The acre-long Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is being built over the 101 Freeway.
The National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars campaign has finally reached its whopping $87 million project funding and the project plans to break ground as soon as spring 2022. This gargantuan undertaking will see almost an acre of safe passageway built for wildlife and is set to be completed in 2023.
Building California’s first freeway for animals was a response to the plight of P-2, L.A.’s endangered celebrity mountain lion that somehow managed to cross the busiest freeways only to be marooned on a city island. It will act as a lifeline for the cougar facing extinction and reconnect a fragmented ecosystem, according to The National Wildlife Federation. By creating a bridge between the Los Angeles area lions and the Santa Monica Mountains lions, there’s more hope to save the species and with a lower risk of being hit by a speeding car.
This massive Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will span 10 lanes of the freeway at Liberty Canyon making it the largest of its kind in the world. It will also be designed to support sustain native ecosystems while providing a safe passage for wildlife.
“This crossing will save the local mountain lion population from extinction, stand as a global model for urban wildlife conservation — and show us that a structure of this magnitude can be built in such a densely populated urban area,” said Beth Pratt, California Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation and leader of the #SaveLACougars campaign.
To find out more visit https://savelacougars.org/
Featured image: National Wildlife Federation