Wildlife Corridors Attempt to Knit Habitats Back Together
- Casey O'Brien
- Nov 5, 2019
- 4 min read
The tangle of highways and freeways that cover California may effectively connect Californians to each other. But they also create barriers for other residents of the state – especially four-footed ones.
Countless roads in the state’s rural and suburban areas cut through important habitat for animals. The problem isn’t just the roads themselves and the dangers of speeding vehicles but also the fact that slice habitats in half. Roads, highways, and even fences can bisect natural habitat and prevent free movement of animals like mountain lions, bobcats, foxes and other megafauna as well as smaller rodents and amphibians.
As development has eaten away at intact habitats, creating “biological islands,” animals have increasingly needed to cross highways in order to hunt, forage, breed, and enjoy their natural ranges.
Several jurisdictions are exploring and planning wildlife corridors to link these islands to each other.
Wildlife corridors are infrastructure in reverse -- bridges, and sometimes tunnels, of green space that allow animals to traverse highways without encountering cars or other impediments. They can save animals from isolation and protect natural resources like clean air, soil integrity and more.
Proponents argue that they protect the creatures that travel them, but also benefit human populations—which is why they are being proposed from Santa Monica to Sonoma. They solve the problem by connecting existing open spaces to each other and allowing animals to maintain at least some of their natural movements and breeding patterns.
California policymakers have considered corridors for years—the state released a cross-agency report on them in 2010--but they have been embraced only recently. Advocates and planners are beginning to realize that corridors are a possibility even in intensely urban environments.
The most striking example is the Liberty Canyon Crossing, a $60 million project planned for western Los Angeles County.
