Bridge will give wildlife like big cats a “roaming” chance to survive and thrive – Daily News

Senator Fran Pavley opened the event at Liberty Canyon. The National Wildlife Federation and its partners celebrated mountain lion P-22, during Urban Wildlife Week, Wednesday, October 19, 2016, on the Liberty Canyon Trail off the 101 Freeway in Agoura, the site of the then-proposed crossing of wildlife. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

It never gained the notoriety and fame of P-22, but this nameless big cat was a driving force behind the world’s largest wildlife crossing – the size of a football field – being built across 10 lanes of the 101 Ventura Freeway in Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills now.

No one paid much attention to wildlife in the 1960s when the highway was extended north, effectively cutting off the east and west passage to the Pacific Coast Highway for mountain lions, bobcats, foxes and all the wild animals that roamed freely along the highway. land for centuries.

Los Angeles was expanding. We needed to move cars, not wild animals. If mountain lions were forced to fight each other to survive in a limited space, and had to breed because they couldn’t mate with their kind across the road, so be it.

It was a small price to pay to keep traffic moving on California’s longest freeway, where today more than 300,000 cars a day pass through the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing construction site.

Maybe that’s what we should call the forgotten mountain lion that powered this crossing. Freedom. He was certainly looking for that when he took a break in 2013.

“He made it all the way across the highway, but when he got to the other side he couldn’t climb the steep walls that Caltrans built between Agoura Road and the highway,” said former California State Senator Fran Pavley.

“Then he turned to go back and was hit by a car and died. This was like a wake up call. I had a meeting at my district office and invited the local superintendent of national parks, the head of Caltrans in the Los Angeles area, and other government officials all into a room.

“What should we do, I asked them? That’s where it all started. What should we do?”

If construction continues on schedule, the $90 million response will open in 2025. Wildlife on both sides of Highway 101 will be brought together on land stretching from Highway 118 to Highway 101 and the Pacific Coast.

There’s a lot of credit for that.

The Annenberg Foundation wrote a check for $25 million, along with millions more in bonds approved by voters and private donors.

The Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy played an important role in acquiring the land to keep it open space.

The National Park Service, Caltrans and the National Wildlife Federation were all key partners.

Pavley is quick to give them and others all the credit, but if it weren’t for this former 8th grade American history teacher who lives just steps away from the intersection, it’s highly doubtful any of this would have happened.

After teaching high school for 25 years, Pavley was already battle-hardened when she arrived in Sacramento in 2000 as a state representative for the 41st District.

“My predecessor, Sheila Kuehl, gave me some good advice. She said to pick two or three things you’re passionate about, stick with them, and make a difference,” said Pavley, who authored a landmark vehicle emissions bill and many other environmental impact bills while in office. office.

“Clean energy, clean air, clean water. I stayed in my lane.

And now your track is seeing the wildlife corridor become a reality. His term was limited in 2016, but there are no term limits for passion and making a difference.

She heard all the questions and criticisms about the cost and safety of Liberty Canyon residents if a mountain lion or bobcat strayed from the path into neighboring neighborhoods, which happened frequently during the drought.

The biologists assured him, as best they could, that the crossing might actually bring less wildlife to the neighborhood, not more.

That all that freedom they have been seeking on the other side of the highway for so many years will invite them to continue their journey to PCH and reunite with their own.

Without Pavley leading as mayor of Agoura Hills when the city incorporated in 1982, there would be no open space to traverse.

Plans called for the construction of a medium-security prison, boulevards to cut through mountains, thousands of added homes and condominiums, and an office complex or shopping center at nearly every major intersection.

None of this was achieved by Pavley and the other inaugural councilors, who also remained in their lane. People weren’t moving west toward Liberty Canyon for more concrete and cars.

“The oil and development companies spent a lot of money on me over the years, over a million dollars, but the people I represented didn’t care if I was a Democrat or a Republican,” she said.

“Open space, good public schools and public safety are not partisan issues.”

What should we do? Fran Pavley asked 14 years ago, after Liberty was killed crossing the highway.

Returning freedom to our wildlife is a good start.

Dennis McCarthy’s column is published on Sunday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.