Great news!! Conservation got a boost yesterday with the preservation of B Canyon by the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority. Wildlife now have a second place to cross under the 91 freeway as the acquisition protects a linkage between Chino Hills State Park and the Santa Ana Mountains. Read the Lake Elsinore-Wildomar Patch article.
We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of the five year old mountain lion dubbed “Scar” and “El Cobre.” There are less than two dozen cougars left in the Santa Ana Mountains. Scar was illegally shot and his body was not found where the shooting occurred–meaning he was mortally wounded and walked off to his death. His radio collar signaled the “mortality alert” with his lack of movement over an eight hour period. The SoCal subspecies of mountain … Read More
Mountain lions have a good day in court! Check out this Press Enterprise article, which relays how several non-profits successfully litigated a 1,750 home development that would have severed the corridor connecting the Santa Ana Mountains across the 15 freeway to the Eastern Peninsular Range. Developers must now address the cougar in its plans. Read the Press Enterprise article.
A lot of attention is now being paid to the Santa Ana Mountains and its highest predator: the cougar. Check out this article from a few weeks ago on the effort to list this “genetically distinct” population which is facing extinction without additional protections. Hills For Everyone connected the Santa Ana Mountains to Chino Hills State Park in the late 1990s, but more work is needed at the southern end of the Santa Anas. Read the Los Angeles Times article.
Wildlife bridges are coming to California to reduce animal-vehicle related collisions, keep wildlands connected, and retrofit transportation projects. Wildlife in the Santa Ana Mountains face inbreeding and extinction if the natural lands aren’t connected to other protected lands. But alas, work is already being done in the Puente Hills. In fact, the Puente Hills Habitat Authority undercrossing is featured in the article. Read the San Gabriel Valley Tribune article.