HTLA: One Giant Bridge … To Save LA's Mountain Lions

Episode 23

00:00

[sound of coyote and owl] [woman #1 speaks] There is a big window above my kitchen sink. [sound of water faucet] And at night, I'd be doing the dishes and get that weird feeling somebody's watching. And I'd look up and there'd be coyotes. As many as a half dozen, watching me. [woman #2 speaks] [eating sounds] I heard what I thought was the dog eating the dog food, but I turned and looked down the hall. [bear growls] There was a bear who had gotten into the house, and it was eating the dog food.

Brian De Los Santos  00:29

[airplane ambi] That's LA, people. [music in] For all of our concrete and bumper to bumper traffic, we have so much wildlife. 4000 unique species of plants and animals. And did you know? Mumbai is the only other city in the world where big cats live within city limits. So yeah, our mountain lions are pretty special. But the truth is, like a lot of nature in LA, they're not doing so great.

Miguel Ordeñana  00:29

We know that within 50 years, they will go extinct. The solution to this problem seems to be building a wildlife crossing.

Brian De Los Santos  01:09

That wildlife crossing is finally being built. And it'll be the largest one of its kind, anywhere in the world. This is How to LA from LAist Studios. I'm Brian De Los Santos. [music out] Today we're unpacking why that wildlife crossing is important, not just for the critters, but for everyone in LA.

Miguel Ordeñana  01:27

It's gonna take three years approximately to be built. It's gonna span 10 lanes of traffic over the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills. It's going to have wildlife fencing leading up to the bridge itself.

Brian De Los Santos  01:40

This is Miguel Ordeñana.

Miguel Ordeñana  01:33

And I work at the Natural History Museum of LA County. And I'm fortunate to be the person who discovered P-22, the Griffith Park mountain lion in February of 2012.

Brian De Los Santos  01:51

We met up with him at Griffith Park, where he's been trying to set up more camera traps for P-22. It's across town from where the wildlife corridor's actually being built, but it shares a lot of the same species.

Brian De Los Santos  02:02

[sound of birds and footsteps] I don't think I've been to this part of the park before, so this is new to me. This is such an LA thing to do, like, come on a Sunday hike, or walk, and then you get breakfast or brunch and then you start your day.

Miguel Ordeñana  02:16

Yeah, I'd be- I mean, I grew up around this neighborhood, and I'm almost 40 now. But yeah, there's so much for a lot of people to do here. There's tennis courts, golf courses, merry go rounds, zoo, Griffith Observatory, and also, of course, beautiful hiking areas, over 50 miles of hiking trails in the middle of LA. And we share these trails with a lot of cool wildlife, and one of them is a mountain lion.

Brian De Los Santos  02:45

So we're hiking and being with nature. The bushes, squirrels and hawks point to biodiversity. But not all of us are outdoor experts. So I asked Miguel, for someone like me, what makes LA's biodiversity so special?

Miguel Ordeñana  03:00

LA is within the California Floristic Province, which is one of 35 biodiversity hotspots in the world that were designated by Conservation International, as places that had a lot of endemic species, which are species that occur in one place and nowhere else. So once they're gone from that area, they're extinct. People that think, Oh, we're a biodiversity hotspot. Let's celebrate! But to be in that category- it's 70% of that habitat of those vegetation communities are lost. That is the case in the California Floristic Province. So it is something to celebrate and to take pride in, but it's already a little bit too late. And we kind of are in catch up mode now. And we need to invest a lot into making things right.

Brian De Los Santos  03:46

A lot of the endemic species Miguel is talking about? They've been here long before humans.

Miguel Ordeñana  03:52

Fossils show that LA was not only home to mammoths, and saber-toothed cats, but also mountain lions over 30,000 years ago. We have a skull that was recently excavated from the La Brea Tar Pits of a mountain lion skull. They've survived for thousands and thousands of years, and now they're finally meeting their kryptonite. We've been a little bit too greedy, too aggressive with our development, and basically disconnected habitat that they need to survive.

Brian De Los Santos  04:24

City development, like more buildings or freeways, creates isolation, which can cut off the food supply or genetic diversity of these animals.

Miguel Ordeñana  04:32

Yeah, so when people will think about islands, they think about this landmass in the middle of an ocean which is a barrier. In this case, the ocean [freeway ambi] is city. Freeways. That's the barrier. We want to kind of bring attention to the awesome wildlife that is here but also any connectivity issues these wide-ranging animals might have. Deer, coyotes, bobcats, they need more space to find the resources that they need, whether it's food, whether it's habitat to hide under and shelter. Mates. We have to kind of think about what are these potential corridors? Where will we get the biggest bang for our buck?

Brian De Los Santos  05:09

Scientists and biologists like Miguel spend years tracking animal habits and studying the data so that when they decide to pull the trigger on an expensive corridor, they can be confident it'll do its job.

Miguel Ordeñana  05:20

That's how they came to the wildlife crossing in Agoura Hills. It's like they used GPS collar data from bobcats, mountain lions, to see where are they really kind of trying to cross the most, out of any point along that separation between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, and it happens to be at Liberty Canyon. And so that's why we're building at least the first bridge there.

Brian De Los Santos  05:43

There's a ton of investment here. $90 million are being dedicated for this project. Lots of experts and researchers have been working on it for years. But let's be real. There's other issues facing the city too, right?

Brian De Los Santos  05:57

[footsteps] People could say like, Hey, LA is known for its homelessness problem, or other issues like traffic, you know? We've spoken to people on the street, and they'd cite those two things as major issues or concerns they have. And then people pitch, or organizations pitch like, a wildlife corridor to preserve some of these things that we take for granted, maybe, which is expensive. Securing the funding is not always perfect and easy. So for someone who's like, I like to hike. I don't really care about wildlife. I'm not really interested in like putting my taxpayer money into something that's gonna fund- that doesn't really benefit me. What would you say to them?

Miguel Ordeñana  06:35

I mean, I wouldn't say it in these exact words that they're being selfish, but I guess I would kind of put it into context and try and figure out and empathize with that person and figure out what do they care about. And if it's just, Yeah, I'm a hiker. I just want to enjoy myself out in nature. If you don't have a healthy ecosystem, which includes all these animals that I'm talking about that need connectivity issues, the beautiful park that you like, your favorite hiking trail, will look a lot different. The type of vegetation will all start to look the same because it'll get over-grazed by one particular animal, because that predator that was keeping that herbivore in check is no longer there. The area will be more prone to fires. All of these things are all connected. Having them understand that connection is critical and doing it in a way that's not judgy and not calling someone out because that's just kind of burning bridges instead of getting partners. [music in] This campaign involved schools that were creating schoolyard habitat in areas that were extremely urban and underserved. Even though it's miles and miles away from where this bridge is gonna be built, as we brought so many communities along, including the indigenous communities and people of all parts of LA, we're hoping that this bridge is sending a message to the world that wildlife conservation doesn't just happen in Yellowstone. It doesn't just happen in the Amazon. The biggest wildlife corridor crossing ever to be built is gonna be built in LA in the middle of the city.

Brian De Los Santos  08:11

It's funny because I'm an immigrant. My parents are immigrants. Like, in their hometowns, they were always connecting with nature, right? And they know how to do nature. But when you come to the States, it's not as easy to process because I feel like the media or marketing has always put a sort of like, whiteness to nature. And I think that you being a biologist, being someone who's Latino, like you don't see yourself in these spaces all the time. And you're creating space, right? And you're like that little boy who like grew up around here and now knows some of the biodiversity here. Like you have so much knowledge to pass on to your son. [bird ambi]

Brian De Los Santos  08:46

So I asked Miguel, what is it like to be a homegrown biologist working with critters and animals in the city he grew up in?

Miguel Ordeñana  08:53

The moment I discovered what a bobcat was, I was already basically a professional biologist. And for me to kind of go through all those hoops just to figure out what was living in my neighborhood all that time was for one, really exciting and then the other part of me was kind of pissed off because I should have known that. I should have had that information. Definitely a passion project of mine is making sure that other people get to experience that and, and get to know it without having to get a fancy degree or work at a museum because I think it's everybody's right and um, it's just, enriches your experience out in these parks once you have a full understanding of what else is out there aside from a park to play ball or have carne asada. You can do that, and I still do that, but I also know okay, What's that plant and what connection does that have to the ecosystem and how many squirrels really are there out here? [music in] All that- little tidbits of information could be a game changer for a kid, if they knew those little details. It just gives them a different perception of their surroundings. And yes, I gotta give P-22 a shout out for being the catalyst for this campaign and inspiring people of so many backgrounds to care about this issue even though he will not benefit from this crossing. He's literally gonna help save his population from extinction.

Brian De Los Santos  10:16

Alrighty, y'all. That's all the time we've got for you today. If you want to learn more about the wildlife crossing, we've got a bunch of coverage over on LAist.com. We'll leave a link in our show notes too. But before we go, I've got one last piece of wildlife trivia for you. You know those classic California black bears that sometimes you see on the TV news swimming in people's pools or attacking the dog food bowl? Well, they're actually imported. In the 1930s, a commissioner for Fish and Game thought it'd be cool to establish a population here after the last grizzly bear in Southern California was shot and killed in Tujunga Canyon in 1916.

Brian De Los Santos  10:53

This has been How to LA from LAist Studios. I'm Brian De Los Santos. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes LA a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. Thank you for listening and see you mañana. [music out]