Wildlife Crossing

“To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world!”   David Attenborough

Highway 17 is a treacherous, mountainous stretch of road that connects my small California coastal town of Santa Cruz to San Jose and Silicon Valley to the north. Over the years, as our human population has multiplied, it is now estimated that on any given day there are more than 65,000 motorists that make the drive over Hwy 17.

I’m one of those motorists that has driven Hwy 17 hundreds of times during the many years that I’ve lived in Santa Cruz. Last week I was on that very mountainous road traveling to Los Gatos, just on the other side of the summit, to attend Tunnels and Tracking, for members of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.  https://www.landtrustsantacruz.org/

The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County is dedicated to keeping the lands we love wild for generations to come by protecting wildlife habitat and preserving open space from development. Since its founding in 1978, the Land Trust has raised $100 million in funding for conservation, and has protected more than 14,000 acres. I attended the gathering to hear about progress being made on the Laurel Curve corridor, an expansive passageway being constructed under Hwy 17 for safe crossing for deer, mountain lions, bobcats and other wildlife that are frequently hit and killed in this area of the mountains.

Good news!! After years of data collection, planning and fund raising that I gladly donated to, construction has begun with completion of the corridor scheduled in a few short months.

Back in the car heading home over Hwy 17, I felt something new and different from all of the other times I had traveled this road. I wasn’t intent on getting to my destination as quickly as possible. I saw pink sky spread out above the redwoods. I looked into the trees instead of whizzing past them. I was now in a relationship, a special kinship to the lives of the animals that lived here. I felt a bond with this natural habitat, a bond of protection.

Being so much more keenly aware that I was in the home of the animals that lived here, I shouted in my heart out to them.

It is a tragedy for you that we took over your land, the territory that is all you know to survive.  But you soon will be able to roam with much less danger. We humans want to repair the damage we have done and honor your  habitat. We want to show you that we can co-exist. We honor those of you that have been lost and celebrate those that cross the road safely for decades to come.

Based on the efforts of the Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing project, on October 8, 2021 California’s Governor Newsom signed into law SB790 (Stern), which will make wildlife crossings easier to implement statewide.