LOS ANGELES, May 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A record
$25 million conservation challenge
grant from Wallis Annenberg and the
Annenberg Foundation to the National Wildlife Federation's
#SaveLACougars campaign to build a wildlife crossing in the
Los Angeles area will help the
landmark project break ground later this year. The wildlife
crossing at Liberty Canyon over the 101 Freeway – which will be the
largest wildlife crossing in the world — will reconnect a
long-fragmented ecosystem, a biodiversity hotspot, and help protect
the endangered mountain lion population and other wildlife that
make their home in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon is unprecedented in many
ways. It is the first urban crossing of its scale – spanning 210
feet over ten lanes of highway and pavement, along with an access
road – and is the first significantly funded through private
donations along with public support. The #SaveLACougars campaign to
build the crossing will serve as a model for urban wildlife
conservation efforts across the globe. With this donation, the
campaign has raised over $44 million
to date, and needs to secure an estimated $35 million to unlock the Annenberg Challenge
Grant and to break ground in November.
"This incredible conservation challenge grant from Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation —
the largest ever received by the National Wildlife Federation —
puts us closer to breaking ground this year. Wallis Annenberg's grant will protect this
global biodiversity hotspot - recognized as one of only 36
biodiversity hotspots worldwide - and ensure that California's iconic mountain lions and other
wildlife can find the food and mates they need to survive by
reconnecting the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills and
beyond," said Collin O'Mara,
president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. "Thank you
also to the visionary leadership of the intrepid Beth Pratt as well as every donor who is making
this transformative project a reality."
"There's a reason I wanted to support this crossing and issue
this challenge: We need to move beyond mere conservation, toward a
kind of environmental rejuvenation," said Wallis Annenberg, Chairman, president and CEO of
the Annenberg Foundation. "Wildlife crossings are powerfully
effective at doing just that -- restoring ecosystems that have
been fractured and disrupted. It's a way of saying, there are
solutions to our deepest ecological challenges, and this is the
kind of fresh new thinking that will get us there. To me, this is
an important local and regional initiative even a model for the
kind of change we need all around the world. I'm enormously proud
that California is in the vanguard of this effort, and that
our foundation can be a part of it too. Our hope is that a
strong state and federal role won't be far behind."
"Time is running out for these mountain lions, and the National
Wildlife Federation is so grateful to The Annenberg Foundation for
showing extraordinary leadership to help make this crossing a
reality," said Beth Pratt,
California regional executive
director for the National Wildlife Federation and leader of the
#SaveLACougars campaign. "We hope this game-changing gift will
inspire other philanthropists and public agencies to step up so we
can ensure we break ground in November."
The wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon will take place at the
US-101 freeway where it runs through the city of Agoura Hills. The 101 freeway is a heavily
travelled commuter route that serves the Greater Los Angeles area; connects
Los Angeles and Ventura Counties; and acts as the primary
access route to and from downtown Los
Angeles, various residential communities, and tourist
destinations in Los Angeles, as
well as the central California
coast. This location is a formidable and virtually impenetrable
barrier for many wildlife species including mountain lions,
bobcats, gray foxes, coyotes, and mule deer that inhabit and travel
between the Santa Monica Mountains, the Simi Hills, and the Santa
Susana Mountains – over 300,000 cars pass through this freeway site
daily.
The wildlife crossing will feature robust engineering and an
innovative landscape design that will blend the structure into the
surrounding mountain habitat and will include vegetated barriers to
reduce the impact of vehicle traffic noise and roadway light on
wildlife movement.
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. The wildlife
crossing at Liberty Canyon responds to two decades of National Park
Service research, and the need to create a vital connection for the
endangered mountain lion population and other wildlife that make
their home in the Santa Monica Mountains. 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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SOURCE The National Wildlife Federation