactsall wildlife, even animals,
you might not think birds.And even butterflies,
I know during butterflymigration season, you know,
I feel like I'm a mass murderer.But birds also, you know,
you see dead birds all thetime on these roadways.
Right.
We just put the girders up. So,
(15:08):
you now have a bridge platform,
but what that also did was now blockout the light in that area for the first
time in, what, 70 years? I don'teven know. And some students,
and Dr. Travis Long, whoactually studies light pollution,
how it impacts wildlife,
they were out there measuring lightlevels one night and they saw barn owl,
and they saw him fly across the freewayOver the new platform, because to him,
(15:33):
the lack of light meant safety.
Interesting.
So it's already working.And for an animal,
you might not even experience a barn owl.
Wow! That's really fascinating. So, yousaid this has been going on it 13 years,
kind of in the making fromkind of its inception to today.
I date back kind of theidea of something here,
(15:53):
you know, decades. But I would say,like, they started talking about,
again, something moreseriously, I'd say like 2009,
2008 when the Park service,
some of the early results of the parkservice research was coming back.
And then it got seriouswhen I came on board,
they had just applied for a, what,
(16:13):
a Federal Tiger Grant to actuallylook at feasibility, doing a tunnel.
That was an early idea, which wasruled out pretty quickly. And so that,
and I'd say, yeah, this current, likeserious push was about, you know, 2010,
2011. And then I cameon board in, in 2012.
Was it mostly private funding that justkind of took off and then they kind of
(16:35):
you know, got the governmentgrants kind of as it progressed?
It was both. I mean, so that was my job.
Like you had these entities who werepretty much talking about this behind
closed doors, because that's what youdo. You gotta figure out if it can work.
Right.
But when we started seeing, you know, how,
how big it was gonna beearly on, we're like, yeah,
(16:56):
we're gonna have to go forsome private funding here.
We need the private community becauseit was so visionary and different.
This is a landmark crossing.It's not that wild.
Wildlife crossings are nothing new, butnobody's ever done one like this before.
Again, in an urban area,this large scale. It was
just different in so many ways. So,
(17:19):
the National Wildlife Federation,my group when I came on board,
we're the only ones that canfundraise and advocate. You know,
the other agencies cannot.Right. The Park Service. So, that
was my job then to take the scienceand their need and figure out how to
implement it. And yeah. Myassessment and, you know,
the group's assessment early on is we'regonna have to go private here. Like,
(17:40):
you know, "A," becausefor a few reasons. One,
it is so different in, you know, public,
public are not as good atrisk taking. Right. Two,
the urgency, these mountainlions were out of time. Right.
Like game over the National Parks Serviceresearch was showing if we don't do
something...
How many mountain lions were thereestimated to be in the Santa Monica
(18:02):
mountains versus kind ofnorth? If they could get north,
that could have a biggerpool to breed with?
Well, yeah. It's just sortof an exchange program.
Where the mountain lions should beboth in the Santa Monica mountains and
beyond. They are, like the mountainlions are extremely self-regulating.
They do not share territories.So, they live alone.
They have enormous territories,100-150 square miles.
(18:23):
Wow, each can?
Yes.
That's huge.
Enormous.
Wow.
So, it's not that the, you know,
there wasn't mountainlions where they should be.
And I always like to stress that this isnot about bringing more mountain lions,
it's just about that mountainlions from the south can leave,
and mountain lions from the north cancome in and you've had this genetic
exchange. Right. So, they estimate inthe greater Santa Monica mountains area,
just because of the math, since we knowthey don't share territory, you know,
(18:47):
probably anywhere between10 and 12 to maybe 15.
And kind of like Venturaall the way up to, you know,
even going into like the Simi Hillsand then all the way to Gritffith park.
So Right. It's not a hugepopulation. But yeah,
the crossing itself willagain help facilitate that
genetic exchange. It's also,
(19:09):
like we talked about goingto help with all wildlife.
And it has a specific name, theWallis Annenberg Wildlife Corridor.
Wallis Annenberg WildlifeCrossing. And yeah. When you,
when getting back to the funding question,
the reason is we knew we neededto at least go partly private.
"A," it was visionary, it was big two,the timeframe, as we talked about,
(19:29):
these mountain lions were on theirway out. If we didn't do this now,
they probably weren't gonnabe here. Right. And three,
the other thing we didn't wanna dowas take away transportation dollars.
Right. We don't wanna take away moneyfrom bridge repair and road repair. Right.
and that, you know, earlyon we're like, yeah,
that the optics on that aren't great. So,
(19:49):
we really started with a big private push,
and that was my job as the only entitythat could fundraise and advocate and do
the public outreach. Although we allworked together on that. And we had,
I think, two pivotal afew pivotal moments here,
both on the private andpublic side early on was, yes,
this caught the attention ofsome pretty big visionary folks.
(20:11):
Leonard DiCaprio which wasone of our first donors,
just believed in this project.
and Wallis Annenberg in 2015,she donated the first million,
private million dollar donation.And we were kind of off and running.
And then on the public side we had, again,
(20:31):
an agency that was really early on,
this is still when we were beingtold we were crazy by most people.
I have a special place in my heart forthose people now. You know, like, yeah,
I guess we were crazy. But,theState Coastal Conservancy
put up the million for ourenvironmental documents,
and then we were off and running it.
So we had some really great early privateinvestors. On the public side, I'm
(20:55):
pretty sure it was from the Prop 117Habitat Conservation fund from the State
Coastal Conservancy. So, thenwe're able to do, you know,
this steps in the process,
the environmental permittingand 30% design with those two
donations. And then at that point,
Caltrans could do their work indesigning, but then we had to, you know,
(21:15):
start raising funds forconstruction and all that.
And that's where Wallis Annenberg, youknow, she just did not donate you know,
write a check.
Her and Cinny Kennard and the whole teamat the Annenberg Foundation were with
us every step of theway. And as we proceeded,
we turned that million thatthey donated into 10 million.
Wow. And then with the matching funds?
(21:37):
Yeah, exactly. Matching and justshowing. And then of course,
Wallis said, "We're gonnagive the lead donation,
which was 25 million." We wouldn'thave a crossing without her.
And that's why it is namedfor the Annenberg Foundation.
Wonderful.
Yeah. But then I willsay on the public side,
we then had I, I can't thankGovernor Gavin Newsome enough,
(21:59):
and Wade Crowfoot and others.
But you know I was privileged enoughwith some of the project partners
to give Governor Newsome a privatetour. This is, I think about 2018.
His dad was instrumental in mountainlion protection here. So, for him,
this is a legacy project. And
(22:20):
we gave him a tour of the crossingno press. It was just, you know,
me and some of the partners.And after that, he's like,
whatever help you need,we're gonna get this done.
And he has been instrumentalon the state side. So,
it's actually turned out to bealmost a 50/50 split, With, again,
state funds.
But these are funds that have to bespent on conservation for the most part.
(22:41):
Right. So like bond measures thatare voted for the environment. Right.
And then the private communitystepping up at the half. So to me,
this is such a greatexample of a public-private partnership where both sides
said, "We gotta do this.
How do we make it work?" Andmeeting each other halfway.
Now, do you see this as amodel for the future? I mean,
it's not the only place inCalifornia or the United States,
(23:03):
or the world that needsanimal crossings. I mean,
and there are other animalcrossings in the world.
But this is certainly probablythe biggest of the United States.
Yeah, it's the biggest in the worldfrom at least what we're being told.
I hope somebody knocks us off. I wouldlove for it to be but yeah. You know,
wildlife crossings are nothing new.
(23:23):
But I think what P-22 andthis crossing did was opens
people's eyes. I mean, a lot ofthese crossings are in rural areas.
You just never see 'em. And I thinkit showed people it, you know,
P-22 really his story. You know,
this cat who made this miraculous journey,
he grew up right here in thecentral Santa Monica Mountains.
(23:43):
We know that from genetic testing.
He had to find a newhome when he came of age.
It's a mountain lion whenthey're about one or two,
which is equivalent to kindof our teenage years. Again,
they don't share territories, sothey have to go find a new home.
And if you're in the middle of the, youknow, greater L.A. Metropolitan area,
that ain't easy. Right. So, he did whathe had to do. He just kept walking.
(24:04):
Most of the males in this area get hitby cars or do not make it to the age of
two. He made a journeythat most others die doing,
which is he crossed both the 405 andthe 101 roads that I am terrified
driving on most of the time.
And here's this cat who walked it on footand is somebody who has retraced that
likely journey got almost two dozentimes. Now, I don't know how I make it.
(24:26):
Never mind, him.
This kind of like winning the lottery.
I mean, yes. He won the lottery.
It's almost impossible. You thinkabout it. And if you're local,
you know how crazy that is.Right. If you're not, I mean,
just have to look it up.
You're walking, see, you get to walkto Beverly Hills and mall and drive.
I mean, it's insane.Right. He had to, you know,
cross these freeways that arejust 10 lanes of traffic. I mean,
(24:47):
I've stood on both those freeways at2:00 AM which is when mountain lions are
active. I still wouldn't runacross for a million bucks. I mean,
they just don't slow down much. Soyeah, he makes this miraculous journey.
And then he is kind of trapped inGriffith Park, you know, for 10 years.
I think he made a very reasonedmountain lion decision that,
"I'm not going acrossthose freeways again.
Griffith Park no other mountainlion, lots of deer. Okay.
(25:11):
Bachelorhood ain't sobad. I'm staying put.".
But that put a real humanstory to this mountain lion.
And I think people related to morethan a scientific paper, which is,
they were watching it real time,
him trapped and trying to makeit in la which for, you know,
I think a lot of us,
we can identify how challenging itis to have a dating life in L.A.,
(25:31):
Especially with the 405divide. Right. So, you know,
I think his world fame andshowing the impact of these
freeways on him day today. Right. You know,
you'd have reports ofwhat he had to go through.
Because there were cameras set upand he had followers and a website.
And then you have cameraseverywhere. You know,
he'd pop up now and then, like whenhe took a nap and a crawl space, and,
(25:54):
you know, so you'd havethis, you know, the term,
"Brad Pitt of Mountain Lions," you know,
sort of his story playing out in realtime that showed people what this cat had
to go through to survive in an urbanlandscape and what we needed to do,
which was connect space. It's not thathe shouldn't have been in Griffith Park,
but he should have beenable to come and go safely.
And so that along with justthe utter audacity of us
(26:18):
to think we could build a crossingin the busiest freeway in the world,
I think elevated the cause of crossingsin a way that they are now part of the
public consciousness. Peoplelove 'em. They're bipartisan.
Doesn't matter if you're a red state,blue state, people widely support them.
Now they're just being talked about,
which is what I love that P-22 and theWallis Annenberg did was just put them in
(26:39):
the public consciousness in away they hadn't been before.
And now you're just seeingthis wave of more crossings.
You're seeing like Governor Newsome andnot this budget year, but the last two,
150 million towards morecrossings in California.
Wow.
So, we're looking at more in California.
Maybe the Bay Area. Other urban areas.
There is no shortage. There'sa, in the Bay Area, you know,
there's this Newt Crossing I'mlooking at where thousands of
(27:03):
newts are killed everyyear. You have just,
even in Southern Californiaon the 15 down near San Diego,
same mountain lion situationplaying out you have crossings on
395 for mule deer. Listen,
there is a list that wecould knock out, you know,
no shortage of projects, but also acrossthe country. I love that. You know,
(27:25):
California's typically an influencer.Right. And there's no different here.
We've seen, because I think it's that,"Hey, if LA can do that ambitious thing,
then we can." You're seeingstate budgets putting money.
You're seeing states like NewJersey passing connectivity plans,
New Mexico you know, you name it. So,
I think it really elevatedcrossings in a way that
(27:48):
for me is the best outcome of thisproject. That it's not a one-off,
we're gonna do more. Right.
It's kind of the beginning of a movementand other people took notice and now
it's moving.
That to me, is the bestoutcome of this project.
Now you mentioned with the sciencethat this was the only spot that
it would work.
Yep. Right.
Connecting the bigger Santa MonicaPark to the northern region.
(28:13):
But then you also had to getlocal public support. And we're
sitting in a horse barn right now, andpeople here, you know, love the outdoors.
But you also had to getpolitical support locally. So,
it kind of all had to come together.
All had to come together. And I can'tthank Agoura Hills enough. Agoura Hills.
I consider it my second home.It's an incredible community.
(28:35):
For those who don't know whereAgoura Hills in California is.
You probably know where Calabasas isbecause the Kardashians are from there.
That's the next town over. But yeah,
Agoura Hills and all the surroundingcommunities have been supportive
since the beginning, that's what was sointeresting about this project. Right.
I've been working in conservationfor, God, my whole life really. So,
(28:58):
we're talking 35 years now.Maybe a little less, but,
you know, usually it's a fight. Okay.but there was no bad guy here. Right.
You know, the land was protected.There was no new fight there.
Caltrans wise was like, "We'll do it. Wejust need the money." Which, you know,
wasn't easy, but that's an easyproblem. Easier problem to solve, just,
(29:18):
you know, writing checks. Right. And yeah,
the city and all the surrounding citiessince the beginning have been ultra
supportive. I knew that we were just,
were not gonna have aproblem when we had our,
literally our first public rally in 2014.
We did a lot of work behind the scenesfor about a year, year and a half.
And then we launched the Save L.A.Cougars campaign in 2014. And we did,
(29:41):
that's when we sort of made our firstbig first public announcement about we
were looking at and we needed support.
I think we were going after agovernment grant at that point,
and we put out a release about acommunity meeting and a public rally,
and we figured we'd getlike 20 to 50 people.
It was 9:00 AM you know, nobodylikes to drive in rush hour.
(30:02):
450 people show up.
Wow.
The mayor of Agoura Hills, you know,
for school kids with posters,Agoura Hills residents, I think,
you know, you had with posters saying,
"We want the Crossing." Myfavorite poster was, "Protect
the Local Cougars for guys likeme." I still love that poster.
(30:22):
And we were just off the cityof Agoura Hills and all the
surrounding cities, ThousandOaks, Malibu, you name it.
All passed resolutions early on supportingthis. So, I just, I can't thank,
especially the city of Agoura Hills,
who has just been with us every step ofthe way. They're such a great partner,
both the, leaders and the residentswho have just stepped up and said,
(30:44):
"Yes." I mean, I'm tearing up. Right.
We want these mountainlions to have a future.
We want wildlife to have a future onthis landscape. And I just, you know,
Agoura Hills, you're doing this visionaryconservation project of our lifetime.
And so, we see people coming out tolike, watch the animals cross. I mean,
I kind of envision like Noah's Ark,they're like, you know, they're just like,
(31:07):
come out and watch the animalscross. I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if it'll quite be like that.I will tell you before I answer that,
that people come out and watchthe construction. Oh my God. Like,
is every step of the way people willpost and they are emotional. Like, oh,
the bridge is up the, so it is funto see people get emotional. So,
crossings are not quitegonna be like Noah's Ark,
(31:28):
where I think if you are gonna comeout and wait for animals to cross.
You'd get bored.
You might get bored. I mean, you know,a mountain lion might cross. You know,
I don't even know. You know, I mean,
it's not like the animalsjust queue up every,
we are gonna have some observation thatthe crossing itself people won't be
allowed on. But we're gonna haveboth a high educational platform.
(31:49):
And talk about another amazing donor,
Frank and Joanne Randalldonated a sizable amount,
and they will have twoeducational platforms named for them. One on both sides.
One will be a lower one,a little more accessible.
The other will be kind of a hike upwhere you can look down in the crossing.
And yeah. I'm sure at somepoint people will see, you know,
deer or something go over. Right. Butyeah, these crossings, even, you know,
(32:11):
all the ones I've toured, it's not likeyou're having this parade of animals.
You know, they'll come in kind of cycles.
Sure. Seasonal or the monarch butterfly.
Yeah, exactly. Seasonal or, youknow, deer, they'll, you know,
they'll pass through, but not every day.So Yeah. It'll, it'll be interesting.
We are actually taking bets onwhat animal will cross first. Now,
nobody had barn owl ontheir bingo card, so Right.
(32:32):
This barn owl already usedit. But we are taking bets on,
like once it's completed, what'sthe first animal? Two, two criteria?
What's the first animal actually cross it?
And then what's the firstanimal will use it? I mean,
that could be like a fencelizard or something. Right.
But what is the first animal to crossit? My money's probably on a coyote.
They're pretty bold andright. And extroverted.
So, you'll have a crossing cam, right?
Oh, they'll be...I'll tell you this site.
(32:55):
The Park Service has been monitoringwith cameras for decades now.
We have cameras now that construction'sgoing on, and yeah, there'll be,
we actually, there is a whole monitoringplan the Park Service put together post
construction. So, we're not gonnado it real time. 'cause Yeah,
we don't want peoplerunning to the crossing,
but we will be sharing all of thefootage from animals using it.
(33:16):
It's gonna be quite exciting.
I understand that you havevolunteers that are gonna be helping,
helping folks kind of learnabout the crossing and,
and the habitat that's gonna be created.
Yeah. The volunteers have been so keyto this effort since the beginning.
We've had volunteers that have beenwith us literally since we started.
You know, a couple people thatcome to mind, Agoura residents,
like George Coleman, he was insince the beginning. Sherry Fervor,
(33:39):
who lived literally right inLiberty Canyon. But, you know,
as this crossing started gettingconstructed there was, I mean,
we were getting calls for tours all thetime, even before something was built.
People wanted to see the site.They wanted to learn more.
So the National Wildlife Federationwe needed to assemble a docent
program. And so one of the partnerswe work with in our work, the,
(34:01):
the Conservancy, we funded andcharged to manage that for us,
it didn't just to getus started, you know,
this was a couple of years agoand they did a, an incredible job.
But we are to the point nowwhere literally we are now taking that back because
the demand is so big, we're actuallyhiring a person to manage that program.
(34:21):
I mean, the tours we're doing, not evenjust the docent tours, but we're doing,
you know, sometimes five toursa week. Oh. And then the docent.
Oh, wow.
And those are like more forlike, you know, engineering.
We'll call us up or electedofficials. And then the docents,
weekend tours are filling up. So yeah,
we actually are right nowhiring for somebody to lead it.
(34:42):
And the National Wildlife Federation willbe kind of taking that back and house
the conservancy, though, a greatpartner who they're real, you know,
docents really weren't their main focusof their nonprofit. They do coexistence.
In fact,
we're doing a coexistenceworkshop at King Gillette Ranch on
June 29th. But yeah, the docent, theyare such a dedicated group. Like there's,
(35:04):
you know, volunteers of everyilk for this project. So,
we have some that do events like P-22 day,
they but the docents is a real commitment.
You have to go through a prettyintensive training. You have to graduate,
you have to stay up onthe latest information.
And we just have such a great core groupof docent folks who are out there in
(35:25):
the heat and the, sometimesthe rain doing tours.
And the interest has been so high. I mean,
these tours just keep filling up andthis thing isn't even built yet. Right.
Can you imagine, and I think that thatleads to the next part that, you know,
we're thinking about now. You know, thisis gonna be complete sometime in 2026.
I mean, we're just gettingstarted. I mean, you know, we do,
(35:47):
the news is already, you seethis in the news every week.
I probably do five mediainterviews at least a week.
Think about when it's finished. So,
we are starting to think about thelong-term interpretation and education.
You know, I think the docenttours are only gonna increase.
What is the interpretation?
We're about to put an exhibit up in theAgoura Hills Library so people can come
(36:07):
learn about it. But yeah,we're just getting started. I think with the outreach,
it's pretty excited to think about.
That's incredible. And for folks thatwanna learn more, just generally,
or maybe they're local and they'reexcited and maybe they wanna be a docent.
We'd love it.
Yeah. How, how, is there awebsite or Facebook and Instagram?
Oh, yeah. There are so many ways you canconnect. There are two main websites.
There's savelacougars.org, and thenthere's 101wildlifecrossing.org.
(36:31):
We manage both.
One is kind of focused more on theeducation and fun and fundraising.
That's savelacougars.org. Andthen 101wildlifecrossing.org is the partner site.
We have FAQs and it's really focusedjust on like the crossing and
things like that. So, either of thosewebsites you can follow me on Facebook.
I post a lot about it. Beth Prattor P-22 on Facebook or Instagram.
(36:56):
But and then obviously, you know, any ofthe Caltran sites if you're interested,
obviously, and like traffic informationor stuff like that. But yeah,
we'd love it. I mean, there's so manyways to get involved, donate, volunteer,
spread the word you know,help with coexistence.
No shortage of ways to get involved.
We'll, Beth Pratt, with theNational Wildlife Federation,
thank you so much for beingour guest on Fun Talk.
(37:17):
Thanks for having me. It wasreally fun day to talk to you.
Absolutely. And of course,
be sure to tune in next time forthe next edition of Farm Talk.
This episode of Farm Talk wassponsored by petrx.com. Petrx.com
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